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Is Lloyd Webber on his 'game'? by Michael Riedel from Nypost ABOUT 100 close friends and
business associates of Andrew Lloyd Webber convened at the
Cambridge Theater in London last Saturday to see a private run-through of
the composer's new musical, "The Beautiful Game."
The show -- which Lloyd Webber is writing with the English novelist and
comedian Ben Elton -- is set against the backdrop of the
Irish troubles and follows a group of teenage soccer players from 1969 to
the present.
Invitees were asked not to discuss "The Beautiful Game"
publicly, so here's the off-record buzz:
The musical is being likened to "West Side Story," with the
Catholics as the Jets and the Protestants as the Sharks. One person says
it's "very dark, very grainy and very tough."
The show examines how the Irish troubles upend the lives of each member
of the soccer team. One player, a Protestant with a promising professional
career, gets kneecapped. Another, a Catholic, betrays his Protestant
friends to the police. A third runs off to America.
Lloyd Webber's score is loaded with '70s-style rock tunes.
"It's very much in the ‘Jesus Christ Superstar,'
tradition," said a person who attended the performance.
There are no break-out ballads like, say, "Memory" from
"Cats," though several observers said the song "Our Kind of
Love" could be a pop hit if a star like Barbra Streisand were to
record it.
As for the book, most people say it needs pruning and that it could use
more warmth and humor.
"Too many bad things happen to too many characters," one
person said. "It's a bit relentless."
After the performance, guests attended an elegant lunch in Lloyd
Webber's downtown office. The composer served wine from his cellars at
Sydmonton, his country estate outside London.
"We have an exceptional white burgundy by Verget," he told
guests. "Even better, we have a superb Chateau Gruaud-Larose 1993.
There is lager, if you must."
"The Beautiful Game" is slated to open in London by the end
of the year. If it's a hit, the show will come to New York in 2001.
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