Era End, There an End

There has been some talk of late about the West End closings of both Lord Andy's musical Stephen Ward and Sir Timmy's From Here To Eternity.

Now I don't pretend to know why. If I were being flippant then I'd suggest that they probably should have swopped shows. Stephen Ward sounds like the kind of story that could use a bit of Sir Timmy cynicism and, personally, I'd love to have heard how Lord Andy scored Deborah Kerr whilst frolicking on a beach. (This doesn't sound right - ed.)

Who knows? Well, in the case of Stephen Ward, Michael Billington does. Not 'nough romance, apparently:

"His [Lloyd Webber's] great gift is for writing music about either fulfilled or unrequited romantic passion....But the problem is that Stephen Ward, a re-creation of the hypocrisy at the heart of the British establishment in the early 1960s, cried out for the kind of satirical bite one associates with Kander and Ebb musicals such as Cabaret or Chicago."

The idea of Lord Andy as a romantic composer is correct in that he writes big tunes that wring the emotions. But that doesn't mean that he can only write romantic stories. There's little romance in Joseph, Jesus Christ Superstar, Cats or Starlight Express. But they all did pretty well.

When assessing His Lordship's output his critics tend to place too much emphasis on the high romance of Phantom of the Opera and too little emphasis on his collaborators. If Stephen Ward did indeed require the "satirical bite" of a Kander and Ebb musical then it needed an Ebb as much as a Kander. Stephen Ward's lyricist Don Black is a funny writer but not a satirical one. Lord Andy may not have been the only one who was mismatched to the subject matter.

But, as I said, I don't really know.

What's interesting is that some (OK, one - step forward Mark Shenton) have suggested that with both Stephen Ward and From Here to Eternity closing, this marks something of an era. This is, of course, hooey. The Lloyd Webber/Rice era ended yonks ago. Lord Andy's last hit was in 1993 (Sunset Boulevard) and Sir Timmy's was in 1997 (Lion King).

The fact that we're still looking to these fellas to produce the goods is not only an indication of the scale of their past success but also a comment on what has (or hasn't) come after them.