"Four years ago the musical theatre titan was at low ebb: declaring he'd rather go to prison than allow his extremely mid new musical Cinderella to open with social distancing was not be any stretch of the imagination his finest hour. There has been no new musical since then, although him and Tim Rice have written the songs for this year's Birmingham Rep Christmas production, and a full scale new one called The Illusionist is now in the works."
"The original 1981 production of Webber's adaptation of TS Elliot's children's poetry collection Old Possum's Book of Practical Cats ran for 21 years, and then came back to the West End in 2014 and 2015 in a slightly revamped version that included a rapping Rum Tum Tugger, something we basically all now try and forget. As we do the 2019 film version, which horrified the world only marginally less than the following year's pandemic."
Andrew Lloyd Webber's catalogue is enjoying renewed success through contemporary revivals and reinterpretations. Younger directors have refreshed older works, producing high-profile revamps such as Jamie Lloyd's Sunset Boulevard and Luke Shephard's Starlight Express. Webber collaborated with Tim Rice on songs for a Birmingham Rep Christmas production and a full-scale new musical, The Illusionist, is in development. Cats originally opened in 1981, returned to the West End in 2014–15 with revisions, and inspired a polarising 2019 film. An immersive off-Broadway version has gained positive notice, and the Regent's Park Open Air Theatre will present the second UK production of Cats in a July–September run next summer, with few additional details released.
Read at Time Out London
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