"Forty years ago, Webber was absurdly popular, Britain's number one cultural export of the '80s. It was an Ed Sheeran-ish popularity: an insanely prolific hitmaker, yes, but he never commanded a fraction of the critical adulation of, say, Stephen Sondheim or Kander & Ebb."
"The historical [works] of Andrew Lloyd Webber have gotten inexorably cooler over the last decade or so, whether he likes it or not. And he might not like it! the Baron uttered some low-level grumbles about Jamie Lloyd, the director so key to what I'm calling the Webbernaissance."
Andrew Lloyd Webber dominated popular culture in the 1980s as Britain's leading cultural export, achieving unprecedented commercial success comparable to modern pop stars. However, his critical reputation remained limited compared to contemporaries like Sondheim. His creative dominance declined by the mid-1990s, with recent works like School of Rock and Cinderella failing to recapture former glory. Recently, Webber's classic musicals have gained renewed artistic credibility through reinterpretations by contemporary theatre directors. This creative resurgence, termed the Webbernaissance, is driven largely by director Jamie Lloyd's innovative approaches. Notably, Webber himself has expressed reservations about these modern adaptations, suggesting tension between his original vision and contemporary theatrical reinterpretation.
Read at Time Out London
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