MASARYK UNIVERSITY Faculty of Education Department of English Language and Literature ANDREW LLOYD WEBBER’S MUSICALS Diploma Thesis Brno 2009 Radka Adamová Supervisor: Mgr. Lucie Podroužková, PhD. 1 BIBLIOGRAPHICAL ENTRY Adamová, Radka. Andrew Lloyd Webber’s Musicals Brno: Masaryk University, Faculty of Education, Department of English Language and Literature, 2007. Diploma thesis supervisor Mgr. Lucie Podroužková, Ph. D. ANNOTATION This diploma thesis deals with British musical composer Andrew Lloyd Webber and his works. The first part of the thesis introduces Lloyd Webber’s biography, his close collaborators as well as his production company the Really Useful Group and description of all his works. The main part of the thesis is aimed at his musicals Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat and Jesus Christ Superstar , rather their origin and development, the main plot and their main characters that have many things in common. Both these musicals are based on topics from the Bible. The thesis also deals with the librettos and their translation into Czech. ANOTACE Diplomová práce se zabývá britským hudebním skladatelem Andrew Lloyd Webberem a jeho díly. První část práce seznamuje s Lloyd Webberovým životopisem, jeho blízkými spolupracovníky, stejně jako s jeho produkční společností Really Useful Group a popisem všech jeho děl. Hlavní část práce je zaměřena na muzikály Josef a jeho úžasný pestrobarevný plášť a Jesus Christ Superstar , přesněji řečeno jejich vznik a vývoj, hlavní dějovou linii a jejich hlavní postavy, které mají mnoho společného. Oba tyto muzikály jsou založeny na příbězích z Bible. Práce se také zabýva librety obou muzikálů a jejich překladem do češtiny. 2 I declare that I have worked on this thesis on my own and used only the sources listed in the Bibliography. ____________________ Radka Adamová 3 I would like to thank Mgr. Lucie Podroužková, PhD. for her kind and patient supervision and for the advice she provided to me during my work on this diploma thesis. I would like to thank Mr Michael Prostějovský for providing me with valuable pieces of information, too. 4 CONTENTS 1 INTRODUCTION .............................................................................................................. 6 2 ANDREW LLOYD WEBBER .......................................................................................... 8 2.1 LLOYD WEBBER’S COLLABORATORS ........................................................... 11 2.2 THE REALLY USEFUL GROUP ........................................................................... 14 3 LLOYD WEBBER’S MUSICALS .................................................................................. 17 3.1 THE LIKES OF US .................................................................................................. 17 3.2 BY JEEVES ............................................................................................................. 17 3.3 EVITA ...................................................................................................................... 18 3.4 TELL ME ON A SUNDAY ..................................................................................... 21 3.5 SONG AND DANCE ............................................................................................... 22 3.6 CATS ........................................................................................................................ 23 3.7 STARLIGHT EXPRESS .......................................................................................... 26 3.8 THE PHANTOM OF THE OPERA ........................................................................ 27 3.9 ASPECTS OF LOVE ............................................................................................... 30 3.10 SUNSET BOULEVARD ......................................................................................... 31 3.11 WHISTLE DOWN THE WIND .............................................................................. 33 3.12 THE BEAUTIFUL GAME ...................................................................................... 33 3.13 THE WOMAN IN WHITE ...................................................................................... 34 4 JESUS CHRIST SUPERSTAR ........................................................................................ 36 5 JOSEPH AND THE AMAZING TECHNICOLOR DREAMCOAT .............................. 52 6 CONCLUSION ................................................................................................................ 64 7 RESUMÉ .......................................................................................................................... 66 8 BIBLIOGRAPHY ............................................................................................................ 67 9 APPENDIX ...................................................................................................................... 89 5 1 INTRODUCTION Musicals became a phenomenon of mainly last three decades of the twentieth century, although its history is very long and its roots can be found in theatres of the nineteenth century. Its popularity is still growing. That is one of the reasons why a lot of new musicals originate very often, as it is also visible in the Czech Republic, where many original shows are staged. Musicals became one of the most coveted dramatic genres not only in this country, where the main “musical boom” started after the Velvet revolution at the beginning of the 1990s, but in the whole world. The thesis attempts to provide readers with a popular interpretation of both the personality of Andrew Lloyd Weber, one of the best and most productive musical composers of the twentieth century, and his works. The main purpose of the thesis is to create a comprehensive outline of the composer’s personality and an indepth probe into his pop cantata Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat and a rock opera Jesus Christ Superstar . Originally, musicals were created and intented only for entertaining and this kind of musical theatre belonged to the low arts. Topics of unequal love were very popular among audience until that time. However, postmodernism broke borders between low and high arts and it was also visible in musicals of that period. Lloyd Webber was one of the first composers who brought serious topics to the world of musicals and it changed this theatre genre a lot. It might be said that his pop cantata Joseph still belongs to the first cathegory, thus to entertain. Jesus Christ Superstar is different, not only as far as the music is concerned, but mainly for the fact it describes the last seven days of Jesus Christ from the point of view of Judas, which is a really controversial topic. This interpretation of biblical topic does not always meet with agreeing viewpoint of the Church. Firstly, the thesis will introduce Andrew Lloyd Webber, his brief biography and his collaborators, the attention being paid especially to Tim Rice, Don Black and Cameron Mackintosh. A paragraph will be also devoted to the Really Useful Group, which is Lloyd Webber’s production company. Secondly, this work will focus on Lloyd Webber’s musicals that he created during his career that lasts more than forty years already. These musicals include both the works popular all over the world, Evita (1978), Cats (1981), or The Phantom of the Opera (1986) and works that were not successful enough, namely The Likes of Us (2005) or Beautiful Game (2000). 6 Thirdly, this thesis will deal with two musicals – Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat (1968) and Jesus Christ Superstar (1971) that are currently staged in Brno, rather on a stage of the Brno City Theatre, denoted as the MDB in the thesis. Their origin, different productions, synopsis of both these works as well as their Czech productions will be discussed. Last but not least the translator’s notes about these musicals will be also mentioned. The main aim of this thesis is to analyse both these musicals based on the Bible and bring them nearer to readers as well as theatregoers from different frame of reference, not only the position of an ordinary viewer. Although Andrew Lloyd Webber belongs among worldknown composers, there are very few available materials on him in the Czech Republic. Some of the authors (Hoggard, Prostějovský, Foret) mention him and his works in their books, but it was not sufficient enough for the needs of this thesis, therefore several Internet sources had to be used, too. Hoggard and Prostějovský also published articles in the Official Programmes to both above mentioned musicals. These are based on information from their books, but these articles differ, they were made up-todate. The quotations will always be differentiated according to its source. If the quotation is based on the book, there will be information only about the author and the page of the the book in the brackets. If it is quoted from the Official Programme , there will be information about the author, the source (the Official Programme ) and the page in the brackets. All the songs introduced in this thesis will be in quotation marks. Both the librettos will be included in the Appendix. A longterm, detailed field research was done during writing this thesis. It included a personal interview with the translator of these two musicals – Michael Prostějovský, and e- mail and telephone contact with the MDB, especially with Ms Hoggard and Mr Gazdík. The author of the thesis also draws on her personal experience as a spectator of the musicals discussed. 7 2 ANDREW