Wednesday, January 11

The Story of Musicals BBC Four Last night

Episode 2 of The Story of Musicals on BBC Four last night again provided a fascinating insight of the glory days of Andrew Lloyd Webber and Cameron Mackintosh.

One of the productions it featured was Cats which was deemed to be a flop before it even opened and the producers being so desperate to raise funds that they were even asking the cast if they wanted to put some money into it. Wayne Sleep who played Magical Mr Mistoffelees gave it three months and Paul Nicholas (Rum Tum Tugger) also said no and still regrets it to this day.

I went to see Cats when it opened and it was the most exciting and innovative night I have spent in musical theatre which I still remember vividly and it is the show which pushed me into this business.

Robert Stigwood also told the story of his trying to get Andrew Lloyd Webber and Tim Rice to collaborate again on Phantom.  After finally managing to get them to agree to have dinner together at Rice’s house they moved into his music room where ALW played a few numbers to be greeted by Rice’s comment “that is the most boring music you’ve ever written!”

If you missed it last night The Story of the Musicals is repeated again on BBC Four on Thursday 12th January at 23:30 and on Sunday at 19:00 and 23:00

The final Episode 3 will air on Tuesday 17th January at 21:00

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