Love me, that's all I ask of you

Day 4

Over the break I got to watch a documentary about the making of "Phantom of the Opera" called "Behind the Mask". Now I'll be the first to admit, I'm not the biggest Phantom of the Opera fan. I have a love/hate relationship with Andrew Loyd Webber. I think his shows have really great and iconic songs. I absolutely love "Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat" and "Jesus Christ Superstar". I hate "Cats". I like some of the songs in "Cats", but the show as a whole is boring. I like "Phantom of the Opera" sometimes, but I have only the movie to base this off of and the movie isn't that good. But, anyways...

The documentary was really interesting. It wasn't an inspiring one like the In the Heights one I watched on PBS, but it was very informative on the whole process of putting up a musical in the West End. It's funny because they first performed a version of the show in the living room of some guy's house. Can you imagine this extravagant production taking place in a living room? I also didn't know that Michael Crawford wasn't the first choice. He was kind of an accidental find. I felt bad for the guy who they originally chose because he ended up going from the lead role to an ensemble part. Sucks to be him.

But watching the show, there's no denying that Andrew Loyd Webber knows what he's doing. Of course he has some flops on his hands, like "Starlight Express" (a musical about trains? How could you go wrong???) but most of his shows have been major hits. And he has been involved with some of the most popular musical theatre songs of all time. "Memory", "Don't Cry for Me Argentina", "The Phantom of the Opera"...I could go on.

So, while I don't like every little thing that he does, I can appreciate the gift he has. He knows how to get the general public interested in musicals, which is never a bad thing. I respect his talent.