While the theatre gossips’ lips buzz with talk of Phantom II and TV talent searches, Andrew Lloyd Webber is now said to be planning a London revival of Herman and Stewart’s Broadway classic Hello Dolly! with Connie Fisher taking the title role.
The original 1965 West End production ran for almost two years at the Theatre Royal Drury Lane starring Mary Martin but never repeated the triumph it achieved in New York, where it won twelve Tony awards and became one of Broadway’s longest running shows. The last time the show was seen in the West End was in 1984, when its revival at the Prince of Wales flopped, closing after four months. Similarly, the 2008 UK tour starring Anita Dobson and Darren Day received some pretty biting reviews. While it is revered as one of the all time musical greats because of its enormous and enduring success on Broadway, the show does not appear to resonate with UK audiences and the general view of the West End grapevine is that London isn’t ready to embrace it just yet.
ALW’s next planned TV project are also based on a rather precarious choice of show as the Lord intends to cast a Dorothy and Toto for The Wizard of Oz, which came and went unnoticed at the Royal Festival Hall in August 2008, albeit with a handful of negative notices.
Work on Hello Dolly! Probably won’t begin until well into 2010 as the Phantom sequel Love Never Dies is, for now, due to premiere in October this year and 2009 will see Connie back in the habit as she joins yet another Lloyd Webber venture, The Sound of Music UK tour, beginning in Cardiff this July.
This may appear to be a bit much for a man of sixty, but in all the activity, originality appears conspicuously absent as he revives flop shows and his one brand new project already has its roots in one of his existing classics. Still, at least he’s finding time to sort our Eurovision hopes out. That will do wonders for his credibility.
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