After ‘Cats: The Jellicle Ball’ Closes, Andrew Lloyd Webber Warns Musicals Are in Crisis: ‘Broadway Risks Rivaling Hollywood’s Empty Soundstages’
Andrew Lloyd Webber responded to the early closure of “Cats: The Jellicle Ball” by arguing that Broadway musicals are in crisis. “Without action, Broadway...
Key points
- Andrew Lloyd Webber responded to the early closure of “Cats: The Jellicle Ball” by arguing that Broadway musicals are in crisis.
- “Without action, Broadway risks rivaling Hollywood’s empty soundstages: increasingly dark theatres where bold new work once lived,” Lloyd Webber wrote.
- However, sales fell sharply after “The Jellicle Ball” lost the best revival of a musical Tony Award to “Ragtime.” Lloyd Webber’s “Sunset Blvd.” was remounted in 2024 on Broadway by director Jamie Lloyd in a stripped-down version that won a Tony for best revival as well as for Nicole Scherzinger’s lead performance.
- “The painful truth is that, with things as they are, bringing almost any new show to Broadway makes little financial sense,” Lloyd Webber wrote on social media.
What happened
Andrew Lloyd Webber responded to the early closure of “Cats: The Jellicle Ball” by arguing that Broadway musicals are in crisis. “Without action, Broadway risks rivaling Hollywood’s empty soundstages: increasingly dark theatres where bold new work once lived,” Lloyd Webber wrote. However, sales fell sharply after “The Jellicle Ball” lost the best revival of a musical Tony Award to “Ragtime.” Lloyd Webber’s “Sunset Blvd.” was remounted in 2024 on Broadway by director Jamie Lloyd in a stripped-down version that won a Tony for best revival as well as for Nicole Scherzinger’s lead performance. “The painful truth is that, with things as they are, bringing almost any new show to Broadway makes little financial sense,” Lloyd Webber wrote on social media. New and daring work must have a future.” Despite his frustration with the economics of Broadway, Lloyd Webber and Lloyd are bringing “Evita” to Broadway next spring with Rachel Zegler. “I’ve been worried about Broadway for a very long time, because people are not really able to get their money back and most of these shows have limited runs,” Lloyd Webber said.