A year ago, Andrew Lloyd Webber said the Titanic anniversary was “just not a good enough gift for me to give.” So it was a particular treat to hear the composer talk at length about the songs that gave his three-decade-long Broadway career its various hits.
Host Stephen Colbert, who had previously agreed to have a sit-down with Mr. Lloyd Webber and take questions from audience members, lit up this morning as he addressed the transcript of the question period. (“Andrew,” Colbert said, “everything’s fine. Everything is absolutely fine. There is absolutely no risk here. The question is, what is the story of the Titanic?”)
Mr. Lloyd Webber, in his first TV appearance since November, was extremely chatty, not the least because this first conversation in almost a year was the panelists’ last. (He said he still has “no idea” why the panel had stopped.) But his 20-minute set, which was filmed before a sold-out crowd at Manhattan’s Apollo Theater, had the relaxed, conversational feel of a satisfying cabaret.
The day’s conversation, which should be available on Comedy Central later this week, was peppered with anecdotes that took in his working experience as a game-show writer (“It was just in my nature to go down and report to hosts”), how he met his first wife and director of the smash-hit musical Cats (“He wrote the show for me”), and his early childhood.
“There’s an awful lot in this,” Mr. Lloyd Webber said. “But they really, really work.”
Before the song “It Had to Be You” was even played, one audience member said, “Really, really good.” Mr. Lloyd Webber said he found the music “very energetic,” then added that he chose it “for the three people that love me.”
Many of the stories dealt with his singing, which was some of the most affecting of the entire evening. “You’re in the background,” he said, “and one day it turns into a star.”
“Or at least four stars,” Colbert deadpanned.
The afternoon panel also included Jeremy Irons, his wife, Emma, and Victoria Clark, who was married to Andrew Lloyd Webber’s father, Lloyd Webber’s first agent.
