Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra Programme Notes Online Summer Concert: Pops The Best of the West End Thursday 28 June 2018 7.30pm Overture from Annie Charles Strouse The Lullaby Of Broadway from 42nd Street Harry Warren & Al Dubin All That Jazz from Chicago John Kander & Fred Ebb Why, God, Why? from Miss Saigon Claude-Michel Schönberg, Alain Boublil & Richard Maltby, Jr The Sound Of Music from The Sound Of Music Richard Rodgers & Oscar Hammerstein II Broadway Baby from Follies Stephen Sondheim Luck Be A Lady from Guys And Dolls Frank Loesser My Eyes Adored You from Jersey Boys Bob Crewe & Kenny Nolan Buenos Aires from Evita Andrew Lloyd Webber & Tim Rice Anthem from Chess
Benny Andersson, Björn Ulvaeus & Tim Rice Love Never Dies from Love Never Dies Andrew Lloyd Webber & Glenn Slater Til I Hear You Sing from Love Never Dies Andrew Lloyd Webber & Glenn Slater INTERVAL Introduction from The Phantom of the Opera Andrew Lloyd Webber The Phantom Of The Opera from The Phantom Of The Opera Andrew Lloyd Webber, Charles Hart & Richard Stilgoe The Music Of The Night from The Phantom Of The Opera Andrew Lloyd Webber & Charles Hart Can You Feel The Love Tonight? from The Lion King Elton John & Tim Rice Memory from Cats Andrew Lloyd Webber & Trevor Nunn I Could Have Danced All Night from My Fair Lady Frederick Loewe & Alan Jay Lerner On The Street Where You Live from My Fair Lady Frederick Loewe & Alan Jay Lerner Some Enchanted Evening from South Pacific Richard Rodgers & Oscar Hammerstein II Popular from Wicked Stephen Schwartz
Defying Gravity from Wicked Stephen Schwartz One Day More from Les Misérables Claude-Michel Schönberg, Alain Boublil & Jean-Marc Natel The Best of the West End Tonight we venture from Liverpool to the West End, home of musical theatre in the UK, and thence to Broadway, for a celebration of some of the finest songs and melodies ever written for the stage. From the British blockbusters of Andrew Lloyd Webber to lesser-known gems, we ll explore an array of musical treasures, all under the assured baton of conductor Michael England, and with the wonderful voices of singers Anna O Byrne, Jacqui Scott, Nadim Naaman and Scott Davies. We open with Charles Strouse s Overture from Annie, a show which originally ran in the UK from 1978 to 1981, and has been revived successfully several times since, the most recent West End production only closing this February. So relax it may be a hard knock life, but for the next two hours we re on easy street. And hence to 42nd Street, the 1980 musical based on the vintage 1933 Hollywood musical of the same name. The original film featured a raft of numbers by songwriting partnership Al Dubin and Harry Warren, but the stage show added songs the pair wrote for later films, and tonight s number, The Lullaby of Broadway actually comes from one of them Gold Diggers of 1935. The number was a hit for Bing Crosby in that titular year. From Broadway to Chicago, and All That Jazz. The song that is, not to be confused with an entirely different musical with which it shares its name. It s a barnstorming statement of intent in early jazz-ragtime style by songwriters John Kander & Fred Ebb. For the full melodrama of the modern stage musical style we turn next to the passionate ballad Why, God, Why? from Miss Saigon,
the show which reworks Puccini s Madama Butterfly through the lens of the Vietnam War. We ll return to the music of Claude- Michel Schönberg and Alain Boublil later. But first, from Nam to Austria... The Sound of Music by Richard Rodgers & Oscar Hammerstein II is surely the epitome of the mid-20th-century style of classic Broadway musical. Endlessly revived, the Hollywood version overtook Gone With The Wind as the most successful film ever made. Tonight we luxuriate in the title song, and fantasy version of Maria von Trapp s life it may be, the peaks of Austria truly do come alive to its sound. Stephen Sondheim s dark psychological musical, Follies, was an expensive commercial disaster when it premiered on Broadway in 1971. It only found success with the West End production in 1987, while a new London production has just won the 2018 Lawrence Olivier Award for Best Musical Revival. Tonight s song, Broadway Baby, serves as a cynical repost to the earlier, more romantic dreams of 42nd Street. Think of the next song, Luck Be A Lady from mob musical Guys And Dolls, and only one name comes to mind, Frank. Sinatra made the number his own, but the song was penned by another Frank Frank Loesser. Nevertheless, it s Sinatra who has set the bar high for our artists tonight, though they are sure to rise to the challenge. My Eyes Adored You wasn t originally from a musical at all. The song, by Bob Crewe and Kenny Nolan, was first a pop hit over the winter of 1974-75 for Frankie Valli, lead singer of The Four Seasons. Only later was it incorporated in jukebox musical Jersey Boys, which tells the story of the classic group, meaning the heartfelt song is now on its way to becoming a modern musical classic.
Back on this side of the Atlantic, the central architecture of tonight s concert, spanning both sides of the interval, is the work of the undisputed king of the British stage musical, Andrew Lloyd Webber. First up, not the heartbreaker we might expect from Evita, but rather the upbeat, optimistic ode to the city of Buenos Aires, with lyrics by Tim Rice. Switching writing partners to Glenn Slater, and leading into the intermission, we have two numbers from Lloyd Webber s 2010 sequel to The Phantom Of The Opera Love Never Dies. First the epic title ballad tonight s artist Anna O Byrne gave a multiaward nominated performance as Christine Daaé in the 2011 Melbourne production of the show followed by the equally impassioned Til I Hear You Sing. Well refreshed after the break, we continue with three selections from The Phantom Of The Opera itself, which Lloyd Webber wrote with Charles Hart the Introduction, the Gothic showstopping title number The Phantom Of The Opera and, of course, the achingly romantic The Music Of The Night. Our final number from the composer is the tremendously poignant Memory, with lyrics by Trevor Nunn, from the massively popular show based on T.S. Eliot s Old Possum s Book of Practical Cats. Staying with felines, Tim Rice steps back into the limelight with his greatest hit, The Lion King, with music by Elton John. From incredibly popular Disney animated film in 1994 to global stage franchise, and with a live action big screen remake due next year, The Lion King is financially the most successful musical ever. Can You Feel The Love Tonight? provides one of the more introspective moments from the irrepressibly exuberant show. Returning to the traditional Broadway musical, we offer two numbers from Frederick Loewe and Alan Jay Lerner s timeless My Fair Lady. Anna O Byrne won the 2017 Helpman Award for Best Female Actor in a Musical for her performance as Eliza Doolittle in recent Australian revival of the show after which she
could surely have said I Could Have Danced All Night. Complimenting that joyful celebration is the lyrical yearning of On The Street Where You Live. Offering commentary on this very night perhaps, Some Enchanted Evening remains one of the romantic highlights of Richard Rodgers and Oscar Hammerstein II s South Pacific, an example of the classic Broadway musical style which has arguably never been surpassed. The enchantment continues in more contemporary fashion, with two selections from Stephen Schwartz 2003 musical Wicked, a semi-sequel to The Wizard of Oz told from the perspective of the witches. The smash hit show is currently touring in a revival across the UK, and tonight we get a glimpse of why it is so Popular, before taking full flight and Defying Gravity. And so we come to the end of the evening, and back to the music of Claude-Michel Schönberg and Alain Boublil, this time also with Jean-Marc Natel. While we might ask for one song more and get it (and still one more) in the encores the heart of the matter here is One Day More a full cast showstopper and rousing conclusion to any celebration of the glories of the stage musical. Programme notes by Gary Dalkin 2018