Andrew Lloyd Webber fondly talks to The Telegraph about the King of Pop!

Ankita

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Musical theatre composer, Andrew Lloyd Webber says the King of Pop was very interested in staring in the film version of Phantom of the Opera. After the superstar passed away in June 2009, the following article was posted on The Telegraph:
The first person to call me to say Michael Jackson had died was my 17-year-old son. I had an awful feeling that one should almost have seen it coming. After the sadness came the disappointment that I was never going to see him again.
I first met Michael when he came to see Phantom of the Opera in New York when we'd just opened in 1988. He was clearly interested in the piece. He saw it several times and used to come backstage, often without the entourage that followed him around in later life.
The story got to him. I think he had a connection with the lonely, tortured musician. He found the idea of somebody working through music and having a girl as a muse very intriguing – and he loved that there was illusion in the show.
Michael became interested in playing The Phantom himself, in a movie version of the show. We talked about it a lot, but we'd only just opened and, at the time, I felt that it was too early for it to become a film. I felt his interest in Phantom was because he was interested in doing something theatrical himself.
He was a highly theatrical animal. I remember him saying to me that he'd seen Cats and how happy he was that dance was making a comeback in the theatre. He certainly talked about theatre a lot, and when he was last in London, he went to see Oliver!. Of course, he was a great showman himself, but he found the whole stagecraft of musicals extraordinary.
Seeing clips of Thriller on the news this week reminded me what an extraordinary dancer he was. He really brought dance and staging into the pop world, through his videos and concerts. Nobody before him had really done anything much like that. He was ahead of his time with all that he did.
I saw him a couple of times in concert. Thriller was probably the best stage event I've ever seen. From my musical-theatre perspective, I could see that he was bringing a completely new vision about dance to the stage. A tremendous amount of what he was doing then you see in musicals now.
Musically, Michael was also different to anyone before him. He was clever at taking pop hooks and using them in original ways, developing them theatrically. It's an influence that is now everywhere today. I remember listening to a Justin Timberlake album and hearing Michael's influence.
Young people still keep coming to his music because so many of his songs are classics. In the history of pop, Thriller will possibly stand out more than Sergeant Pepper because there were even more stand-alone hits on it. It's right up there with the all-time great albums.
Similarly, I would absolutely put him up there with the all-time greatest performers. I've seen most of the top rock acts – I saw Elvis several times – but with Michael's concerts, his showmanship was consummate. Very few rock singers have such quality.
Everybody was so looking forward to seeing what he would do when he came back to London. From what I was hearing, he was going to push the boundaries of what we'd seen in a rock arena much, much further.
The debts, all the court cases, and the trouble he got himself into, it was all so sad. But you can probably say already that his music has transcended all of that. Nothing sticks to him. In the end, the music will always survive.
Source: MJFC / telegraph.co.uk
 
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I miss Michael Jackson so much....
The world was a better place when he was still here.
angel-Michael-michael-jackson-19178970-487-604.jpg
 
The only thing I wonder about it why he said one should almost see this coming, after he was told Michael had died. Is it that people believed Michael would die because the media said so? We must all remember that Michael did not die from natural causes.
 
I love this article. POTO is my all time favorite musical and eerily parallel to Michael's life. I thought GB did excellent in the film acting wise (before he became a shallow, Hollywood egomaniac making shallow Hollywood films and making cruel cracks about Michael soon after his death),but that aside it would have been interesting to see him in the role since he would have gotten to show more of his dark side and skills as an actor and I would have loved to hear his renditions of the songs. It's even heartbreaking know that songs like Wishing You Were Somehow Here Again apply to him, I can imagine how painful that song would be for his kids to hear :(. But, I love finding out how many things Michael loved that I did, makes me an even bigger fan!
 
The only thing I wonder about it why he said one should almost see this coming, after he was told Michael had died. Is it that people believed Michael would die because the media said so? We must all remember that Michael did not die from natural causes.

I'm confused about that too.
 
The only thing I wonder about it why he said one should almost see this coming, after he was told Michael had died. Is it that people believed Michael would die because the media said so? We must all remember that Michael did not die from natural causes.

Sincerely after the trial I've begun feeling myself, that he got little time left.

Not because what media said, but because Michael begun to feel even more ethereal than before, even more love coming out of him... And when a man is that spiritually advanced usually God calls him back.

Also I observed a rift, a gap that increased between fans, and especially what fans want from him, and their expectation, and Michael himself. Many fans were becoming more and more disappointed, and upset in him, criticizing everything from Invincible - the the day he left. I know there are exceptions, of course, and he was also very, deeply loved by his fans, but regarding work, all I say is what I read these years in Boards...

Meaning the fans wanted him to perform intensively tours and have many hits on radio/billboard as in 80s, 90s... even if the guys from radios,awards were after something else,not after good music, but after quick easy hits, sung by very young folks..
Not understanding also that Mike went through hell these years, and also the complexity of his evolution as artist and human being...

I've saw the gap growing these years with my eyes... and I often feared that Mike would would die even sooner.... Deep, in my inner sense, I felt the call, all these years, after the trial, probably the world didn't deserve him, and in years even his own beloved fans didn't deserve him anymore.... The man was too good for this earth.

Too bad, 3 beloved children, were left behind.... :( And Mike was put down by a scumbag, murderer Murray... And not even now we see the light of justice...
 
Not because what media said, but because Michael begun to feel even more ethereal than before, even more love coming out of him... And when a man is that spiritually advanced usually God calls him back.

This post got me... He did, didn't he...? I felt the exact same way, he seemed even more humble and ethereal...

Also I observed a rift, a gap that increased between fans, and especially what fans want from him, and their expectation, and Michael himself. Many fans were becoming more and more disappointed, and upset in him, criticizing everything from Invincible - the the day he left. I know there are exceptions, of course, and he was also very, deeply loved by his fans, but regarding work, all I say is what I read these years in Boards...

Meaning the fans wanted him to perform intensively tours and have many hits on radio/billboard as in 80s, 90s... even if the guys from radios,awards were after something else,not after good music, but after quick easy hits, sung by very young folks..
Not understanding also that Mike went through hell these years, and also the complexity of his evolution as artist and human being...

I've saw the gap growing these years with my eyes... and I often feared that Mike would would die even sooner.... [...] probably the world didn't deserve him, and in years even his own beloved fans didn't deserve him anymore.... The man was too good for this earth.

Too bad, 3 beloved children, were left behind.... :( And Mike was put down by a scumbag, murderer Murray... And not even now we see the light of justice...


Yes... ....):
 
I miss Michael Jackson so much....
The world was a better place when he was still here.
angel-Michael-michael-jackson-19178970-487-604.jpg

I whole heartedly agree with you. He loved us so much and I know he still does but Michael was like a gentle shield from the cruelty that is present on this planet. My sweet angel...
 
Sincerely after the trial I've begun feeling myself, that he got little time left.

Not because what media said, but because Michael begun to feel even more ethereal than before, even more love coming out of him... And when a man is that spiritually advanced usually God calls him back.

Also I observed a rift, a gap that increased between fans, and especially what fans want from him, and their expectation, and Michael himself. Many fans were becoming more and more disappointed, and upset in him, criticizing everything from Invincible - the the day he left. I know there are exceptions, of course, and he was also very, deeply loved by his fans, but regarding work, all I say is what I read these years in Boards...

Meaning the fans wanted him to perform intensively tours and have many hits on radio/billboard as in 80s, 90s... even if the guys from radios,awards were after something else,not after good music, but after quick easy hits, sung by very young folks..
Not understanding also that Mike went through hell these years, and also the complexity of his evolution as artist and human being...

I've saw the gap growing these years with my eyes... and I often feared that Mike would would die even sooner.... Deep, in my inner sense, I felt the call, all these years, after the trial, probably the world didn't deserve him, and in years even his own beloved fans didn't deserve him anymore.... The man was too good for this earth.

Too bad, 3 beloved children, were left behind.... :( And Mike was put down by a scumbag, murderer Murray... And not even now we see the light of justice...

^^I see.
 
This has kinda gotten of topic. I wonder who would have been Michael's Christine. Emmy would have been too young while he was the right age to do it, so who would have had good chemistry with him, look right with him and could sing with him?
 
I am moving this to the Legacy Project because I think it should be part of our work.

Thank you Ankita for this.
 
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