Bidspirit auction | LLOYD WEBBER ANDREW: (1948- )

LLOYD WEBBER ANDREW: (1948- ) - LLOYD WEBBER ANDREW : (1948- ) English composer of musical theatre, Academy Award winner. A good, interesting T.L.S., Andrew , two pages (separate leaves), 4to, Sydmonton Court, Burghclere, Newbury, Berkshire, 24th January 1979, to Michael White. Lloyd Webber states that he has been giving ´a very great deal of thought´ to the musical side of their proposed Variations - Practical Cats dance show, admitting that he can see ´absolutely no problem at all´ musically with the Cats but is concerned about Variations , continuing to explain that he is ´very enthusiastic´ to use live musicians, ´But the problem with ”Variations”......is not that it would be absolutely impossible to play Variations ”live”.....but that the technical difficulties in a theatre would be insurmountable. For a start I do not believe that there would be enough room to put all the equipment. Also the resulting scale of sound will be far too loud for the theatre. I therefore feel that we must play ”Variations” from a tape. I am the owner of the tape which is licensed by me to MCA Records and the original musicians all take a royalty from the sale of the album and are, incidentally, most enthusiastic about this project as they see it as a way of enhancing the record sales´ . Lloyd Webber further writes ´I feel, reluctantly, that if we are refused permission to use the original tape of ”Variations” we should abandon the project for the time being as I have not got the time nor the desire to undertake the complete rescoring and rewriting of the piece to scale it down for theatrical resources. But I think it would be a great pity because obviously the Cats are ”live” and there are going to be more than seven musicians used for the Cats. But it would clearly be impossible to go ahead with the Cats on their own as ”Variations” is the carrot which we have to get our investors and indeed our audiences´ , and concludes ´Let us hope the Musicians Union will understand that this is not a position of trying to save money: rather one of trying to provide the best possible show for all concerned. I hope we will not be deprived of a chance to do a really exciting and wholly British project´ . A letter of excellent content and good association. A couple of very minor, light stains in the margins of the first page and some small staple holes in the upper left corner of each page, otherwise VG Michael White (1936-2016) British theatrical impresario and film producer.