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Andrew Lloyd Webber was stopped from writing a musical about a foreign country.
The 75-year-old composer is behind theatrical hits such as the French-based ‘Phantom of the Opera' and Evita' – which focuses on the life of Argentina's former First Lady Eva Perón and was made into a film starring US pop star Madonna in 1996 – but explained that these days he is discouraged from creating shows that focus on characters that are not from his native Britain.
Speaking on the ‘ I Never Thought it Would Happen' podcast, he said: “There's another factor that has come in now which is all this business about. I'll put it to you this way, if I were to be doing ‘Evita' today – Tim and I were doing ‘Evita' – I think there would be a lot of people to say well they're not qualified to do this because they're not Argentine. This is a factor that is staggering. There was a subject that I really wanted to consider doing, but everybody was saying to me, ‘You can't do this because you're not from that country.”
The EGOT-winning impresario went on to add that it was suggested to him that he make a musical out of the classic English novel ‘Pride and Prejudice' but did not seem impressed with the idea and has decided that if he is ever to create another show, it will be with young producer Michael Harrison but insisted that nothing concrete is in the works just yet.
He added: “I said, ‘Why would I want to make a musical out of ‘Pride and Prejudice?' I don't know whether one has to just sort of plough on regardless. I'm sure I will find something. I have masses of music bursting out at the moment but they're like homeless waifs and strays. I'm working with Michael Harrison now and the next show I do, if I do one, will be in partnership with him because he's a very experienced but younger producer.
“I always say if, because the word if it is important. Right now I'm looking for a story and I've been looking for a story for the last 18 months and I can't find a story that I think is right.
“It might just be that I could go out this afternoon and suddenly think, ‘Wow, there's the story.' Without the story I'm nowhere because I'm a musical dramatist at the end of the day and the story is the most important thing.”
