Webber Quotes

(on her audition with Andrew Lloyd Webber for The Phantom of the Opera (2004)) He had the most magnificent apartment I had ever seen and I was floored by it. I went in and started vocalizing with the accompanist and Andrew walked in as we were preparing. He didn`t say hello, didn`t introduce himself, and just sat down in front of me and said, "Shall we?" I thought to myself it was my one shot so I had better just stand up and do it, so I didn`t introduce myself, I nodded to the accompanist and I did the two biggest numbers in the show. Then he stood up and said, "That was great. I`m Andrew."

(Ball is one of the few musical comedy artists to have distinguished himself equally as an interpreter of both Andrew Lloyd Webber and Stephen Sondheim, who would seem to be polar opposites as songwriters.) I`m very lucky that I`ve gotten to work with both of them, ... I was in Andrew Lloyd Webber`s 50th party concert at the Albert Hall. That same year I was in a special show called Hey, Mr. Producer , a celebration of Cameron Mackintosh`s work. There was a Sondheim section, and Cameron asked if I`d be part of it. I`d already recorded `Losing My Mind` from Follies , which is one of my favorite songs of Steve`s. But I hadn`t yet done a particularly traditional treatment of it. Steve said he wanted me to do it absolutely straight, the way it was heard in the original show, which I was delighted about. And he worked with me on it--just him, and me, and a pianist in a tiny room, for an hour-and-a-half master class on this song. I came away knowing every nuance; why he wrote everything that he did; why every note was in its place; why the phrasing was like this--can you imagine how thrilling that was? And he is so articulate in explaining his work; you can be under no illusion why something is there. When you have that understanding, that is when his work opens up to you. Of course, they put me between Judi Dench singing `Send in the Clowns` and Bernadette Peters doing `Being Alive.` You try holding your own in that company!

I always say it`s like licking icing. You appreciate (Lloyd Webber`s) music more when you look at the last 20 years on Broadway, and there aren`t that many songs or Broadway hits anymore, the way there used to be. It`s like seeing the history of musical theater laid out for you.

This was where I wanted to be all along. I wanted to be here, I wanted to play with Chris ( Webber ). He took me under his wing last season and I feel there is still so much I can learn from him.

Religion and atheism will both survive it (the musical Jesus Christ Superstar by Time Rice and Andrew Lloyd Webber).