SuperPops pays tribute to a legend
Andrew Lloyd Webber will be the star – in spirit, at least – of “The Music of Andrew Lloyd Webber and His Tony Friends,” a Spokane Symphony SuperPops concert Saturday in Spokane and March 25 in Coeur d’Alene.
Sir Andrew will not be present in the flesh, but he will be represented by an emissary named “Evita.”
Not just “Evita,” but also “Cats,” “Jesus Christ Superstar,” “Aspects of Love” and “The Phantom of the Opera.” Music from all five of these classic Lloyd Webber musicals will have a prominent place in this concert.
Associate conductor Morihiko Nakahara will preside over the orchestra. Andrea Dawson and Quincy Marr will be the guest vocalists.
Lloyd Webber did not take the usual route to Broadway superstardom. He was born in London of musical parents and his first success was a 20-minute children’s show for a London school chorus. (That show was later reworked and expanded and became “Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat.”)
He then went on to write one of the first of the true rock operas, “Jesus Christ Superstar,” in 1970. It became a huge international hit on LP, long before a theatrical version was mounted in 1971.
From there Lloyd Webber composed a string of commercial (although not always critical) successes with “Evita,” “Cats,” “Starlight Express,” “Phantom of the Opera,” “Aspects of Love” and “Sunset Boulevard.”
As suggested by the title, this concert also will include music from a number of other top Broadway composers. Here are some of the other big names on the bill:
Cole Porter: Songs from “Kiss Me Kate.”
Rodgers and Hammerstein: Selections from “South Pacific.”
Stephen Sondheim: Music from “Company” and “Gypsy.”
Duke Ellington: Excerpts from “Sophisticated Lady.”
Schönberg and Boublil: Songs from “Les Miserables.”
Meredith Willson: Songs from “The Music Man.”
Some parts of the program will be strictly orchestral arrangements, including suites from Lloyd Webber’s “Jesus Christ Superstar” and “Evita.”
Other selections will be sung by the guest vocalists. Marr is a Brooklyn native who has sung with big bands, in musical theater and with orchestras around the world. He’s a 2002 graduate of Hope College.
Dawson is an Eastern Washington University graduate who has performed with the Spokane Civic Theatre, the Spokane-Coeur d’Alene Opera, Opera Plus and the Lake City Playhouse.