I remember, once I was going through Nice airport with Roger Moore, and these kids came up and asked for our autographs. Afterwards, Roger said, 'It must be very strange for you. I'm an actor, and signing autographs is part of what I do. But you're a public figure who people don't really know.' He was right.
— Andrew Lloyd Webber
It may sound amazing to people today, but Rodgers and Hammerstein were considered by - how can I put it? - the sort of opinion-making tastemakers and everything to be 'off the scale as sentimental.'
They should go back to the medieval tradition, which is that the nave of the church is always used for local business.
I have always tried with my shows - win, lose, or draw - to take the boundaries of music as far as I can.
I was about 10, and I was supposed to be playing the piano at the school concert, and I got up in front of the whole school and said, 'I'm sorry. I'm changing the agenda. I want to play some songs I've written.'
Nothing will ever be as big as 'The Phantom of the Opera' for me.
We try to get the best performance out of the artists. There is no point in saying to them, 'You're useless.'
What I can't tell is, I don't know if there's a subliminal resistance to the idea of a sequel to 'The Phantom of the Opera' anyway.
Musicals are very collaborative. Unless you find somebody who wants to do something with you and has equal commitment, it's not going to work.
I loved medieval architecture when I was very small; I don't know why.
Making good television is what Simon Cowell does. That's his business.
I'm a ladies' man who can never make love. I'm resigned to that.
The one thing I have always felt about musical theatre is that it is, to an extraordinary degree, about construction.
I don't really care very much if I don't think that the critics really understand music.
I'm not a critic, and I never talk about other people's work.
I have a very strong will.
I've a rare Turkish swimming cat.
I often think how lucky we were with 'Jesus Christ Superstar.'
My love of musical theater was certainly not typical. I mean, it was considered to be very, very abnormal, in fact!
I want to get every church in the country on Wi-Fi.
'The Phantom of the Opera' is about love. It's as simple as that.
I got known as the school swot, which wasn't me at all.
If you look at my career... I couldn't possibly have chosen those subjects if I was thinking, 'That's a great commercial idea.' I'm not aware of a great musical where someone has done that.
I do want to write again. I hope to. But it's also important for me to realize, as I get older, that I don't have to be doing everything all at once.
It never occurred to me that 'Phantom of the Opera' was the sort of subject that I'd want to do, because I just thought it was something that would be a bit jokey. 'Til I read the book.
Together, we can nurture the talent of the future and bring the empowering force of music and the arts to a new generation.
I never wanted to be a performer. I suppose I was precocious, really.
At one point I couldn't move or get out of bed or anything. I developed blood clots because I'd been completely inactive. Then they thought - because the pain was so much - I had an infection in the bones, so they gave me pills, which gave me a tummy infection. It's like a French farce.
Musical theatre history is littered with bad reviews for now classic pieces.
If you just want ten songs to fit somebody else's script, then I'm not really the composer for that.
You can't just sort of come with, say, 'Yesterday,' or 'A Hard Day's Night,' and it be in the wrong place in the wrong show, and expect the song to work theatrically.
I'm wondering whether to have someone go around with my mobile to completely throw everybody off the scent. I could appear in weird places.
The arts are the one thing that appeal right across all forms of politics, race, creed - everything.
Glenn Slater is my lyricist who, of the new young lyricists coming along, is the most exciting, I think.
I put a hell of a lot of myself into 'Love Never Dies,' and I felt quite drained afterwards.
I don't know what really makes a great musical or not. In the end, you write it, and you write it because you want to write it.
You never know what will happen. There is a thing called zeitgeist. You have to hit it.
People like to put you into a box. I'm afraid I don't sit in a box.
After I had prostate cancer, I had something which was misdiagnosed which led to a load of back operations.
Since 'School of Rock' opened, for the first time in my career, ever, really, I've had a lot of projects offered to me. It's extraordinary. Normally, I've initiated them all myself.
There's no getting around it: Writing is hard, while working with young performers is nearly always a joy.
The plot of my 'Phantom' is pretty much mine. It's based on the Gaston Leroux book - I've taken a lot of liberties with it.
Disgracefully, the arts have too often borne the brunt of short-sighted cuts to educational budgets.
The fact is that 'The Wizard Of Oz' has never really worked in the theatre. The film has one or two holes where, in the theatre, you need a song. For example, there's nothing for either of the two witches to sing.
I'm alive. I have my music; I have my children. I am the luckiest man.
Where I have come unstuck sometimes has mostly been to do with the stories not being quite right or not connecting with a contemporary audience.
'School of Rock' is fun. Hopefully, I've fleshed it out with a few catchy songs and kept the spirit of the original movie.
Sometimes I get the story wrong, or it's the wrong story, and then things don't work.
Mobiles mean people know where you are.
My wife says I can't remember if she has milk in coffee.
