“Because we were nineties kids who liked musicals, we were already fairly literate in the work of musical theatre composer Andrew Lloyd Webber before we started writing a bio-musical about his life, One Man Musical (so named for legal reasons). But to refresh ourselves and catch up on anything we had missed in his oeuvre we made sure we listened to his entire catalogue again. This is a mix of the songs that devastated our Spotify Wrapped in 2024, and a few non-ALW pieces that also influenced the sound of One Man Musical.”
“Jesus Christ Superstar“ Orchestra, Andrew Lloyd Webber, Tim Rice – Overture (from Jesus Christ Superstar)
The state of British musical theatre in the late sixties/ early seventies was pretty bleak and traditional, so fair play to the people who broke its back by writing a rock opera about Jesus to the sound of an orchestra and rock band together that still sounds pretty epic to this day. The triangle is going absolutely mental, the brass are blowing their back doors out, and there’s even space for a little theremin. If our research holds us in good stead, the original concept album had band members from Deep Purple and Thin Lizzy playing on it. Apparently Gary Glitter also sings on it (under the name Paul Raven). His character: a priest. For obvious reasons, this information isn’t widely publicised.
Andrew Lloyd Webber, Rachel Zegler, Diego Andres Rodriguez – Buenos Aires (from Evita)
This was one of our favourites as kids. Our Mum had it on a CD and that was the track we always wanted to hear first. You’re getting the recent London Palladium version because sometimes a production values production value before story, and when that happens you sit back and listen to the orchestrations instead. For the big One Man Musical fans (all three of you), you’ll well know the first line of our show is a pastiche of the first line of this song.
“Whistle Down the Wind” Original Stage Cast, Andrew Lloyd Webber – Tire Tracks and Broken Hearts (from Whistle Down the Wind)
We also had a CD of the musical Whistle Down the Wind, where all the songs were sung by pop stars and famous people. Very 90s. There was a heavy helping of Meat Loaf in our musical upbringing and we think this song hit with us because ALW’s choice lyricist for this show was Meat Loaf’s collaborator, Jim Steinman. Here’s a fact about Jim Steinman: apparently, he had teeth that grew sideways over the top of his milk teeth, he slept in the day, and had a menu order disorder where whenever he ate out he had to order one of everything because he couldn’t decide. Pass it on. (This is the kind of information you accept into your life when you’re researching a musical about the life and work of Andrew Lloyd Webber. And now it’s yours. Enjoy the rasped tones of Bonnie Tyler (RIP).)
Andrew Lloyd Webber, By Jeeves 1996 Original London Cast – It’s A Pig! (from By Jeeves)
Look, we’ve got no idea what’s going on in this song, but much like in our show, if we’re going to cover ALW’s work, you’re going to have to hear the bad stuff too. Yes, we’re dragging you into this mess with us because someone else besides the two of us needs to hear this so we know we haven’t lost our minds talking about the pig song that doesn’t exist.
“Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat” 1991 London Cast – The Joseph Megamix (from Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat)
If you want to hear the whole of the musical Joseph and the Amazing Technicolour Dreamcoat, but you’ve only got 8min 44sec, well, here you are. It’s not for us to tell you which version is better, but this 90s dance music acid drop inspired mini-musical tickles us right in the Korg. You’ve got to feel sorry for the poor bastards in the show who have just done a full-out, two-act musical, then just when they think it’s the end of the show, they have to do the whole thing again at an unrelenting 130 bpm. Cruel. And yep, it inspired us to end our show the same way.
Tony Jay, Tom Hulce, Chorus – The Hunchback of Notre Dame – Heaven’s Light/Hellfire (from The Hunchback of Notre Dame)
When we were writing One Man Musical we had a ballad for “The Man” that wasn’t quite working for us. A month before we opened at Fringe 2024: enter the actor George Fouracres. On his audition self-tape George sang this heartbreakingly beautiful song from The Hunchback of Notre Dame musical and we knew that this was the exact feeling that was missing from our Man’s 11 o’clock number. We scurried away into our writing hole and emerged with the song that is now in its place, “Lin Manuel-Miramba”.
Sarah Brightman, Hot Gossip – I Lost My Heart to a Starship Trooper
This song isn’t from an Andrew Lloyd Webber show, but…the lead singer, Sarah Brightman, went on to be in the original cast of Cats, and then later married ALW himself. Oh, things ain’t what they used to be. This band brought together Arlene Phillips, Sarah Brightman and Andrew and is as 80s as it gets. Vaseline lens, split light, big hair, low-fi effects, obsession with space etc, etc. It’s in our pre-show playlist and long may it reign.
Bernadette Peters – Sunday (from Sunday in the Park with George)
This is the most restrained and beautiful song ever written in musical theatre and we won’t be accepting any arguments to the contrary at this time. Stephen Sondheim and ALW were compared relentlessly in their careers (and also shared a birthday), and whilst we didn’t have the time or a second actor to include our duet for them “I’ll Have What He’s Having”, we give a little nod to “Sunday” in our own finale, and a tip of the hat to Sweeney Todd in The Man’s dark night of the soul ballad.
One Man Musical, Pleasance Courtyard, 5-30 Aug, 4.50pm