Theater : L.A., Land of Andrew : As prolific composer Lloyd Webber receives his star on the Walk of Fame, his shows are popping up all over town

It was the battle of the fans. Sir Andrew Lloyd Webber was about to receive his star on Hollywood’s Walk of Fame, and two people in the crowd both claimed to be his biggest admirer.

First to seize the title was musical veteran Ann Miller. Wrong, argued soap-opera star Michael Damian, currently starring in Lloyd Webber’s “Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat.” “ I’m your biggest fan. I wore out four CDs of ‘Phantom of the Opera’ and I’ve seen the show 12 times.”

Big deal. Also outside the Pantages Theatre for the ceremony were people who’d seen the show 100 times.

Now Lloyd Webber and company are hoping that all those fans will buy tickets to his other musicals. His many other musicals.

Shakespeare he’s not, but Lloyd Webber is certainly the biggest name in theater today. His fame as a composer could rival that of many pop superstars. The 3 million people who have already trekked to see “Phantom” at the Ahmanson will soon be able to satisfy their appetite for more Lloyd Webber fare in Hollywood, Beverly Hills, Universal City and more.

When “Aspects of Love” officially opens March 11 at the Wilshire Theatre, it will be the third Andrew Lloyd Webber show playing in the Los Angeles area. “Phantom” celebrates its fourth anniversary at the Ahmanson Theatre on May 31 (before closing in August), while a revival of “Joseph” opened at the Pantages on Feb. 25 en route to Broadway.

A touring production of “Jesus Christ Superstar” will be at the Universal Amphitheatre for at least one week in May, while “Superstar” creators Lloyd Webber and Tim Rice are talking about creating their own revival of the show next year. An “Evita” tour stops in Costa Mesa in April and Pasadena in June.

The prolific composer is colonizing Los Angeles. Lloyd Webber’s North American chief Edgar Dobie is already here one week a month and expects to be around full-time by August. Century City’s Shubert Theatre is undergoing major renovations for the U.S. premiere of Lloyd Webber’s newest blockbuster, “Sunset Boulevard,” in November.

Lloyd Webber was here in February, hosting a press conference to kick off “Joseph” fanfare. Actress Sarah Brightman, the former Mrs. Lloyd Webber, did the same a few weeks later for “Aspects of Love.”

The morning after “Joseph” opened at the Pantages, Lloyd Webber was back at the theater unveiling his star there. Up on the Walk of Fame’s makeshift stage, sharing a microphone with Hollywood’s honorary mayor, Johnny Grant, Lloyd Webber told his fans he had a hunch Los Angeles could support a lot of musicals.

“I was always told a show would never run in Los Angeles for any length of time,” Lloyd Webber told the crowd. “But ‘Evita’ and ‘Cats’ broke the record (for long runs) and ‘Phantom’ has been here for nearly four years. That proved to me that it is absolutely essential we open ‘Sunset Boulevard’ first in Los Angeles (after its London world premiere). It was my great hope to open ‘Sunset Boulevard’ here, and the only reason we’re not is because of renovation to the Shubert Theatre. “

People involved with the shows, such as Ahmanson producing director Gordon Davidson or the Phantom himself, actor Davis Gaines, even see Lloyd Webber’s omnipresence as a sign of the resurgence of Los Angeles theater. Their responses may reflect self-interest, but when asked if so many Lloyd Webber shows could siphon off audiences for other productions here, others at small and large venues alike also say no--at least publicly.

Listen to Diana Gibson, producing artistic director at Hollywood’s small Cast Theatre: “I’m for anything that’s going to get people in Los Angeles going to the theater. I figure some of them are eventually going to come see new American plays here at El Centro and Waring.”

Food and drink were on the table and cameras ready in the Wilshire Theatre lobby last month when actress Sarah Brightman arrived. Swathed in black leather pants and fringed jacket, the glamorous, young soprano took a seat alongside co-star Barrie Ingham to answer questions about the show, ex-husband Lloyd Webber and more. No, she demurred, he didn’t write “Aspects” for her--it was novelist David Garnett’s story, after all--but the music he wrote for character Rose Vibert was “obviously subliminally” affected by their being married at the time.

Brightman, who played Vibert on Broadway and London’s West End, is joining “Aspects’ ” national tour in Los Angeles and San Francisco. “I love doing the part,” she says. “There are so few parts like this written for women, and there was the timing in my schedule to do it.”

“Aspects” ran in London for more than three years, and on Broadway for nearly a year. Billed as “a chamber opera,” the musical spans 17 years and the assorted romantic and sexual liaisons among its five main characters.

This is a new production from Robin Phillips, director general of Edmonton, Alberta’s Citadel Theatre, where it had its world premiere in fall, 1991. Director Trevor Nunn’s massive sets and frequent scene changes have been scaled back, and the piece itself has been rewritten, re-orchestrated and re-choreographed.

“Aspects” is a far smaller show than Lloyd Webber fans are used to, and Brightman’s star power is clearly designed to lure more people during the show’s longer runs in California. The actress went to Hartford in mid-February for rehearsals, took a day off to promote the show here, then went on with the show to Houston to rehearse.

“We thought Sarah has a very high profile on the West Coast and would be very positive for the show at this time,” says Garth Drabinsky, whose Toronto-based Livent, Inc. is producing the “Aspects” tour. Or as executive Dobie puts it: “Los Angeles is a very important city, and we thought if Sarah was interested in doing it, we should move heaven and earth to make that happen.”

As anybody knows who has ever attended a Lloyd Webber show, these people know how to seize an opportunity. Or create one.

Dobie and colleagues are persistent suitors. “The Young and the Restless” star Michael Damian also took a little coaxing to play the title role in “Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat.”

First they convinced Damian to take a look at the Toronto production of the show, now touring Canada and some U.S. cities with Donny Osmond. Then they came up with a ploy so he wouldn’t have to abandon his role as Danny Romalotti on CBS’ long-running hit soap opera.

Why not have Damian’s character on “The Young and the Restless” get a Broadway show? asked Dobie. After all, he explained, it couldn’t hurt sales that the popular TV show plays to nearly 12 million people five days a week in the United States alone. Think of all those Danny Romalotti fans (among whom is Dobie’s 11-year-old daughter, Anna).

Damian has done “The Young and the Restless” since 1981, so when his rehearsal schedule demanded three weeks off, the show’s story line accommodated him. “What better way of explaining his absence than using the actual show?” asks “Young and Restless” creator and executive producer Bill Bell. “It certainly doesn’t hurt their show, and it gives us an excuse for the (disappearances).”

“Joseph” director Steven Pimlott appeared on “Young and Restless” a few weeks ago coaching Damian for his stage role. (Lloyd Webber was asked but reportedly declined because he didn’t feel comfortable as an actor.) Damian’s character Romalotti frequently sings, and the actor even sang a song from “Joseph” on the TV show.

There were plenty of young Damian fans shrieking out in the “Joseph” audience one recent evening, a reminder of the show’s start in 1968 as a school play. When he and lyricist Tim Rice stopped by the London Palladium production of “Joseph” one night, Lloyd Webber has aid, one of the children who sang in the show’s original children’s choir was there with her grandchild.

It’s certainly changed plenty, however, from the 20-minute children’s show Lloyd Webber composed when he was 20. With a top ticket price of $55, the Pantages version employs a singing camel, an Elvis-impersonating Pharaoh and four children’s choirs. More reminiscent of Las Vegas than ancient Egypt, the settings for this Bible story required 19 trucks to haul in revolving sets, stuffed sheep, smoke machines and more.

Marketing is a crucial part of the mix for every major theatrical production and Lloyd Webber’s company is among the best. One reason is that he has held onto the rights to his recent material. His company acquired rights to “Joseph” in 1989 and, he says, “Superstar” rights recently reverted back to him and co-creator Rice.

Even the popularity of amateur productions of his work has played into his hands. Consider, for instance, all the high school and community groups that have produced the show during the past 25 years. Music Theatre International, which is licensed to administer stock and amateur rights to “Joseph,” sent merchandise packets urging group sales to 2,000 such former “Joseph” producers in California and, Dobie says, response is “very high.”

Restrictions on amateur and stock productions, however, are very strict. Van Nuys High School, for instance, had hoped to do a production this spring of “Joseph,” says choral director Linda Blackwell, but were unable to get amateur rights because of the Pantages production of the show. “We held auditions and had a great cast,” Blackwell says, “assuming we could get the rights. But they said there was a professional production (in town) and to try a little later.”

Both “Aspects,” which is part of the Los Angeles Civic Light Opera season, and “Joseph” are at Nederlander theaters, and “Aspects” has its own ticket window at the Pantages. Fans were even buying tickets during the Lloyd Webber star ceremony. Nederlander corporate offices alternate playing CDs of the two scores, where Center Stage advertising executive vice-president Lorraine O’Brien quips that if callers aren’t sure what the shows are about “we put them on hold.”

A little cross-marketing couldn’t hurt. “Joseph” programs are being stuffed with “Aspects” inserts, while programs at the Ahmanson, Pantages and Wilshire theaters all note one another’s shows in Lloyd Webber’s biography. At the Ahmanson Theatre, “Joseph” brochures are displayed in the lobby and bar areas.

Will people who are thrilled by a falling chandelier, underground lake and opera ghost be equally interested in the hedonistic French lovers of “Aspects of Love”? Or the Old Testament tale of Joseph and his brothers? Many just have to hear that Lloyd Webber wrote the music, and they’ll line up for tickets.

Ask Lily Lee, a financial manager at Rockwell International who has seen “The Phantom of the Opera” 50 times already; her family total is 150 times. Naming one Lloyd Webber show after another and her plans to attend each of them, she says, “my calendar is filled.”

What about other promoters who get locked out? “It’s like anything else,” answers New York producer Freddie Gershon, who licenses the Tim Rice/Andrew Lloyd Webber shows. “It’s survival of the fittest. Andrew’s shows are out there because the tushies fill the seats and make money. People know they are going to have a good time.”

To Michael David, co-founder of New York’s Dodger Productions, Lloyd Webber’s long runs are both “an asset and a liability. It’s an asset because people go, it fills up theaters and gets the theater blood churning. (But) it’s a pragmatic nightmare for every show . . . and it’s not just Lloyd Webber. We have long sit-downs with ‘Guys and Dolls.’ It makes booking madness but is much healthier than the alternative. If you love the action, it’s the action.”

In 1982, Lloyd Webber was the first composer to have three musicals on Broadway and three in London at the same time; at one point in 1991, he actually had six shows running on the West End alone. Today there are four in London--excluding “Sunset Boulevard,” which opens June 29--and two in New York until “Joseph” arrives next fall.

Let’s talk money. “Cats” has already grossed $2 billion worldwide, says a spokesman, and is still playing on Broadway after 10 years. T. S. Eliot’s prose set to music has played so many places so often that David Letterman once asked, “What if ‘Cats’ really is now and forever?”

“Phantom” is no slouch either. That show opened to record Broadway advances, is still playing to near-capacity after five years, and does $7 million a week from six different U.S. and Canadian productions alone. The L.A. production heads next to San Francisco for an open-ended run, and local “Phantom” fans already talk of trips north to see the show once it closes here.

Millions of people have not only seen his shows--many of them several times--but bought enough T-shirts, mugs and other merchandise to fill several department stores. A Lloyd Webber spokesman says a “conservative” estimate for merchandise sales, excluding records, on all Lloyd Webber shows throughout the world is $20 million a year.

When Lloyd Webber took his Really Useful Group public in 1986, he told a BBC-TV reporter he wanted more time free for composing. He bought back the shares in late summer, 1991, to have more control over how often and how much he wrote, says a spokesman, obviating the need to produce more and more product to keep stock prices high.

That apparently leaves plenty of time for producing. The Really Useful Group bought back rights to “Joseph,” for instance, in April, 1989, for the British equivalent of nearly $2 million, and has apparently lost no time trying to recoup its investment.

“Joseph” is being produced by the Really Useful Group--which is now owned 70% by Lloyd Webber, 30% by Polygram N.V. The company just moved into expanded New York offices (appropriately, once the home of diamond cutters), which doubled their New York space, adding design and other facilities.

Although a spokesman says “Sunset Boulevard” will also be produced by Really Useful here and in London, deals on other Lloyd Webber shows vary widely. The composer has had assorted heavyweight partners on many productions in the United States--the Shubert Organization and others on “Cats,” producer Cameron Mackintosh on “Phantom” and Canada’s Livent on the “Aspects” production playing the Wilshire Theatre.

Lloyd Webber is not involved, for instance, with an “Evita” tour now playing 80 U.S. cities. Their tour wasn’t planned to take advantage of all the other Lloyd Webber fare, says general manager Robert Strauss, “but since Andrew Lloyd Webber’s is the most popular stuff around, no matter where you are you hit a Lloyd Webber festival. When we played in Montreal, there were three shows in the same time zone.”

Rights to “Jesus Christ Superstar” just reverted back to him and Tim Rice, Lloyd Webber said in a recent interview, disclosing that they plan to do their own version of the show next year as either a stage production or “big touring concert. I haven’t had a chance to get together with Tim about it since we have now established that we do have the rights but we can’t stop the current tour going around.”

“Superstar’s” current 50-city tour started last December in Baltimore, and lands at the 6,200-seat Universal Amphitheatre May 25 for at least one week. When the Amphitheatre was offered the show, they said “yes” fast, comments Larry Vallon, executive vice president of MCA Concerts. The show opened the Amphitheatre 20 years ago, with many of the same stars, and Michael Crawford’s “Music of Andrew Lloyd Webber” played there four sold-out nights in June, 1990.

More than 500,000 people saw “Superstar” at the Amphitheatre during its 12-week run in 1973, says Vallon, who reports calls from many of them. “We knew ‘Evita,’ ‘Aspects’ and ‘Joseph’ were already on the road, but it didn’t make a difference,” says Lee Marshal at Cleveland-based Magic Promotions, one of the “Superstar” tour’s producers. “We’ve been playing similar markets to ‘Evita’ since December and both shows are doing terrific business.”

Next comes “Sunset Boulevard.” Lloyd Webber and colleagues have already had casting sessions here, although no decision has been made as to who would play the Norma Desmond role that Patti LuPone will play first in London, then on Broadway. (At the Hollywood Walk of Fame ceremony, Ann Miller quipped that if anything happened to LuPone, “have eyelashes, will travel.”)

Lloyd Webber has repeatedly said he had wanted to premiere the show here rather than London, and would have done just that had the Shubert Theatre been ready for the show. Asked about it, Shubert chairman Gerald Schoenfeld would say only, “there will be an announcement in due course regarding the season,” deferring all further comment to the composer.

“There’s been a problem with that theater for a long time (concerning) the mezzanine,” Lloyd Webber responds. “We’re bringing it forward. And I think it’ll be a wonderful theater when it’s finished.”

Who’s paying for all this? The Shubert Organization, Lloyd Webber says. “They wanted the show that much. But they knew they had to do something anyway, and I made a couple of suggestions to them about what I felt having had several shows in that theater.”

Meanwhile, Really Useful Group executive Dobie is spending more and more time in Los Angeles. He expects a full-time production office here eventually, given both “Sunset Boulevard’s” anticipated open-ended run and Lloyd Webber’s film interests.

While only “Superstar” has made it to the screen so far, nearly all of Lloyd Webber’s shows are in some stage of development at one studio or another. “Aspects” looks closest to happening, and Lloyd Webber has said that if “Sunset Boulevard” opens on time, he hopes to start filming “Aspects” in spring, 1994. The composer had first thought of “Aspects” as a film and reportedly played a bit of it for Steven Spielberg before deciding to go his more traditional route.

Producers are coy as to exactly how long their shows will play Los Angeles, but some can be extended on the spot, others opened to further sales if box office is good, and others can “bounce back” after tour commitments are met for other cities. “Joseph” tickets were just extended until May 16, and could be extended until July, producers say.

Meanwhile, Brightman talks of a possible retrospective album with Lloyd Webber. When he was in town in late February, Lloyd Webber also met with Barbra Streisand who was recording two songs from “Sunset” for her new album.

Brightman said at a press conference here in February that she expects to reopen her U.S. concert tour of Lloyd Webber’s music: “Definitely. I’ve been talking about putting a tour together at the end of this year or early next year and want to go to the major U.S. cities. Los Angeles would be one of them.”

Asked if he’d booked Brightman yet, Amphitheatre executive Vallon said no, paused, then added, “It’s not a bad idea though.”

Merchandise

They sell $20 million a year of Andrew Lloyd Webber merchandise. You saw the show, bought the record, but there’s more. . .

* No pearls: Your basic black baseball cap with “Joseph” logo is an L.A.-fashion must, $10.

* Mask It: Save time and money on makeup (you only have half the work) with form-fitting plastic “Phantom” mask, $13.

* Hippie Alert: Get your “Jesus Christ Superstar” T-shirt in glorious red-and-yellow tie-dye, $25.

* Clockwork: Eat your heart out Swatch, another basic black item from “Joseph,” $35.

* Where Else But: For the complete “Joseph” accessorizing, a multicolor fanny pack from “Joseph,” $10.

* Coffee Mug: Couldn’t we at least have a double espresso cup with a “Joseph” logo on it? $10 (And it doesn’t even light up like the “Phantom” mug.)