The Day I Spent With Andrew Lloyd Webber

Day before yesterday, God and I spent the afternoon listening to the music of Andrew Lloyd Webber. Our heart was warmed and a satisfying smile formed in my life.

The University of Oklahoma presented a special program for nearly three hours featuring the music of this master musician. It was a production involving an orchestra of more than fifty instruments, together with the featured performances of nearly as many singers and dancers. The performance was primarily by students, and some faculty, of the University. In the wings, there was a chorus made up of other university students, and adults and children from the community. This chorus consisted of about one hundred twenty voices.

The University of Oklahoma is known well for its athletics, primarily football. I am sure there are people who think of little else when they think of its present stature or its storied past. But, there is a lot more to the University than sports. It is a leading institution when it comes to theater and musical theater.

The talent showcased in this performance was outstanding. I have been fortunate to attend musical theater both locally, as performed by travelling professional groups, and in other places where only a professional performance would be accepted. The Kennedy Center in Washington D.C. can hardly allow anything other than top quality performers and performances. And, Broadway in New York City is the embodiment of excellence. While performances I have experienced in those venues have set the bar for excellence, this performance at the University met the challenge with no apologies or reservations. The orchestra was equal to anything experienced at the Kennedy Center. And, the singers and dancers were just as talented as what I have witnessed on Broadway.

The arts fuel the soul and spirit of humankind. We argue for the humanities because we want people to be grounded with a common knowledge, from there they can go on to their own area of interest and expertise. To be knowledgeable of the law and know its application is not nearly so effective if the practitioner is unaware of what made civilized humankind civilized. To know medicine and its application is not nearly so effective if the practitioner is unaware of what made civilized humankind civilized. Efforts today to eliminate or reduce public spending on the arts is a foolhardy exercise leading to the slow death of a civil society, much like attempting suicide by cutting your arm off one inch at a time. Without public funding there would be no Sistine Chapel, no Taj Mahal, and even no Mount Rushmore. In fact, most of the great art of Western Civilization was funded by public and quasi-public funds.

This is one of the reasons there is such joy taken when a public university undertakes to provide a first-class performance in the arts.

I have watched and listened to the works of Andrew Lloyd Webber for years. For much of what I listened to, I thought very little about who wrote it. It was when I heard the music from the Phantom of the Opera that the man who wrote it was as important as what he had written. And then I saw selections done on television. And then I saw a live production on stage in Tulsa. And then I watched it again on Broadway in New York City.

I was caused to contemplate the genius of the creative mind. He had nothing but a blank piece of paper and a pen. He had the basic idea of a story from a novel by French writer Gaston Leroux, but little else. When completed, there was a story with music. There were lyrics to songs and a musical score. It was a captivating story with music which could cross into the popular genre of the time. And not just that time, but it would be relevant for all time. This is the test for a truly successful musical, its music moves comfortably into the pop music culture, lending its songs to a popular contemporary audience.

Can there be a greater song than Think of Me? Can there be a more celebrated character than The Phantom? Can we love anyone more than we love Christine?

The performance at the University lasted nearly three hours. I have trouble sitting for long periods of time. At the intermission, I noticed that there was an empty seat next to my daughter. We traded seats and I was able to stretch my legs into the vacant area next to me. I leaned back, stretched out my legs, and enjoyed “the music of the night.”

Thank you, University of Oklahoma, for making this day possible. It was the day I spent with Andrew Lloyd Webber.