Andrew Lloyd Webber leaps to defence of musicals after playwright Sir David Hare claims they are ‘killing’ traditional theatre

He is the undisputed king of West End musicals.

So, it is no surprise that Lord Andrew Lloyd Webber leapt to defend the genre after playwright Sir David Hare claimed they are ‘killing’ traditional theatre.

Sir David, whose works include Plenty and Skylight, lamented the ‘squatting’ of musicals at theatres such as the Royal Court and Wyndham’s which were once home to ‘straight plays’.

‘I felt the same dismay this week passing Wyndham’s, by far the most perfect playhouse in London for the spoken word,’ he wrote in his column for the Spectator.

‘Squatting there was yet another musical, the one the profession nicknames Wokelahoma.

The undisputed king of West End musicals Lord Andrew Lloyd Webber leapt to defend the genre after playwright Sir David Hare claimed they are ‘killing’ traditional theatre

Sir David, whose works include Plenty and Skylight, lamented the ‘squatting’ of musicals at theatres such as the Royal Court and Wyndham’s which were once home to ‘straight plays’

‘Musicals have become the leylandii of theatre, strangling everything in their path. It’s a crushing defeat to see Wyndham’s without a straight play.’ Theatre impresario Lord Lloyd Webber accused Sir David, both 75, of being critical in a bid to ‘bury’ his own 1987 musical ‘disaster’, The Knife.

‘David Hare is responsible for one of the greatest musical disasters in history,’ he told the Times. ‘[He] is probably saying this because he mainly wants to bury his own contribution to musical theatre.’ The Oscar-winning composer is behind Phantom of the Opera, Cats, Aspects of Love and Cinderella, which recently transferred to Broadway under the new title Bad Cinderella.

Nica Burns, who co-owns and runs a number of theatres in the West End, said there is ‘always a large audience for light entertainment of different kinds’.

Speaking to the Times she said Sir David’s concerns are ‘completely valid but I think there’s a lot of hope about play writing and Britain has great writers. There’s a fantastic generation of new playwrights coming through’.

Lord Lloyd Webber was forced to miss this month’s preview of Bad Cinderella after revealing his son Nicholas is ‘critically ill’ with gastric cancer.

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