The music of Andrew Lloyd Webber is like the soundtrack of our lives. The songs are everywhere, permeating our thoughts, and whether it is the ubiquitous “Music of the Night” or “Memory,” you likely find yourself humming one of his tunes without even thinking about it. Whoever you are, you will find something you love in “Unmasked–The Music of Andrew Lloyd Webber,” now at Paper Mill Playhouse. Suffer no illusions that this monumental work takes itself over-seriously. Lord Andrew is with us via the wonder of video and it feels like he can actually see us, as he hopes we enjoy our newly renovated seats at Paper Mill! I wasn’t certain whether to be impressed or a little bit nervous! Tongue firmly planted in cheek, we’re off to the races with the brilliant cast doing a medley of Lloyd Webber’s career in a mere four minutes! Ragingly clever and challenging even the most razor-sharp, the work is co-written with Richard Curtis who is also among the myriad of contributing lyricists. Inspiration comes from everywhere and love, well, it changes everything!
The talented cast includes a dozen triple threats–singers, actors, dancers–who enliven the songs interspersed with terse and pithy commentary from a screen that sometimes obscures the pit orchestra, who is now the very visible orchestra! So visible, in fact, that one of the members crosses over! But I’m getting ahead of myself.
Each of the players is featured in his or her specialty and, while they sometimes sing, Dave Schoonover and Angel Lozada are mostly dancing enough for an entire company of dancers! They are Argentine, they are Apache dancers, they are muscle, they are romance–giving extra spice and import to the moments, and what moments! Whether it’s Bronson Norris Murphy in the modal and melancholy “Close Every Door,” from “Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat,” or where he finally gets to give us his Phantom of the Opera, to Mamie Parris’s Evita with her many moods. There’s Mauricio Martinez’s “Gethsemane,” from “Jesus Christ Superstar,” contrasted with his “Rum Tum Tugger,” from “Cats,” super-louche and sexy, to Nicholas Edwards’ “Superstar,” with the Company. Special favorites for me include Mamie’s portion of “Memory.” I blush to admit that I have never (what, NEVER?) seen “Cats,” so I never heard the song in situ. When I heard and felt the emotion invested, my knees got weak. And Alex Finke’s “Pie Jesu” has such purity to the tone that you feel angels weep, with the hushed lightly voiced chorus toward the end. Rema Webb’s star turn, in the “Sunset Boulevard” arc, is delicious and Jeremy Landon Hays is full of plosives in his salted caramel “Sunset Boulevard” title song, spitting lyrics like epithets in the bitter disillusion and reality bites they display: truly a boulevard of broken dreams.
Andrew Kober was pure delight as the bookish foil in December’s “Cinderella”. Here, his T.S. Eliot displays his humor,, but when he sings “Skimbleshanks.” he is truly in his element. Amy Justman shines in her introspective “I Don’t Know How to Love Him,” giving us the luminous soul inside that few would dare to seek in Magdalene.
The trios and the duos are also very rich–Nicholas, Mauricio, and Amy in “Everything’s All Right” is a series of triangulation and Judas seems jealous of both Jesus and Magdalene … or is it that I see rainbows in everything? Truly though, when Marta Bagratuni comes down from the orchestral ether to play her cello center stage, first on “Variation 23” from “Variations,” Schoonover and Lozada become her voodoo dancers as they gyre and gimble in her wabe. They are under her spell–beware the Jabberwock! And when they lift her, well you’ll just need to experience that for yourself. Following that up with Alyssa Gianetti’s rendition of “Unexpected Song (Tell Me On A Sunday),” from “Song and Dance,” it is truly an experience to remember.
While at times, it feels like we’re in the middle of a prank by a very precocious teen, the way the music is shaken AND stirred, this is truly Lloyd Webber as you’ve not seen and heard before, with soupçons and dollops of surprise. Go now, as it’s clearly headed for more.
This show is only running through March 1, so make your Sadie Hawkins Day Valentine an awesome gift. Love changes everything… Visit www.papermill.org NOW for the best seats!