“There still is a sort of feeling that we’re sending children down the mines,” Andrew Lloyd Webber said as he launched the UK transfer of his new musical, which requires three rotating casts of performers between the ages of 9 and 13.
On Broadway, Lord Lloyd-Webber’s musical School of Rock uses one cast of children plus understudies. Child labour laws in the UK mean he needs three complete casts, which comes to 39 children.
“I did feel we would find it much more difficult to find the kids than we did,” he said. “I originally planned to open next Easter and it was in June that Laurence [Connor], our director, called me and said we’re getting a lot further ahead with the auditions, come and listen.”
There were so many talented children who auditioned after a nationwide callout that Lloyd Webber could have easily created five casts, he said.
The composer was launching the London production of School of Rock: the Musical, due to open at the New London theatre in November. Lloyd Webber spent seven years attempting to acquire the rights of the film, which stars Jack Black, in order to make a stage version.
The musical’s book is by his friend Julian Fellowes – like Lloyd Webber a peer of the realm. The two men admitted the collaboration was hatched in the House of Lords, waiting for a vote. “I would have thought after Downton this was a natural thing,” said Lord Fellowes.
School of Rock opened at the Winter Garden theatre in New York last November, where it continues its run. Lloyd Webber said he had deliberately chosen large theatres in New York and London for the show because he wanted to attract new audiences through low-price ticket schemes. In the West End there will be a “student rush” scheme, with best seats for £10 made available on Wednesdays, an hour before curtain.
The UK version will star David Fynn, a British actor who starred in the US sitcom Undateable, as the slacker teacher who turns a class of straight-A students into a loud, raucous and talented rock band. Fynn said he had no problem ignoring the adage to avoid working with children. “I’m the most childish person you’ll ever meet and when I was an out-of-work actor I worked in schools – so I’ve been looking forward to working with kids again.”
Fellowes said the show’s message was a simple one. “That music is the only real lingua franca, the only true international language that can cross every boundary of nationality, religion, politics, class,” he said.
