Who’s in Charge Here?

It may not be as great a coincidence as the death of John Adams and Thomas Jefferson on the same day — July 4, 1826, which was also, incredibly enough, the 50th anniversary of their signing the Declaration of Independence. Still, it’s pretty interesting that the two titans of the musical theater during the past 30 years — each of whom came from a very difference place, both literally or figuratively — were both born on March 22.

Granted, native New Yorker Stephen Sondheim, who arrived in 1930, had an 18-year-head start on Londoner Andrew Lloyd Webber. But both really came into their own during the same decade, the ’70s. How well I remember the night when I fully realized that Stephen Sondheim was the new king of musical theater. It was Saturday, January 20, 1973, when I went to the Colonial Theatre to see the first preview of A Little Night Music. A little less than three years earlier, I’d been to the Shubert to see Sondheim’s Company; and, a year later, I saw his Follies at the Colonial. But this Saturday night was something different. In the lobby, I ran into Richard, then Bill, then John, then Ed, then Lou, then Jimmy, then James, then Salvi. Indeed, every Bostonian I knew who had an interest in musical theater was there that night. None of us could wait to see the new Stephen Sondheim musical. And really, if you’d been there to see the innovations of Company and Follies, I’ll bet you would have felt the same.

On February 26, 1973, the New York reviews for A Little Night Music were better than the ones that Sondheim’s two previous shows had received. Is it actually a better musical than either of those? Probably not, but critics had finally caught up with what Sondheim was about. He soon was on the cover of Newsweek, had the first (but certainly not the last) all-star tribute to him (at the New York Shubert, where Night Music was ensconced), and would be announced as the winner in the Tony race for best music and lyrics for the third consecutive year. Now it was official: Stephen Sondheim, having a wonderful mid-life artistic breakthrough, was the reigning king of musical theater.

Meanwhile, Andrew Lloyd Webber was at the beginning of a career that would become legendary. Granted, Jesus Christ Superstar was winding down what would be almost a two-year-run on Broadway; but it was still an SRO attraction in London, where it would eventually set the all-time West End performance record. That record would in turn be eclipsed by Lloyd Webber’s own Cats, and that record may yet be surpassed by Lloyd Webber’s own Phantom of the Opera. The theatergoing public, if not the critics, might well have claimed that Lloyd Webber rather than Sondheim was the reigning king of musical theater during the past three decades.

Fine. Take your pick. But here’s the real question: Who’s the reigning king of musical theater right now? I’m waiting. Perhaps it’s still Sondheim, but times have been hard for him over the past 10 years. Sure, Passion won a Tony, but it also had the shortest run of any Best Musical winner — and, tell the truth, how often do you listen to the cast album? Then there was Wise Guys, which apparently didn’t work, and its rewritten incarnation Bounce, which apparently didn’t work, either. (No fair mentioning Sondheim’s other ’90s flop, Getting Away With Murder, for that 17-performance show wasn’t a musical.)

Paul Salsini, who founded The Sondheim Review, recently called to tell me that he was resigning as editor in chief and that circulation for the magazine was way, way down. Actually, that makes sense to me. Those who are too young to have witnessed first-hand the excitement of Sondheim’s landmark shows can’t be expected to appreciate them fully through original cast recordings. When it comes to theater, you gotta be there.

Meanwhile, the last decade hasn’t been a triumph for Lloyd Webber, either. True, Sunset Boulevard managed an almost 1,000-performance run. But considering that long runs have been getting longer, most of us wouldn’t have predicted when the show was in previews that the sun would set on Sunset as quickly as it did. Then the next Lloyd Webber show, Whistle Down the Wind, closed in Washington (in a production staged by Harold Prince, who recently suffered the same ignominious fate in the nation’s capital with Sondheim’s Bounce).

Yes, Whistle was reworked for London where it cracked the 1,000-performance mark, but it offered nothing particularly memorable. The average person can hum or even sing word-for-word songs from Lloyd Webber’s other hits but may be hard pressed to name a song from Whistle Down the Wind. That’s also true of Lloyd Webber’s next show, The Beautiful Game, which didn’t quite make it to the one-year mark. (Quick! Tell me the title of the opening number.) And let’s not forget that By Jeeves also failed to set the world on fire.

All right: For all we know, Lloyd Webber’s next show, The Woman in White, will be his masterpiece and will re-establish him as musical theater’s reigning king. But as for now, we can all be pardoned if we don’t want to award the title to Lord Andrew. He’s 56 now, and one has to remember what Sondheim said in that famous New York Times magazine article of four years ago: “It is my observation that Broadway composers past the age of 50 never turned out anything good.” This was said by a man who’s now turning 74.

So, who’s in charge here? A convincing argument can be made that we don’t have a reigning king of musical theater. But we still have these two men, each of whom could add the word “emeritus” after their names. Lord knows, we’re in their debt for all they’ve given the musical theater, but few could be chided for suggesting that their day has passed.

Needless to say, it’s too early to coronate Jason Robert Brown, Michael John La Chiusa, Ricky Ian Gordon, or any other three-named wunderkind for none has found general acceptance among critics or audiences. Ahrens and Flaherty are wonderful, and so is William Finn; but they haven’t yet had even one blockbuster hit, and they’ve been around for 20 years or more. Maybe we’ll eventually hand over the crown to Andrew Lippa or Adam Guettel, but I suspect that either of these guys would feel embarrassed to accept it now even if it were offered.

So, all of you budding composers and lyricists out there, start working! The crown is there to be claimed, and more I cannot wish you than that you make it yours.

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[To contact Peter Filichia directly, e-mail him at pfilichia@aol.com]