Table of Contents
Prologue xi
Overture and Beginners 3
1 Perseus & Co. 7
2 Some Enchanted Ruin 12
3 Auntie Vi 24
4 A Whiter Shade of Something That Didn't Taste Very Nice in the First Place 36
5 "Mr Lloyd Webber, Do You Like Cats?" 49
6 Enter Timothy Miles Bindon Rice 57
7 Teenage Operas, Pop Cantatas 70
8 Elvis with Mellotron and Tambourines 83
9 Any Dream Won't Do 94
10 "Did Judas Iscariot Have God on His Side?" 107
11 Love Changes Everything, But … 121
12 JCS Meets RSO 137
13 Jesus Goes to Broadway 153
14 A Bad Case of the Edward Woodwards 164
15 Suddenly There's a Valet 174
16 Syd 187
17 Driverless Juggernauts Hurtling Down a Hill 198
18 Eva and Juan 208
19 The Long Hot Summer and the Sound of a Paraguayan Harp 221
20 The Song that Cleared the Dance Floors 237
21 Imogen and Niccolò 247
22 Variations 256
23 Really Useful 271
24 Tell Me on a Sunday 283
25 "This Artfully Produced Monument to Human Indecency" 297
26 Shaddap and Take That Look Off Your Face 300
27 Mr Mackintosh 305
28 "All the Characters Must Be Cats" 314
29 Growltiger's Last Stand 332
30 Body Stockings, Leg Warmers and Meat Cleavers 350
31 Song and Dance, and Sleep 368
32 "The Most Obnoxious Form of 'Music' Ever Invented" 383
33 Miss Sarah Brightman 398
34 "Brrrohahaha!!!" 416
35 Requiem 429
36 Epiphany 436
37 "Big Change from Book" 445
38 Year of the Phantom 455
39 In Another Part of the West End Forest… 464
40 Mr Crawford 469
41 "Let Your Soul Take You Where You Want to Be!" 477
Playout Music 483
Epilogue 489
Acknowledgments 491
Appendix 493
Index 503