Cynical? Definitely.
I am surely not alone in thinking that Andrew Lloyd Webber’s offer of free tickets for the investment bankers who lost their jobs in the collapse of Lehman Brothers is a cynical headline grabbing ploy. The Noble Lord has shown himself adept at grasping every opportunity for news exposure at little or no cost to him (or even, in the case of the BBC TV reality shows, at the expense of the TV licence payers).
“Both The Sound of Music and Joseph are feel good shows,” he said, “ and I thought that free tickets might offer some respite, albeit for a couple of hours, for some of those people who have sadly lost their jobs in the current economic upheaval. All you have to do is present your P45 as proof at the box office and two free tickets are yours.”
No doubt someone will correct me if I’m wrong, but ALW, his shows and his theatres have been around a long time, and at times when unemployment has been much higher than now, but I don’t remember him offering free tickets to miners, factory workers or anyone in similar occupations who lost their jobs.
I rather think the Noble Lord would be doing the public a much greater service (and getting better PR) if, like Cameron Mackintosh, he decided to invest in improving the theatres he owns for the benefit of those who pay for tickets for his shows, but that wouldn’t attract the headlines. Instead he stands up in the House of Lords and asks for money from the public purse.
No one can deny what Lloyd Webber did for the British musical way back when. With his various collaborators (and especially Tim Rice) he pushed the genre in a whole new direction, but now it appears to be more about the man than the work.