As Andrew Lloyd Webber strolls down West 51st Street to the Winter Garden Theatre — where his delightful new musical “School of Rock” opens Sunday night — he passes by another theater, the Mark Hellinger, where his Broadway career began 44 years ago.
He’s been meaning to pop into the gorgeous art deco theater, which has been home to the Times Square Church since 1991, but can’t quite do so yet.
“It would bring a lot of memories,” he says.
And not all them pleasant.
“Jesus Christ Superstar,” which Lloyd Webber wrote with Tim Rice, opened at the Hellinger in 1971. The production — staged by Tom O’Horgan, then the hot director of “Hair” — wasn’t a happy experience.
“I really hated it,” Lloyd Webber says. “It was vulgar. The opening night was really rather miserable, one of the worst nights of my life. But I was only 23. I was just a very unhappy kid at the back of the theater.”
The musical, which was developed from the chart-busting rock album that made overnight songwriting stars of Lloyd Webber and Rice, opened to mixed reviews and managed to run for a year and half. But it taught the young composer an important lesson: Control your show.
Lloyd Webber would go on to become the most successful composer in theater history — “Evita,” “Cats,” “The Phantom of the Opera” — as well as an entertainment mogul. He produced all of his shows but “Evita” after “Jesus Christ Superstar,” owns several theaters in London and created (and appeared as the top judge on) several hugely popular talent shows for the BBC.
“In a way, I do think you can trace the seeds of my wanting to be a producer back to the unhappy experience of ‘Superstar,’ ” he says.
“And of course the sad part of it all was I could have had Hal Prince as the director. He sent me a telegram saying he wanted to do ‘Superstar,’ but it somehow ended up with my parents, and I didn’t see it until much later.”
(Prince would go on to do just fine by Lloyd Webber with two other shows — “Evita” and “Phantom.”)
“School of Rock,” which has a script by “Downton Abbey” creator Julian Fellowes, is, in some ways, a throwback to “Superstar.”
The score is real rock ’n’ roll, with nary a trace of the lush, romantic ballads of “Phantom” or “Aspects of Love.”
Lloyd Webber also likens it to his first show, “Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat,” which was originally written to be performed in high schools.
He took the unusual step of releasing the rights to high-school productions of “School of Rock” before the show opens.
Already, 146 high schools throughout America have put in bids.
“Of course that may all dry up after Sunday night,” he adds. “Who knows? Our fate is now in the laps of the gods. But so far, so good.”
Lloyd Webber says he’ll nip into the Hellinger before he heads back to London.
“I hear the church has done a very good job of keeping it up, so I really must have a look.”
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Two of my favorite comedians — Rob Bartlett and Tony Powell of the “Imus in the Morning” program — are taking their act on the road. Their “Christmas Spectacular Show” (minus the Rockettes, though they both have legs) plays Sunday night at the Levity Live Comedy Club in West Nyack, NY, and Dec. 12 at the Bellmore Theater in Bellmore, Long Island.