Andrew Lloyd Webber is bringing his Tony-award winning musicals to the masses with a YouTube channel that streams West End favourites straight into your living room every Friday.
The Shows Must Go On! is the title of Lloyd Webber's new YouTube channel that brings the theatre to your home every Friday at 7pm (GMT) with a stream of one of the composer's much-loved musicals. Lloyd Webber is famous for musicals such as Cats, Evita and Phantom of the Opera and fans will get a chance to experience them in a more intimate setting while the coronavirus pandemic keeps people indoors. The musicals will be available to view for a period of 48 hours, giving people at home the entire weekend to find a time slot that suits them.
The YouTube channel launched on Friday, 4 April with a showing of Joseph and the Amazing Technicolour Dreamcoat, the 2000 production starring Donny Osmond, Richard Attenborough and Joan Collins. Up next is a recent production of Jesus Christ Superstar starring Melanie C, Tim Minchin and Chris Moyles on Friday, 10 April.
Read more: Fill your evenings with free Shakespeare, opera and ballet via this streaming service
There's no word yet if the hairball musical Cats is on the menu but with the coronavirus turning life upside down, now might be the time to view it in a whole new light. Details on upcoming shows will be released as the weeks progress, though Lloyd Webber did suggest that he might even stream one of his biggest flops. "Sometime, buried in the schedule later on, the most important one, my disaster musical By Jeeves. I’m very, very fond of it and so will you be," he said in a YouTube statement.
While the musicals will be available to stream for free, viewers are encouraged to make donations to charities supporting the arts, including Acting for Others, Broadway Cares/Equity Fights AIDS and Actors Benevolent Fund.
