Cricket (Musical)

Cricket is a musical from 1986. It is so far the last work, on which Andrew Lloyd Webber and Tim Rice were involved. At the same time it is their shortest musical with less than half an hour playing time.

Cricket was written on the occasion of the 60th birthday of Queen Elizabeth II. So then it was also on 18 June 1986 its world premiere in front of the royal family at Windsor Castle. Directed by Trevor Nunn, Tim Rice himself took a part. Since then, the piece took only two more performances, both in 1986 in a closed society.

Cricket is about the love affair between the aristocratic Emma and the cricket player Donald. Tim Rice took the opportunity to put his eponymous favorite sport a monument. Just as in chess, he tried it, the sport attach a metaphorical meaning, and so in the course of game show parallels to life and love of the main characters.

As is typical for Andrew Lloyd Webber, he has the music of cricket since then recycled in its larger productions, especially in the two subsequent musical Aspects of Love and Sunset Boulevard.