Friday, April 25, 2008

Andrew Lloyd-Webber & American Idol

The Rt. Hon. The Lord Lloyd-Webber (aka Andrew Lloyd-Webber)was special guest and mentor on American Idol this week. It was surprising to me that this brilliant and highly acclaimed composer of musical theatre seems to be very uncomfortable, when before a live audience himself. On Wednesday's results show, when he appeared on stage with Ryan Seacrest he was visibly nervous and twitchy, I even began to feel uncomfortable on his behalf!

I was surprised to see that Lord Lloyd-Webber was born on the same day (not year) as my husband. Even their natal Moons, ascendants, Mercury and Venus are in the same signs.

"What went wrong, sweetie? Why aren't you a musical genius and billionaire?"

"Huh?"

"Never mind."


Music has always been my husbands first love (not counting me). That's the link.

This discomfort when in the spotlight - where is it to be found in Lord Lloyd-Webber's chart? Born 22 March 1948 in London, UK. According to Astrotheme he was born at 4pm.


Leo is the rising sign. Leo is supposed to love the spotlight. Perhaps the cluster of planets in 12th house is to blame - planetary emphasis on a house thought of as a hidden and secret place, "the backroom".

Natal Sun (self) is in 8th house. So is my own natal Sun, and I don't like the spotlight - not that I've ever been in it! I do dislike the feeling of a group of people looking at me though, but I'm usually able to hide that feeling. The 8th house is related to Pluto and Scorpio. Both have links to secrets, darkness and the occult, so disliking the intense glare of spotlight may somehow be linked to this.

The three 12th house planets, Mars/Saturn/Pluto are all considered to be hard taskmasters, and known as 'malefics' in traditional astrology. These three nasties are square (challenging) to Venus. Venus though is strong, at home in Taurus and conjunct North Node right at midheaven. Midheaven represents the public stage, Venus conjunct North Node almost certainly represents Lloyd-Webber's music (Venus is planet of the arts). The three nasties challenging Venus haven't impeded musical genius, but they might well be helping to cast a shadow on this person's ability to shine on stage, in person. His true genius is wrought behind the scenes.

Anyway, Lord Lloyd-Webber was kindly and helpful to the six remaining contestants, and gracious about their talent. If he winced at what they did to his music he didn't show it - or did he? Perhaps I mis-interpreted the reason for his apparent discomfort!(wink)

Here's David Cook's rendition, on Tuesday's show, of "Music of the Night" from Phantom of the Opera. (More about David HERE). He seems to be leading the Idol pack at the moment. There's a glimpse of Lord Andrew in the video too, but in more composed mode, because he wasn't in front of a large audience at the time.




2 comments:

anthonynorth said...

Lloyd-Webber has been practicing with his series of series finding leading roles for musicals on BBC. Now into his 3rd series - I'd Do Anything, finding a new Oliver and Nancy - I've noticed he's been slowly becoming more comfortable as scriptwriters find cheesy jokes for him :-)
Now I know, by the way, why he was in America, and participated via satellite, last week.

Twilight said...

Hello there AN!

Interesting.

I wonder if a series similar to the one you mention in the UK might be planned here.
The straightforward Idol series here is getting a wee bit stale.
Of course a show about stage musicals wouldn't appeal to the same audience as Idol, and wouldn't generate the same vast amount of $$$ from phone-in voting - so - probably not.