Move over Elaine Paige. Andrew Lloyd Webber, Trevor Nunn and actors Robert Lindsay, Nigel Harman and Cherie Lunghi were among guests at the opening of the Andrew Lloyd Webber Foundation Theatre last night at Chiswick performing arts school, ArtsEd. When the curtain went up for the theatre’s opening performance of Evita, the students performing could hardly have imagined it ending with the show’s composer — pictured with Mollie Melia-Redgrave, who played the title role — declaring it “the best-sung Eva Peron I’ve ever heard”.
The evening held a special significance for the Archbishop of Canterbury’s new best friend Clare Balding.
“I saw Evita on my seventh birthday. It was the first time I’d ever been to London, so it’s huge to be here tonight.”
