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The Beautiful Game (musical)
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
| The Beautiful Game | |
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| Logo | |
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| Music | Andrew Lloyd Webber |
| Lyrics | Ben Elton |
| Book | Andrew Lloyd Webber Ben Elton |
| Productions | 2000 West End |
- "The Beautiful Game" is also a term used to describe the sport of football.
The Beautiful Game is a musical by Andrew Lloyd Webber and Ben Elton about a group of teenagers growing up amid religious intolerance in Belfast, Northern Ireland in 1969.
The title of the musical is taken from Pelé's autobiography My Life and the Beautiful Game. The musical opened September 26, 2000 at the Cambridge Theatre in London and closed September 1, 2001, after a total run of slightly more than 11 months. The show never made a transfer to Broadway.
The plot, which is centered on a local football (soccer) team, focuses on the attempt to overcome religious intolerance and violence that has engulfed their community. The team is made up of Catholic and Protestant youths and the coach is a priest. The musical chronicles the ups and downs of the team players as the emerging political and religious violence overwhelms them. Some of the players become members of the IRA, one gets kneecapped.
The musical also chronicles the emotional change in the lead protagonist from political ambivalence to becoming an IRA terrorist. Highlights of the play include the dual singing of "God's Own Country" by two females, one Catholic, one Protestant; the rain-drenched funeral; the football match; the transformation of the football net into a prison.
The most successful song from the score was "Our Kind of Love."
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- Shonagh Daly performed Let Us Love In Peace as the closing song at the memorial service for families of the September 11 attacks in October 2001[1]
- A selection of songs from the musical were performed for President George W. Bush and Tony Blair at a reception in Washington on 18 January 2001[2]
- Best Musical Award in the Critics' Circle Theatre Awards 2000
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- ^ Music and prayer at Ground Zero from BBC News, Monday 29 October 2001
- ^ The Beautiful Game facts and figures from ReallyUseful.com, Andrew Lloyd Webber's production company