Andrew Lloyd Webber says he’s by no means seen a ghost — however briefly as soon as lived with one.
The famend composer not too long ago sat down with The Telegraph and, as co-creator of “The Phantom of the Opera,” was naturally requested if any of the theaters he owns are haunted. Webber denied as a lot, earlier than making an intriguing declare about his house in London.
“I did have a house in Eaton Square which had a poltergeist,” he instructed the outlet in an interview Tuesday. “It would do things like take theatre scripts and put them in a neat pile in some obscure room. In the end we had to get a priest to come and bless it, and it left.”
This purportedly organized ghost starkly contrasts a conventional poltergeist, which stay unproven however are nonetheless identified for his or her mischief, violence and noise. The time period itself interprets immediately from German to “rapping” or “thudding” ghost.
Webber’s house is notably located in Belgravia, a central neighborhood developed within the nineteenth century by Marquess of Westminster, Robert Grosvenor. From these noble roots sprang among the finest colleges and costliest properties on the planet.
While Webber has but to come across a ghost immediately, a few of his well-known friends have claimed to. Sir Patrick Stewart alleged in 2009 that he witnessed an apparition whereas performing “Waiting for Godot” with Sir Ian McKellen onstage in central London.
“I have been witnessing stuff since I was 12 years old,” Stewart not too long ago instructed USA Today. “And it has stayed with me throughout my life. I have sometimes quite intense feelings and nighttime experiences and occasionally I witness things.”
“Why would I invent it? Because I always feel slightly foolish when I talk about this.”
And Webber isn’t the primary of his crew to be baffled by the unseen. Even Sir Cameron Mackintosh, who produced “Phantom,” not too long ago admitted to feeling one thing unusual at a close-by theater.
“On the opening night of ‘Miss Saigon’ in 1989 … I walked onto the vast stage and stood with [designer] John Napier,” he instructed The Telegraph. “As we gazed into the beautiful empty auditorium, we felt a chill and heard some slight sounds above our heads in the grid.”
“In less than a minute, it was gone, but we both felt some presence,” he continued. “Later the theatre’s old manager George Hoare told me: ‘That was the Man in Grey. He always turns up if you’re going to have a big hit!’”
Webber’s neighborhood, in the meantime, has some moderately historic ghosts to select from.
Past residents of Eaton Square embody former prime minister Neville Chamberlain, his overseas secretary Lord Halifax and actor Vivien Leigh. Perhaps it was certainly one of them who nightly tended to Webber’s papers — though a housekeeper actually makes extra sense.
