The 'Phantom of the Opera' composer remembers reaching out to a church to help him drive away a mischievous spirit from his 19th century home in London.
- Jan 4, 2024
AceShowbiz - Andrew Lloyd Webber was forced to call a priest to get a poltergeist out of his home. The "Phantom of the Opera" composer revealed he enlisted the help of the church to rid his 19th century home in Belgravia, central London, of a mischievous spirit that delighted in arranging piles of paper in different areas of the house.
He said he hadn't when asked if he had seen a ghost at any of the theatres he owns, but told the Daily Telegraph newspaper, "I did have a house in Eaton Square which had a poltergeist. 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."
While the 75-year-old musical theatre guru has never seen a ghost on stage, his sometime collaborator, Cameron Mackintosh, recalled a "mysterious" presence he once experienced at the Theatre Royal Drury Lane, which is London's oldest theatre and currently owned by Andrew.
Cameron said, "On the opening night of 'Miss Saigon' in 1989, I walked onto the vast stage and stood with [designer] John Napier. As we gazed into the beautiful empty auditorium, we felt a chill and heard some slight sounds above our heads in the grid. Even the light we were in seemed to take on a mysterious tinge. In less than a minute, it was gone, but we both felt some presence."
But it seemed the "presence" was a positive sign for the production. Cameron added, "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!' "
