The Lloyd Webber empire continues to expand its Really Useful ways. This winter, all else being equal, he will break the 30-year Neil Simon record by having five concurrent Broadway shows playing: His new Whistle Down the Wind (based on the 1960's Hayley Mills movie about the children who mistake an escaped convict for Christ) goes into the Martin Beck early 1997 Sir Andrew's first New York world premiere in the 25 years since Jesus Christ Superstar (now itself at the Lyceum in London).
Then there's the Lloyd Webber-Ayckbourn By Jeeves, a brilliant Wodehouse pastiche due in from Goodspeed; plus, of course, his three blockbusters still playing The Great White Way, Cats, Phantom and Sunset Boulevard (which now has our own Elaine Paige in N.Y.), while in London Rita Moreno replaces a vacationing Petula Clark through November.
-- By Sheridan Morley
