Lloyd Webber takes on "School of Rock"

   Remember Andrew Lloyd Webber? He dominated musical theater on both sides of the Atlantic in the 1970s and '80s, ushering in an era of lugubrious tech-heavy quasi-operas such as "The Phantom of the Opera" and "Cats," but he hasn't scored a big hit in a couple of decades.

Andrew Lloyd Webber

   He seems to be straining to score another one. His last few, which included a sequel to "Phantom" and a stage adaptation of the "The Wizard of Oz" film (with new songs by Webber added to the score), were bizarre concepts to begin with, and didn't cause much of a stir.
   Now Lloyd Webber says he has the rights to the 2003 Richard Linklater film "The School of Rock" and that he's going to turn it into a musical
   It's a dumb and mean-spirited slacker comedy - albeit a very popular one - about a substitute teacher who, instead of teaching kids, turns them into rock band so he can make money off them. (And nobody else in the school notices that he has a rock band rehearsing in his classroom every day.) It's hard to see how Lloyd Webber's pompous and unoriginal music will be able to improve it. Besides, the possibilities for flashy special effects, which have saved many lackluster Webber musicals over the years, seem slim.