compiled by M. Hitt
“Aren’t you afraid he’s going to sue?!” – this is the most common question Grant Sharkey gets asked these days. And his answer is simple: “That’s the reason why it needed to be written!”
With a chaotic energy and some serious silliness from start to finish, Webber! is fully composed for a small orchestra and sung throughout – it started life as a question to Grant Sharkey whilst he was on tour with his 2024 musical about the hypocrisy of mega-festivals Are You Worthy?
“Someone in the audience jokingly asked me if I was the next Andrew Lloyd Webber, which led to an outburst I didn’t realise was in me,” says Sharkey, “I immediately began improvising ‘Oh Sarah’ and it made everyone laugh so much. And that’s all it takes for me to go all in.
“Up until then, I didn’t really have much of an opinion about The Lord, but after doing a little bit of research I realised he’s the perfect idol to desecrate. I became fascinated with a man who made a fortune from the stories of Jesus Christ and Eva Peron, but chose in his political career to not help the poor. He’s the man who goes on GB News pretending he’s a farmer, when his farm is actually a racehorse farm. He’s a man who made so much from the labour and support of the LGBTQ+ community and then donated huge amounts of money to Margaret Thatcher’s government whilst they were implementing the inhumane Section 28 policies, causing untold pain and division.
“One of my favourite lines in the show is ‘There’s nothing like using the spoils of musical theatre to keep the homosexual down!’” it sums up the duplicity of Mr. Lloyd Webber perfectly.
“On top of that, Starlight Express exists. That’s unforgivable.”
Grant Sharkey is a double bass playing troubadour, writing silly satirical songs and touring them around the UK in a DIY fashion – as a way to prevent the music industry from getting in between the art and the audience. He’s played everywhere from living rooms and garden sheds, to huge rooms and the biggest festivals. His stage shows are known for their hilarious satire, audience involvement and anti-fascist politics. Since 2013 he’s written 27 albums, two books and two musicals.
He continues, “Unlike Webby, I’m happy to go to small towns, go on stage and make small amounts of money. The rewards of playing a hat donation show in somewhere like Skerries in Bangor or The Lab in Northampton far outweigh the discomforts of sleeping on sofas and showering in service stations. It feels like a real life when it’s lived outside of the comfort zone.”
After the Worthy tour, Grant began six months of research into Andrew Lloyd Webber, reading the books, listening to the musicals and piecing together the timeline of when musicals were written, world events occurred and his events in his personal history. Sharkey finally sat down in December ’24 to write and compose Webber! The whole show was created with the Edinburgh Fringe in mind, specifically with the room at The Space Triplex that Grant had performed in before. From it’s 55 minute running time, to the curtain that is central to the performance – everything was focused on being the best Fringe show possible. Cheap, silly, easy and quick to set up and break.
“The hardest part was to find a story – because there isn’t one in real life. He’s just a man who was born winning and carried on winning for the next 70-odd years. There’s no ‘I want’ moment in there. So I conjured up the idea that seeing the coronation of Queen Elizabeth II in 1953, when he was 5, made him want to be a Lord. To be ‘filthy rich and f*cking useless’. This becomes his goal. The fact that this wish then summons the eternal spirit of Margaret Thatcher to be his fairy greed mother, was a device to give his inner monster a voice. From there, everything else is real or an educated guess.”
Not wishing to humiliate any really talented actors, Grant took on the role of Webber himself, but then he needed the perfect foil to play Thatcher – whose demonic greed and callousness enables her to be the cheerleader for so many mediocre men rebranded as Captains of Business. That’s when he called up Laura Clare Reid to see if she’d like to audition for the role.
“Laura hasn’t really done this before,” says Grant, “but I’ve known her for years as one of the very funny comedy music duo The Ventnor Darlings from the Isle of Wight. I’ve seen them countless times – Laura sings so well, but she also has a glee in her eyes when behind the piano, making people laugh and that is the secret ingredient of a great performer. The more the show goes off the rails, the funnier she gets. She’s so good at taking risks on stage, playing with the moment, that I knew she’d be a safe pair of hands to entrust Thatcher too. And I was more than right. She’s sensational.”
Photo: Hazel Worthy
Rehearsing, recording and building the show over May and June 2025, Grant and Laura soon found out that the show itself contains infinite possibilities for experimentation. “The only rule is that we must go for the laugh. Some are easy. Home runs,” says Grant, “Some are in the chaos of the room and take us by surprise. It’s a very exciting show to perform.”
Debuting the show on July 11th at sold out Stage Door in Southampton. The first show was met with tremendous love from the audience – and the feedback was invaluable for what was to come.
Another three smaller warm up shows followed in Salisbury (The Winchester Gate), Ryde (FuBar) and Accrington (Imposta Coffee) and then it was off to the Edinburgh Fringe for 9 shows. Every single show saw the audience and the laughs grow in size until the final sold out show. Webber! was award some amazing 4 star reviews from The British Theatre Guide, Speak the Speech and Stage to Page plus a 3 star review from David Kettle at The Scotsman that reads like a 4 star! Not bad at all for a show that was only a month old and had only 13 shows under its belt. Edinburgh Fringe was considered a great success.
There was no time to rest as Webber! was also booked to play two shows at Beautiful Days Festival in Devon in mid-August. These shows were the biggest yet – with two packed out tents full of the loudest and most wonderful audiences. These shows were also BSL interpreted by Emma Jane Mansfield (The Lowry, CBeebies Live)
After this initial success, it seemed pertinent to books a small tour of the UK for October/November 2025. Over ten dates, starting on October 26th in Southampton to celebrate the 10th Anniversary of Webber’s flight across the atlantic to vote in the House of Lords and including two shows in London, Webber! wowed audiences and gained even more fans.
“This year we want to take it further,” says Grant, “We’re booked for Edinburgh again this year, plus the Rik Mayall Comedy Festival plus some shows in August including Raw Material in Brixton and Face Bar in Reading and we’ve begun work on booking the largest tour possible to cover as much of the country as we can. We genuinely can’t wait to expand the show a little, add some tasty to meat to these excellent bones. Our aim is to win all the awards and stars so that next year, you’ll wonder what our sad lives were like before Webber!”