Andrew Lloyd Webber: Now & Forever Decca Records, 5-CD box set The Royal Albert Hall Celebration Universal Home Video DVD Cats: The Ultimate Edition Universal Home Video DVD Jesus Christ Superstar Universal Home Video DVD Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat Universal Home Video DVD     Reviewed by Tony Buchsbaum	Love him or hate him, you've got to admit that Andrew Lloyd Webber is the wunderkind musical theater composer of our time. Since he and his lyricist partner Tim Rice burst upon the scene with Jesus Christ Superstar in 1971, Sir Andrew has been a force to contend with. As of this writing, he has created 12 musicals and one requiem mass. He's prolific, romantic and seemingly unstoppable. And now he's got his own box set. Now & Forever contains 101 songs, with selections from every one of the composer's productions. The first three discs gather the songs we know and love, arranged according to the shows. Jesus Christ Superstar, Evita, Cats, Song and Dance, Starlight Express, Requiem, The Phantom of the Opera, Aspects of Love, Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat, By Jeeves, Sunset Boulevard, Whistle Down the Wind, The Beautiful Game. You will have heard of a couple of them. It's always seemed to me that Lloyd Webber got sort of run over by his own music. What I mean is, more was made of the Phantom falling chandelier than the music. Same with all the makeup and dancing and wonderful foolishness in Cats. And the roller skating in Starlight Express. And the two-shows-in-one gimmick of Song and Dance. Cast all that aside, though, and you're left with often glorious music. Sometimes lovely, sometimes tragic, sometimes electrifying -- but always glorious. There has never been any question about the composer's love affair with music. There are small moments that betray this passion, such as the gentle swell of the strings in the middle of "All I Ask of You" (from Phantom), when it seems as if the whole score has been compressed into one perfectly orchestrated note. From the start, Lloyd Webber has been interested in making music memorable -- and for making memorable music -- and for a while it seemed as if, to do that, he needed to make his musicals spectacular entertainments. But when you get right down to it, it's not the spectacle but the music that matters, that holds these shows together. About the box set, however, I am torn. On the one hand, I am disappointed that some of the signature versions of his songs were left out. Patti LuPone, for example, who brought Evita to life on Broadway, makes a scant appearance in one song. That's just embarrassing. And the original Marti Webb performance of "Tell Me on a Sunday" isn't here; another version is, and it's much less interesting. On the other hand, I am thrilled to have versions I don't already own on CD. I am fascinated by the variations in performance from person to person, from one version of a show to the next. So often, these box sets are a just a rehash of material real fans already own -- greatest hits ad nauseaum. It is a relief, in that sense, that this box forgoes much of that. However, I believe there was room for both. Disc 4 offers 18 songs. Some were recorded for other projects, some appeared on other versions' cast recordings. There's Betty Buckley's amazing "Memory," from the Broadway production of Cats. There are the original single versions of "All I Ask of You" and "The Phantom of the Opera," which feature Sarah Brightman, Cliff Richard and Steve Harley. There's Donny Osmond's "Any Dream Will Do." And Barbra Streisand's "As If We Never Said Goodbye." There's Madonna's Oscar-winning "You Must Love Me," Tina Arena's "Whistle Down the Wind" and Charlotte Church's "Pie Jesu." Gems, one and all. And then there's the problematic Disc 5, entitled "The Vaults." This is the box's major misstep. Here are 22 songs, specially unearthed for this box. It's mostly people you've never heard of, singing songs that, for whatever reason, never saw the light of day. In short, they never saw the light of day for a reason, and they never should have. I would have used this disc to showcase more of what we love about Lloyd Webber. That is, more of what we bought the box for. Such as Elaine Paige's impossible-to-find performances from the London production of Evita. Some songs from the movie version of Jesus Christ Superstar. A cut or two from the composer's film score from The Odessa File. More of Patti LuPone's Evita, said to be the definitive performance. Some of the foreign versions of music from Phantom, with Colm Wilkinson, for example, who played the title character in a Canadian production. Perhaps we might have heard recordings of shows after the first cast changed: Robert Guillaume as the Phantom, for instance. Or better yet, selections from the composer's star-studded 50th birthday celebration at Royal Albert Hall, for which there has not been a CD release. While we're on the subject, though the Celebration isn't on CD, it is on a new DVD and it's incredible. What makes the show so much fun are the one-right-after-another performances of most of Lloyd Webber's signature songs. The show boasts solid gold from Antonio Banderas, Glenn Close, the British boy band Boyzone, Marcus Lovett, Lottie Mayor, Donny Osmond, Julian Lloyd Webber, Elaine Paige, Sarah Brightman, Michael Ball, Kiri Te Kanawa and others. For more than two hours, these stars parade before a packed house and the result is a brilliantly performed (if quite poorly produced) musical tribute. The DVD is available on its own and as part of the new Andrew Lloyd Webber Spotlight Performance Collection of four DVDs: Cats, Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat, Jesus Christ Superstar, and the Royal Albert Hall Celebration. The cool thing about these DVDs is that the shows weren't simply filmed for release. They were recreated as movies unto themselves and each is presented in letterbox (widescreen) format. Cats is stunning in its beauty and direction. It brings the show to life in an entirely new way, yet still retains all the magic of the stage production, including a heartbreaking performance by Elaine Paige, who created the role of Grizabella in London. There's even an "ultimate" version of Cats [Universal Home Video 21472] that contains a making-of documentary and interviews with the key artists who created the show. Joseph stars Donny Osmond in the role that revitalized his career. And Superstar is a film of the 1999 version of the show that ran for a limited time in London and on Broadway. Both are well-produced documents that will, in effect, preserve these shows forever. Clearly, with all this activity, Andrew Lloyd Webber is as popular as ever. Both musically and visually, the box set and DVDs bring to life the vast canvas of work by a man who has set records on both sides of the Atlantic and who has redefined musical theater as we know it. There's perhaps no other composer who makes this unique artform as vital, as fun and as accessible as Andrew Lloyd Webber. | February 2002 Tony Buchsbaum is the author of Total Eclipse. At night he works on another novel and a screenplay. Days, he writes advertising copy in Lawrenceville, NJ, where he lives with his wife and sons.	From the start, Lloyd Webber has been interested in making music memorable -- and for making memorable music -- and for a while it seemed as if, to do that, he needed to make his musicals spectacular entertainments. But when you get right down to it, it's not the spectacle but the music that matters, that holds these shows together.