Reaction to The Phantom of the Opera, for Bernard Holland of the N.Y.T.:

"I recall enjoying Jesus Christ Superstar, although it was a showbiz pastiche of everything from Palestrina to Penderecki. What it lacked in originality it made up for in the infectious chutzpah of youth laid forth with skilled clarity. THe tunes were corny, yes, but corn in itself is not unhealthy.

Well, seventeen years have passed, the chutzpah's soured into commerce, the corn into smarm. In The Phantom of the Opera the charming vulgarity of Superstar has become merely vulgarity,

The hype surrounding "The Phantom" centers amost exclusively on its unprecedented financial success; nobody mentions the poverty of its score. Despite Andrew Lloyd Webber's vast fortune, I can't think of one serious composer who would change places with him."