Andrew Lloyd Webber

At 76 years old, Andrew Lloyd Webber has this physical status:

Baron Lloyd-Webber (born 22 March 1948) is an English composer and impresario of musical theatre.

Several of his musicals have performed in both the West End and Broadway for more than a decade.

He has written 13 musicals, a song cycle, a series of adaptations, two film scores, and a Latin Requiem Mass.

Many of his songs have been well-received and became hits outside of their parent musicals, including "I Don't Know How to Love Him" from Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat, "I Don't Cry for Me, Argentina" from Evita, "I Don't Know How to Love Him" from Evita, "I Don't Know How to Love Him" from Evita, "Any Dream Will Do" from Evita, "I Don't

In 2001, the New York Times referred to him as "the most commercially successful composer in history."

"Andrew more or less reinvented the musical, with lyricist Don Black ranked as the "most influential person in British culture" by the Daily Telegraph in 2008. "He has received a number of awards, including a knighthood in 1992, a peerage for services to the Arts, six Tony Awards, six Grammy Awards, the 2006 Kennedy Center Honour Award for Outstanding Contribution to Music, and an Emmy Award.

He is one of fifteen people to have received an Oscar, an Emmy, a Grammy, and a Tony.

He has been inducted into the Songwriter's Hall of Fame and is a member of the British Academy of Songwriters, Composers, and Authors. The Really Useful Group, a theatre operator in London, is one of London's largest theatre companies.

Producers in many parts of the United Kingdom have staged productions, including national tours of the Lloyd Webber musicals under licence from the Really Useful Group.

Lloyd Webber is the president of Arts Educational Schools London, a performing arts academy based in Chiswick, West London.

He is involved in a variety of charitable causes, including the Elton John AIDS Foundation, Nordoff Robbins, Protest Cancer UK, and War Child.

In 1992, he founded the Andrew Lloyd Webber Foundation, which promotes the arts, culture, and heritage in the United Kingdom.

Early life

Andrew Lloyd Webber was born in Kensington, London, the elder son of William Lloyd Webber (1914–1982), a composer and organist, and Jean Hermione Johnstone (1921–1993), a violinist and pianist, was born on March 22, 1948. Julian Lloyd Webber, his younger brother, is a world-renowned solo cellist.

Lloyd Webber began writing his own music at a young age: a collection of six pieces at the age of nine. In his toy theater (which he built at Viola's request), he also put on "productions" with Julian and his Aunt Viola. Viola, an actress, brought him to many of her performances and through the stage door into the world of theater. In the spring of 1963, his father enrolled him as a part-time student at the Eric Gilder School of Music. He was currently working on a Genghis Khan musical called Westonia, and he had also set music to Old Possum's Book of Practical Cats.

Lloyd Webber, a King's Scholar at Westminster College and studied history for a year at Magdalen College, Oxford, but he dropped out of the course in 1965 to study at the Royal College of Music in London and pursue his passion for musical theatre.

Personal life

Lloyd Webber has been married three times. He married first Sarah Hugill on July 24, 1971, and they divorced on September 14, 1983. They had two children, a daughter, and a boy all together:

Sarah Brightman, an English classical soprano, married her in Hampshire on March 22nd. Among other notable roles, he starred Brightman in his musical The Phantom of the Opera. They divorced on January 3rd, 1990.

He married Madeleine Gurdon in Westminster on February 9, 1991, a third degree. They have three children, two sons, and one daughter, all of whom were born in the same area:

In 1992, Lloyd Webber and his third wife Madeleine founded the Watership Down Stud. They widened their equestrian interests by purchasing Kiltinan Castle Stud near Fethard in County Tipperary, Ireland, in 1996.

Lloyd Webber said in a 1971 interview with The New York Times that he is an agnostic. He also described Jesus as "one of the greatest figures of history."

He has been a lifelong fan of Leyton Orient F.C., just like his younger brother Julian.

Lloyd Webber had prostate cancer early in 2009, but he had to be admitted to the hospital with post-operative infection in November. He declared himself cancer-free in January 2010. As a preventive measure, he had his prostate completely removed.

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Professional career

Lloyd Webber was introduced to Tim Rice, a young aspiring pop-song writer, in 1965, when he was a 17-year-old budding musical-theatre composer. Thomas John Barnardo's first collaboration, The Likes of Us, a musical based on Thomas John Barnardo's true story. In 1966, they made a demo tape of the work, but they didn't get a backer.

Despite being born in 1965, The Likes of Us were not performed in public until 2005, when a performance at Lloyd Webber's Sydmonton Festival was staged. The National Operatic and Dramatic Association (NODA) in association with the Really Useful Group announced amateur rights in 2008. "Kidz R Us," a children's theatre group in Cornwall, gave the first amateur performance. The Likes of Us is a symphony of Broadway music from the 1940s and 1950s; it opens with a classic overture featuring a medley of tunes from the show, and the score reflects some of Lloyd Webber's early influences, particularly Richard Rodgers, Frederick Loewe, and Lionel Bart. It is evidently different from the composer's earlier work, which tends to be more or fully composed, and closer in style to opera.

Alan Doggett, a family friend of the Lloyd Webbers who had worked on The Likes of Us and who was the music coach at the Colet Court school in London, commissioned Lloyd Webber and Rice to write a piece for the school's choir in the summer of 1967. Doggett requested a "pop cantata" based on Herbert Chappell's "The Daniel Jazz (1963) and Michael Hurd's Jonah-Man Jazz (1966), both of which were published by Novello and were based on the Old Testament. With a 100-guinea advance from Novello, the order for the new piece was made. Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat, a retelling of Joseph's biblical tale of Joseph in which Lloyd Webber and Rice humbly portrayed a variety of pop-music styles, including Elvis-style rock'n'roll, Calypso, and country music. Joseph came to life as a short cantata with a positive review in The Times. Rice and Lloyd Webber updated the performance and added new songs to bring it to a greater length. Continued expansion culminated in a 1972 stage musical and then a two-hour show in the West End, 1973, on the back of Jesus Christ Superstar's success.

Rice and Lloyd Webber wrote "Touch It and See," a song for the Eurovision Song Contest in 1969 that was not chosen. In their third musical, Jesus Christ Superstar (1970), it became "King Herod's Song" with rewritten lyrics. Debuting on Broadway in 1971, the musical had earned more than $237 million worldwide by 1980. It ran for more than eight years in London between 1972 and 1980 before being overtaken by Cats in 1989. P. G. Wodehouse's planned sequel to Jesus Christ Superstar was a musical comedy based on P. G. Wodehouse's Jeeves and Wooster books. Tim Rice was unsure about this venture partly because of his fear that he would not be able to do justice to the books that he and Lloyd Webber adored. Rice dropped out of the scheme, and Lloyd Webber wrote the musical Jeeves with Alan Ayckbourn, who wrote the book and lyrics. After a run of only 38 performances in the West End in 1975, the Jeeves were unable to make a difference at the box office and ended. Lloyd Webber and Ayckbourn revisited this venture, resulting in a thoroughly reworked and more successful version called By Jeeves (1996).

Lloyd Webber co-authored Evita (1978), a musical based on Eva Perón's life. Evita was first released as a concept album (1976), with Julie Covington playing Eva Perón. The song "Don't Cry for Me Argentina" became a hit song, and the musical was staged at the Prince Edward Theatre in a West End production starring Elaine Paige in the title role. This original production was extremely successful, with some of it running in the West End for nearly eight years.

Evita began performing in 1979 in a production starring Patti LuPone as Eva and Mandy Patinkin as Che; the show went on to Broadway and Margaret Patinkin as Che; it received seven Tony Awards, including Best Musical, to begin with, and Patinkin, who followed LuPone and Patinkin's careers; the production lasted for almost four years. Rice and Lloyd Webber split up soon after Evita, but the two people have sporadically collaborated in the years that followed.

Lloyd Webber embarked on a solo venture called Variations with his cellist brother Julian, who was based on Paganini's 24th Caprice, which debuted at number two on the pop album charts in the United Kingdom in 1978. During its 32-year tenure, the main theme was used as the theme tune for ITV's long-running South Bank Show. Lloyd Webber produced a new theme tune for Whicker's World's World, which was released from 1978 to 1980.

In November 1980, Lloyd Webber was a guest at This Is Your Life when he was visited by Eamonn Andrews in the foyer of Thames Television's Euston Road Studios in London. Michael Aspel surprised him at the West End's Adelphi Theatre in November 1994 for a second time by the television show.

Lloyd Webber began his next project without a lyricist, instead turning to T. S. Eliot's poetry. Cats (1981) was to be London's longest running musical, with 21 years before closing. Cats on Broadway lived for 18 years, a record that would eventually be broken by another Lloyd Webber show, The Phantom of the Opera. Elaine Paige worked with Lloyd Webber, who created Grizabella in Cats, and the Top 10 UK hit "Memory" for a top-ten hit.

Starlight Express (1984) was a commercial success, but critics gave it a pessimistic review. It was a seventh longest-running West End show in London, with 7,409 performances. On Broadway, it was only for less than two years. Two tours of the United States have been shown, as well as a three-year UK touring exhibition that moved to New Zealand later in 2009. The show also runs full-time in a custom-built theatre in Bochum, Germany, where it has been running since 1988.

Lloyd Webber wrote a Requiem Mass dedicated to William Webber, who died in 1982. On February 24, 1985, it first appeared at St. Thomas Church in New York. The composer's upbringing had influenced the composition, which was influenced by an essay he had read about the suffering of Cambodian orphans. Lloyd Webber had written sacred music for the annual Sydmonton Festival on several occasions. Lloyd Webber received a Grammy Award in 1986 for Requiem, which was part of the category of best classical composition. Pie Jesu from Requiem received a top spot on the UK singles chart. Possibly due to the Requiem's large orchestration, live performances are unusual.

Prince Edward, the youngest son of Queen Elizabeth II, commissioned a short musical from Lloyd Webber and Rice for his mother's 60th birthday. Cricket (1986), also known as Cricket (Hearts and Wickets), reunited Lloyd Webber with Rice to produce this short musical for the Queen's birthday, first performed at Windsor Castle. A number of the tunes were later used for Aspects of Love and Sunset Boulevard.

Lloyd Webber premiered The Phantom of the Opera at Her Majesty's Theatre in the West End in 1986, based on the 1911 Gaston Leroux novel. He wrote Christine for his then-wife, Sarah Brightman, who appeared in the original London and Broadway productions with Michael Crawford as the Phantom. Harold Prince, who had also directed Evita, was involved in the production. With some additional information from Richard Stilgoe, with whom Lloyd Webber co-wrote the musical's book, Charles Hart wrote the Phantom's lyrics. It became a hit and is now on Broadway and on Broadway; in January 2006, it defeated Lloyd Webber's Cats as the longest running show on Broadway; in January 2006 it took over Lloyd Webber's Cats. Phantom of the Opera was on Broadway on February 11, 2012, for the 10,000th time. It's the second longest-running West End musical, with over 13,400 performances in London.

Aspects of Love appeared in 1989, a musical based on David Garnett's story. Don Black and Charles Hart wrote the scripts, and Trevor Nunn directed the original production. Aspects lasted four years in London but eventually closed after less than a year on Broadway. It has since been on a tour of the United Kingdom. It is well known for the song "Love Changes Everything," which was performed by Michael Ball in both the West End and Broadway casts. It remained in the UK singles chart for 14 weeks, peaking at number two and becoming Ball's signature tune.

Lloyd Webber was asked to write a song for the 1992 Barcelona Olympics and produced "Amigos Para Siempre — Friends for Life" with Don Black as the lyrics. Sarah Brightman and José Carreras performed this song.

Lloyd Webber had toyed with the idea of writing a musical based on Billy Wilder's critically acclaimed film from the early 1970s, but the composer didn't know how to obtain the rights from Paramount Pictures until after the project was complete, as he did on Aspects of Love; this time Christopher Hampton and Don Black earned equal credit for the book and lyrics. Sunset Boulevard opened in London on July 12th, 1993, and the show ran for 1,529 performances. Despite the show's success and long run in London's West End, it lost money due to the sheer cost of the production.

Sunset Boulevard debuted in 1994, opening with the biggest leap in Broadway history and winning seven Tony Awards that year. Nevertheless, "it hadn't recovered its reported $13 million investment by its closing in 1997." Lloyd Webber authored the Matters of Taste column in The Daily Telegraph, where he reviewed restaurants and hotels, and Lucinda Rogers illustrated it.

Lloyd Webber produced a film version of Cats in 1998, which was shot at the Adelphi Theatre in London. David Mallet directed the film, and Gillian Lynne choreographed it. The cast members included Ken Page (the original Old Deuteronomy on Broadway), Elaine Paige (original Grizabella in London), and John Mills as Gus: the Theatre Cat.

Whistle Down the Wind made its debut in 1998, a musical with lyrics provided by Jim Steinman. Lloyd Webber was initially unhappy with Harold Prince's casting or production, and the performance was later updated for a London staging directed by Gale Edwards. The Boyzone number one hit "No Matter What" remained at the top of the UK charts for three weeks. His The Beautiful Game opened in London and has never been seen on Broadway. The performance at The Cambridge Theatre in London had a respectable run. The performance has been reimagined into a new musical, The Boys in the Photograph, which had its world premiere at The Liverpool Institute for Performing Arts in April 2008.

Lloyd Webber was dubbed by The New York Times in 2001 as "the most commercially profitable composer in history" after his success in musical theatre. In 2002, he became a producer, bringing the musical Bombay Dreams to London. A.R. A.R.'s music includes A.M.'s version of jazz. Don Black's lyrics and poetry were the subject of two years at the Apollo Victoria Theatre. Two years later, a new Broadway revival at the Broadway Theatre ran for just 284 performances.

The Woman in White, a black and white play, opened at the Palace Theatre in London on September 16th. It was on display for 19 months and 500 performances. On November 17, 2005, a new production of the Marquis Theatre opened on Broadway at the Marquis Theatre in New York. Due in large part to Maria Friedman's frequent absences due to breast cancer treatment, the show's actress garnered mixed feedback from reviewers, and it closed just three months later on February 19, 2006.

Lloyd Webber produced The Sound of Music, a tribute to the composer who premiered in November 2006. He made the controversial decision to select an unknown celebrity to play leading lady Maria, who was discovered on the BBC's reality television show How Do You Solve a Problem Like Maria, in which he was a judge. Connie Fisher, the show's champion, was declared the winner.

The Master and Margarita, a 2006 venture, was shelved in 2007. Lloyd Webber was named a winner of the Kennedy Center Honors in September 2006 with Zubin Mehta, Dolly Parton, Steven Spielberg, and Smokey Robinson. He was lauded for his contributions to the American performing arts. He attended the service on December 3, 2006; it aired on December 26, 2006. Lloyd Webber appeared as a guest judge on the reality television show Grease: You're the One that I Want on February 11, 2007. "The Phantom of the Opera" was performed by the contestants.

Between April and June 2007, he appeared in BBC One's Any Dream Will Do!, which followed the same pattern as How to Solve a Problem Like Maria? Its aim was to find a new Joseph for his restoration of Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat. Lee Mead won the competition after quitting his role in the ensemble and as understudy in The Phantom of the Opera, to perform for the role. According to host Graham Norton, viewers' telephone vote during the series raised more than £500,000 for the BBC's annual Children in Need charity appeal.

Otto Webber's cat, Lloyd Webber, leapt onto his Clavinova piano and "destroyed the entire score for the new 'Phantom' in a single fell swoop." The Phantom in question was The Phantom of Manhattan, a proposed sequel to The Phantom of the Opera.

Lloyd Webber performed excerpts from his musicals at the Concert for Diana, which was held at Wembley Stadium, London, on July 1, 2007, an event held to celebrate Princess Diana's life almost ten years after she died. On the 24th of August 2007, BBC Radio 2 carried a concert of music from Lloyd Webber's musicals. Denise Van Outen performed songs from Whistle Down the Wind, The Beautiful Game, The Woman in White, Evita and Joseph, and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat, as well as Rodgers and Hammerstein's The Sound of Music, which Lloyd Webber revived in 2006 at the London Palladium, and the 2002 musical Bombay Dreams, which Lloyd Webber revived in 2006.

Lloyd Webber reprised his role as judge in April 2008, this time in the BBC musical talent show I'd Do Anything. The show took place in a West End version of Lionel Bart's Oliver Twist, which is based on Charles Dickens' novel Oliver Twist. The show also featured a competition for three young actors to play and display the title character's role, but the show's main focus was on Nancy's search. Despite Lloyd Webber's declared preference for one of the other candidates, Jodie Prenger was crowned to win the Oliver competition; the Oliver winners were Harry Stott, Gwion Wyn-Jones, and Laurence Jeffcoate. Lloyd Webber was also on the US talent show American Idol in April 2008, serving as a mentor as the 6 finalists had to choose one of his songs to perform for the judges this week.

Lloyd Webber accepted the challenge of coordinating the UK's entry for the 2009 Eurovision Song Contest, which will be held in Moscow. A series named Eurovision: Your Country Needs You was broadcast in early 2009 to find a performer for a song he would write for the competition. Jade Ewen earned the right to represent the United Kingdom, winning with "It's My Time" by Lloyd Webber and Diane Warren. Lloyd Webber performed on the piano during the show. In the competition, the United Kingdom came in fifth place.

Lloyd Webber premiered Love Never Dies at a press conference held at Her Majesty's Theatre, where the original Phantom has been running since 1986. Sierra Boggess, who had been cast as Christine Daaé, and Ramin Karimloo, who played Phantom, a role he had recently played in the West End, were both on hand.

Lloyd Webber began looking for a new musical theatre performer in the BBC One series Over the Rainbow after the premiere of Love Never Dies. In his forthcoming stage performance of The Wizard of Oz, he cast Danielle Hope in the role of Dorothy, and a dog to play Toto. Tim Rice, a lyricist and composer, wrote a number of new songs for the film to complement the film's soundtracks.

The Wizard of Oz opened at The Palladium Theatre on March 1, 2011, starring Hope as Dorothy and Michael Crawford as the Wizard. Lloyd Webber led a new ITV primetime show Superstar, giving the UK public the opportunity to choose who would play Jesus in an arena tour of Jesus Christ Superstar. In September 2012, the arena tour began with comedian Tim Minchin as Judas Iscariot, former Spice Girl Melanie C as Mary Magdalene, and BBC Radio 1 DJ Chris Moyles as King Hero. On May 18, 2012, most venues' tickets went on sale.

Lloyd Webber and Christopher Hampton appeared on Stephen Ward the Musical in 2013. Audition was held for children aged nine to fifteen in collaboration with the School of Rock's music education program, which predated the film by many years.

The English National Opera revived Sunset Boulevard at the London Coliseum in April 2016. Glenn Close's limited run, semi-staged production directed by Lonny Price, was her first appearance in London; she had originated the role in Los Angeles in 1993 and then on Broadway in 1989 (which won her the 1995 Tony Award for Best Actress in a Musical). Lloyd Webber became the first musical-theatre composer since 1953 to have four musicals playing simultaneously on Broadway as a result that his heroes Rodgers and Hammerstein had previously aspired.

In 2018, Lloyd Webber's memoir, Unmasked, was published. Lloyd Webber, Tim Rice, and John Legend each received an Emmy for Jesus Christ Superstar Live in Concert on September 9, 2018. Lloyd Webber, Rice, and Legend were among the list of people who have received Academy, Emmy, Grammy, and Tony awards with this win. Lloyd Webber created the song "Beautiful Ghosts" with Taylor Swift for the film version of Cats, which was directed by Greg Wells and released in December 2019. Lloyd Webber called the film "ridiculous" in the ways it changed the musical: "Tomorrow's decision not to involve anyone involved in it was "interesting" in the film, "notice that the film was "ridiculous" in the way it changed the story, according to Lloyd Webber: "I don't want to have someone involved in it." He said that seeing the movie prompted him to buy a dog.

In 2021, Lloyd Webber's latest Cinderella revival opened at the Gillian Lynne Theatre in the West End. The initial launch, which was supposed to take place in August 2020, was postponed due to the COVID-19 pandemic. "Emerald Fennell has written something truly innovative and original, and the moment I read her outline, I knew I'd found my new collaborator." Despite increasing Covid cases and defiance of Government direction, he attracted widespread media attention in July 2021 for saying he was "ready to be arrested" to open Cinderella to full houses.

A 2021 feature in Variety suggested:

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