Andrew Lloyd Webber
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Andrew Lloyd Webber (born March 22, 1948, London, England) is an English composer and theatrical producer whose eclectic rock-based works helped revitalize British and American musical theater, beginning in the late 20th century.
Early career
Lloyd Webber studied at Magdalen College, Oxford, and at the Royal College of Music. While a student, he began collaborating with Tim Rice on dramatic productions, Rice writing the lyrics to Lloyd Webber’s music. Their first notable venture was Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat (1968), a pop oratorio for children about the biblical Joseph that earned worldwide popularity in a later full-length version. It was followed by the rock opera Jesus Christ Superstar (1971; film 1973 and TV special 2018), an extremely popular though controversial work that blended classical forms with rock music to tell the story of Jesus’ life. That show became the longest-running musical in British theatrical history. Lloyd Webber’s last major collaboration with Rice was on Evita (1978), a musical about Eva Perón, wife of the Argentine dictator Juan Perón. The London production received the Olivier Award for best musical, and the Broadway staging won seven Tony Awards, including ones for best musical and best score. In addition, Lloyd Webber and Rice shared the Academy Award for best original song (“You Must Love Me”) for the 1996 film adaptation, which starred Madonna.
Stardom
In his next major musical, Cats (1981), Lloyd Webber set to music verses from a children’s book by T.S. Eliot. In 1989 the London production of Cats (winner of the Olivier Award for best musical) surpassed Jesus Christ Superstar as the longest-running British production of a musical; it held that distinction until 2006, when it was overtaken by Les Misérables, another blockbuster show originating in the 1980s. In 1997 the Broadway version of Cats—which had earlier won the Tony Award for best musical and best score and a Grammy Award for best original Broadway cast recording—eclipsed the record set by the American musical A Chorus Line (1975) to become the longest-running show on Broadway. The Broadway and London productions of Cats closed in 2000 and 2002, respectively, after more than 7,000 performances each; revivals played in London’s West End in 2014–16 and on Broadway in 2015–17. Lloyd Webber experienced nearly the same level of commercial success with Starlight Express (1984; lyrics by Richard Stilgoe), in which performers notoriously donned roller skates to portray anthropomorphic toy trains; the show ran in London for more than 17 years.
- Jesus Christ Superstar (1971)
- Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat (full-length version 1973)
- Evita (1978)
- Cats (1981)
- Starlight Express (1984)
- The Phantom of the Opera (1986)
With lyricists Charles Hart and Stilgoe, he then composed The Phantom of the Opera (1986; film 2004), a hugely popular musical version of Gaston Leroux’s melodramatic novel. Two years after winning the Olivier for best musical, the show opened on Broadway and won a Tony for best musical. In 2006 it surpassed Cats to become the longest-running Broadway show. An unsuccessful sequel, Love Never Dies (lyrics by Glenn Slater and Hart), debuted in London in 2010.
Later career
Lloyd Webber maintained his focus on romantic melodrama with Aspects of Love (1989; lyrics by Don Black and Hart), which was based on a David Garnett novel. He followed it with Sunset Boulevard (1993; lyrics by Black and Christopher Hampton), a musical adaptation of the classic Hollywood film. Commercially, both shows fared better in London than on Broadway, where they were plagued with financial difficulties. However, Sunset Boulevard became the third Lloyd Webber musical to win Tony Awards for both best musical and best score.
Lloyd Webber’s other musicals include Jeeves (1975; reworked in 1996 as By Jeeves), a collaboration with Alan Ayckbourn that was based on the novels of P.G. Wodehouse; Song and Dance (1982), which incorporated ballet; Whistle Down the Wind (1998), set in 1950s Louisiana; The Beautiful Game (2000), about an association football (soccer) team in strife-torn Belfast, Northern Ireland; The Woman in White (2004), an adaptation of Wilkie Collins’s mystery novel of the same name; The Wizard of Oz (2011), based on the 1939 film; School of Rock (2015), which was inspired by a 2003 movie starring Jack Black about an out-of-work musician who becomes a prep-school teacher; and Cinderella (2021), a retelling of the European folktale. During this time a number of Lloyd Webber’s other productions were also revived. In addition, a live telecast of Jesus Christ Superstar, starring popular singer John Legend as Jesus Christ, aired in 2018, and, as a coproducer, Lloyd Webber received a Creative Arts Emmy Award when the show was named best live variety special. With that honor, he became one of a select few to earn an EGOT (Emmy, Grammy, Oscar, and Tony). He later served as an executive producer on a film adaptation of Cats (2019), which was directed by Tom Hooper and featured an all-star cast including Judi Dench, Ian McKellen, Taylor Swift, Jennifer Hudson, Idris Elba, and James Corden.
Association with Sarah Brightman
Lloyd Webber shares an enduring professional partnership as well as a personal relationship with performer Sarah Brightman. Brightman played the role of Jemima in the original West End cast of Cats; she later originated the lead role of Christine in The Phantom of the Opera in the West End and on Broadway, a role that Lloyd Webber had written for her. Brightman and Lloyd Webber were married from 1984–90 but continued their professional association after divorcing: Brightman starred in the Broadway production of Aspects of Love in 1990; she also joined the 30th-anniversary celebration of The Phantom of the Opera in 2018 and led the cast of an Australian staging of Sunset Boulevard in 2024.
Legacy
Lloyd Webber’s best musicals were flashy spectacles that featured vivid melodies and forceful and dramatic staging. He was able to blend such disparate genres as rock and roll, English music-hall song, and operatic forms into music that had a wide popular appeal. In addition, Lloyd Webber was an astute businessman, founding in 1977 the Really Useful Company (later the Really Useful Group), which managed all his productions thereafter. Under its aegis Lloyd Webber personally produced a number of other shows, including the Bollywood-themed Bombay Dreams (2002; with music by A.R. Rahman) and a 2006 revival of Richard Rodgers and Oscar Hammerstein II’s The Sound of Music.
Lloyd Webber owns six theaters in London, among them the London Palladium, where some of his productions have been staged. He also runs the Andrew Lloyd Webber Foundation, which funds performing arts scholarships as well as research into diversity in theater.
The recipient of various honors, Lloyd Webber was given a Grammy Legend Award in 1990. Two years later he was knighted, and in 1997 he was created a life peer. His memoir, Unmasked, was published in 2018.