ANDREW LLOYD WEBBER

◦ Andrew Lloyd Webber has created some of

the most recognizable Broadway music of all
time—from Cats to Evita to The Phantom of
the Opera—along the way collecting a variety
of honors, including knighthood, seven Tony
Awards, three Grammy Awards, an Academy
Award and the Kennedy Center Honors
Award. Songs from his musicals have gone on
to wide popularity offstage as well, and his
theater production company, the Really Useful
Group, is one of the largest operating in
London.
EARLY YEARS
◦ Andrew Lloyd Webber was born on March 22, ◦ Following his childhood dream of becoming
1948, in London. His father was the director England’s chief inspector of ancient
of the London College of Music, his mother monuments, in 1965 Lloyd Webber entered
was a piano teacher and his younger brother, Westminster School as a Queen’s Scholar and
Julian, is a renowned cellist, so one might say began a course in history at Magdalen
that he was born with musical blood running College, Oxford. His true calling pulled him
through his veins. A true prodigy, early in life in another direction, however, and he dropped
Lloyd Webber played the piano, the violin (at out in the winter of 1965 to study at the Royal
age 3) and the French horn, and began writing College of Music and explore his interest in
his own music (at age 6). musical theater
That same year, when he was 17 years old, Lloyd ◦ In 1965, Lloyd Webber and Rice began working
Webber received a letter from 21-year-old law on their first musical, The Likes of Us, which
student Tim Rice. It read, in full: “Dearest Andrew, didn’t reach the stage at the time. They were
I’ve been told you’re looking for a ‘with it’ writer of
soon commissioned to write a religious concert,
lyrics for your songs, and as I’ve been writing pop
and over the next two months, the pair crafted a
songs for a while and particularly enjoy writing the
20-minute “pop-cantata” version of what would
lyrics, I wonder if you consider it worth your while
meeting me. Tim Rice.” Lloyd Webber found one day become Joseph and the Amazing
something in that letter that interested him, and thus Technicolor Dreamcoat, a retelling of the
began the long collaboration of Tim Rice and biblical story of Joseph. The play debuted on
Andrew Lloyd Webber. March 1, 1968, and was an immediate success.
With each performance, Joseph got bigger and
better, ending up with a two-hour run time.
Things most people don’t know about Sir
Andrew Lloyd Webber
◦ Music runs in the family. ◦ He has composed classical works.
◦ Andrew's father William Lloyd Webber was a ◦ Though Lloyd Webber is best known as a purveyor of
composer and organist, his mother Jean Hermione pop and rock style tunes, church music made up a large
Johnstone, was a violinist and pianist and his part of his upbringing. Following the passing of his
younger brother, Julian Lloyd Webber, is a world father in 1982, Lloyd Webber wrote a Requiem mass
renowned cellist. Lloyd Webber's composing career dedicated in his memory, which debuted at St. Thomas
Church in New York in 1985. Lloyd Webber went on to
began at a very young age. He began playing violin
win a 1986 Grammy Award for Best Classical
at age three and wrote his first work, a suite of six
Composition for the work. His Pie Jesu from the piece
pieces, at the age of nine.
landed high on the UK pop charts and has been recorded
◦ Webber owns seven theaters in London’s West End, widely. Due to its massive orchestrations, performances
including the Theatre Royal Drury Lane, the of the full Requiem are rare. He has also composed
Palladium and the St James which reopened in 2017 sacred music for the annual Sydmonton Festival on a
as The Other Palace. number of occasions.
◦ He worked as a newspaper columnist. ◦ He is the one of the wealthiest musicians in
◦ From 1995-2000, Lloyd Webber worked for the UK (and the world).
The Daily Telegraph, writing the Matters of ◦ In 2019, Lloyd Webber topped the Sunday
Taste column in which he he reviewed Times list of wealthiest musicians in the
restaurants and hotels. The columns featured United Kingom, beating out Sir Paul
illustrations by Lucinda Rogers. McCartney of The Beatles, who came in
◦ He’s a proud father of five. Lloyd Webber’s second. On their 2020 list, McCartney tied
with Lloyd Webber, both boasting net worths
brood includes Imogen and Nicholas with his
first wife, and Alastair, William and Isabella of over £800m ($1.2 billion) each. He and
with his third. The ultimate modern family! McCartney are also currently tied for richest
musicians in the world.
◦ His cat destroyed the score to the Phantom sequel. ◦ He did not attend the premiere of Phantom.
◦ In 2007, one of Lloyd Webber's most treasured subjects became ◦ Lloyd Webber was so nervous about the premiere of The
his worst enemy when the composer's cat, a Turkish Van called Phantom of the Opera that he didn't attend the show. Producer
Otto, single-handedly destroyed the score for his sequel to The Cameron Mackintosh had to find him and drag him back to the
Phantom of the Opera, then called Phantom in Manhattan. theater for the curtain calls.
◦ He is the king of simultaneous productions.
◦ The curious kitten somehow found its way into the frame of the ◦ In 2017, Lloyd Webber began the first composer since Rodgers
composer's digital Clavinova piano and broke the computer and Hammerstein to have four musicals running
inside, wiping the full contents of the score from existence. simultaneously on Broadway, with The Phantom of the Opera,
Cats. Sunset Boulevard, and School of Rock all running at the
same time. He is also the first and only composer to have six
◦ He told the Mail, "I was trying to write some new music; Otto
productions running in London's West End at the same time, a
got into the grand piano, jumped onto the computer and
distinction he earned in 1991. He also famously boasts the two
destroyed the entire score for the new Phantom in one fell
longest running shows in Broadway history, Cats and The
swoop."
Phantom of the Opera.
◦ He’s blessed in the trouser department. Well, ◦ He married the original Christine Daaé. Sarah
according to ex-wife Sarah Brightman Brightman played the original soaring soprano
anyway! She blurted out the risqué comment in The Phantom of the Opera and won Lloyd
in an interview with Graham Norton and Webber’s heart! They wed in 1984 but
Lloyd Webber was so embarrassed on behalf divorced just six years later.
of his son, he threatened her with legal action!
Oopsy!