Andrew Lloyd Webber, Baron Lloyd-Webber
(born 22 March 1948) is an English composer of musical theatre, the elder son of organist William Lloyd Webber and brother of the cellist Julian Lloyd Webber. Lloyd Webber started composing at the age of six, and published his first piece at the age of nine.
Lord Lloyd Webber has achieved great popular success, with several musicals that have run for more than a decade both in the West End and on Broadway. He has composed 13 musicals, a song cycle, a set of variations, two film scores, and a Latin Requiem Mass. He has also gained a number of honours, including a knighthood in 1992, followed by a peerage from the British Government for services to Music, seven Tony Awards, three Grammy Awards, an Academy Award, seven Olivier Awards, a Golden Globe, and the Kennedy Center Honors in 2006. Several of his songs, notably "The Music of the Night" from The Phantom of the Opera
, "I Don't Know How to Love Him" from Jesus Christ Superstar
, "Don't Cry for Me, Argentina" from Evita
, "Any Dream Will Do" from Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat
and "Memory" from Cats
have been widely recorded and were hits outside of their parent musicals. His company, the Really Useful Group, is one of the largest theatre operators in London.
Producers in several parts of the UK have staged productions, including national tours, of Lloyd Webber's musicals under licence from the Really Useful Group. According to britishhitsongwriters.com he is the ninety-eighth most successful songwriter in U.K. singles chart history based on weeks that his compositions have spent on the chart. [1]
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ANDREW LLOYD WEBBER TICKETS
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Early life
Lloyd-Webber is the son of Jean Hermione (Johnstone), a
violinist and
pianist, and
William Lloyd Webber, a composer.
[2] His younger brother,
Julian Lloyd Webber, is a renowned solo
cellist.
Lloyd Webber began writing his own music at a young age, writing his first published
suite of six pieces at the age of nine. He also put on "productions" with Julian and his aunt Viola in his toy theatre (which he built at the suggestion of Viola). Later, he would be the owner of a number of
West End theatres, including the
Palace. His aunt Viola, an actress, took Lloyd Webber to see many of her shows and through the stage-door into the world of the theatre. He also claims that he had originally set music to
Old Possum's Book of Practical Cats at the age of fourteen.
Lloyd Webber was a
Queen's Scholar at
Westminster School and studied history for a time at
Magdalen College, Oxford, although he abandoned the course to study at
Royal College of Music and pursue his interest in
musical theatre.
Personal life
He married his first wife, Sarah Hugill, on 24 July 1972, and had two children,
Imogen (born 31 March 1977) and Nicholas (born 2 July 1979). Lloyd Webber and Hugill were divorced 14 November 1983. He married his second wife, singer/dancer
Sarah Brightman, on 22 March 1984. He cast Brightman in the lead role in his musical
The Phantom of the Opera
; they divorced 3 January 1990.
Madeleine Gurdon became his third wife, on 9 February 1991, and they have three children:
Alastair Lloyd Webber (born 3 May 1992), William (born 24 August 1993), and Isabella (born 30 April 1996). Alastair and William attend
Eton College. Madeleine became Lady Lloyd Webber in 1992 when her husband was knighted, and retained the same casual style when her husband was created a
life peer in 1997 (she is now technically Lady Lloyd-Webber).
The
Sunday Times Rich List 2006 ranked him the 87th-richest Briton with an estimated fortune of £700 million. His wealth increased to £750 million in 2007, but the publication ranked him
101st in 2008.
[3] He also owns much of
Watership Down. Lloyd-Webber is an
art collector, with a passion for
Victorian art. An exhibition of works from his collection was presented at the
Royal Academy in 2003 under the title
Pre-Raphaelite and Other Masters – The Andrew Lloyd Webber Collection
. He is also a devoted supporter of
Leyton Orient Football Club. Politically, he has supported the UK's
Conservative Party, allowing his song
Take That Look Off Your Face
to be used on a party promotional film seen by an estimated 1 million people in 80 cinemas before the
2005 UK General Election to accompany pictures of the country's Prime Minister
Tony Blair allegedly "smirking", the party said.
[4]
Professional career
Early years
Webber's first major collaboration with lyricist
Tim Rice was
The Likes of Us
, a musical based on the true story of
Thomas John Barnardo. It was not performed, however, until as recently as 2005 when a production was staged at Lloyd Webber's
Sydmonton Festival. Stylistically,
The Likes of Us
is fashioned after the Broadway musical of the '40s and '50s; it opens with a traditional overture comprising 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. In this respect, it is markedly different from the composer's later work which tends to be either predominantly or wholly
through-composed and closer in form to opera than to the Broadway musical.
Around this time, Rice and Lloyd Webber wrote a number of individual pop songs that were recorded as singles for record labels.
Wes Sands,
Ross Hannaman,
Paul Raven, and Gary Bond are among the many artists to have recorded early Lloyd Webber/Rice tunes. A selection of these early recordings were re-released on the 5-CD compilation,
Andrew Lloyd Webber: Now and Forever
(2003).
In 1967 Rice/Lloyd Webber wrote a song for the
Eurovision Song Contest called "Try It and See", which was not selected. The tune of this song eventually became the tune for "King Herod's Song" in their third musical,
Jesus Christ Superstar
(1970).
In 1968, Rice/Lloyd Webber were commissioned to write a piece for
Colet Court which resulted in
Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat
, a retelling of the biblical story of Joseph in which Lloyd Webber and Rice humorously pastiche a number of musical styles such as
Calypso and
country music.
Joseph
began life as a short
cantata that gained some recognition on its second staging with a favourable review in
The Times
. For its subsequent performances, the show underwent a number of revisions by Rice/Lloyd Webber with the inclusion of additional songs that expanded it to a more substantial length. This culminated in a two hour long production being staged in the
West End on the back of the success of
Jesus Christ Superstar
.
The planned follow up to
Jesus Christ Superstar
was a musical comedy based on the
Jeeves and Wooster novels by
P. G. Wodehouse. Tim Rice was uncertain about this venture, partly because of his concern that he might not be able to do justice to the novels that he and Lloyd Webber so admired
[5]. After doing some initial work on the lyrics, he pulled out of the project and Lloyd Webber subsequently wrote the musical with
Alan Ayckbourn who provided the book and lyrics.
Jeeves
, failed to make any impact at the box office and closed after a short run of only three weeks. Many years later Lloyd Webber and Ayckbourn revisited this project, producing a thoroughly reworked and more successful version entitled
By Jeeves
(1996). Only two of the songs from the original production remained ("Half a Moment" and "Banjo Boy").
Mid-1970s
Lloyd Webber collaborated with Rice once again to write
Evita
(1976 in London/1979 in U.S.), a musical based on the life of
Eva Perón. As with
Jesus Christ Superstar
, Evita was released first as a concept album and featured
Julie Covington singing the part of Eva Peron. The song "
Don't Cry for Me Argentina" became a hit single and the musical was staged at the
Prince Edward Theatre in a production directed by
Harold Prince and starring
Elaine Paige in the title role.
The first Eva Peron on Broadway in NYC was played by . She won a Tony for the role, and after experienced growth of nodes on her vocal cords.
Evita
was a highly successful show that ran for ten years in the West End. It transferred to
Broadway in 1979. Rice and Lloyd Webber parted ways soon after
Evita
.
In 1978, Lloyd Webber embarked on a solo project, the "
Variations", with his cellist brother
Julian based on the
24th Caprice by Paganini, which reached number two in the pop album chart in the United Kingdom. The main theme is still used as the theme tune for
ITV1's long-running
South Bank Show
.
1980s
Andrew Lloyd Webber embarked on his next project without a lyricist, turning instead to the poetry of
T. S. Eliot.
Cats
(1981) was to become the longest running musical in London, where it ran for 21 years until it closed. On Broadway,
Cats
ran for eighteen years, a record which would ultimately be broken by another Lloyd Webber musical.
Starlight Express
(1984) was a commercial hit but received negative reviews from the critics. It enjoyed a record run in the West End, but ran for less than three years on Broadway. The show has also seen two tours of the US, as well as a three-year UK touring production, which will transfer to New Zealand later in 2009. The show also runs full-time in a custom-built theatre in
Bochum,
Germany, where it is has been running for twenty one years to date.
Lloyd Webber wrote a
Requiem Mass dedicated to his father, William, who had died in 1982. It premiered at St. Thomas Church in New York on 25 February 1985. Church music had been a part of the composer's upbringing and the composition was inspired by an article he had read about the plight of Cambodian orphans. Lloyd Webber had on a number of occasions written sacred music for the annual
Sydmonton Festival [6]. Lloyd Webber received a
Grammy Award in 1986 for Requiem in the category of best classical composition.
Pie Jesu
from Requiem achieved a high placing on the UK pop charts.
In 1986, Lloyd Webber premiered his next musical,
The Phantom of the Opera
, inspired by the
1911 Gaston Leroux novel. He wrote the part of Christine for his then wife,
Sarah Brightman, who played the role in the original London and Broadway productions alongside
Michael Crawford as the Phantom. The production was directed by Harold Prince, who had also earlier directed Evita.
Charles Hart wrote the lyrics for
Phantom
with some additional material provided by
Richard Stilgoe, and Lloyd Webber co-wrote the musical's book with Stilgoe. It became a hit and is still running in both the West End and on Broadway; in January 2006 it overtook
Cats
as the longest running musical on Broadway.
Aspects of Love
followed in 1989, a musical based on the story by
David Garnett. The lyrics were by
Don Black and Charles Hart and the original production was directed by Trevor Nunn. There was a noticeable shift of emphasis towards a quieter and more intimate theatrical experience; the staging and production values were less elaborate than Phantom of the Opera and Lloyd Webber chose to write for a smaller musical ensemble making the through composed score more akin to a chamber work.
Aspects
had a run of four years in London but closed after less than a year on Broadway. It has since gone on a tour of the UK, and is beginning to enjoy more acclaim than its original production. Lloyd Webber has gone on record saying that he feels that
Aspects
will be one of his works that stands the test of time and even going as far as to compare it to
South Pacific
.
1990s
Lloyd Webber was asked to write a song for the
1992 Barcelona Olympics and composed "
Amigos Para Siempre — Friends for Life" with Don Black providing the lyrics. This song was performed by
Sarah Brightman and
Jose Carreras.
Lloyd Webber had toyed with the idea of writing a musical based on
Billy Wilder's critically acclaimed movie,
Sunset Boulevard
, since the early 1970s when he saw the film, but the project didn't come to fruition until after the completion of
Aspects of Love
when the composer finally managed to secure the rights from
Paramount Pictures [7] The composer worked with two collaborators, as he had done on
Aspects of Love
; this time Christopher Hampton and
Don Black shared equal credit for the book and lyrics. The show opened at the
Adelphi Theatre in London on 12 July 1993, and ran for 1,529 performances. In spite of the show's popularity and extensive run in London's
West End, it lost money due to the sheer expense of the production.
Lloyd Webber's many other musical theatre works include
Whistle Down the Wind
, a musical written with lyrics supplied by rock legend Jim Steinman. Originally opening in Washington, Lloyd Webber was reportedly not happy with the casting or Harold Prince's production and the show was subsequently revised for a London staging directed by Gale Edwards, the production is probably most notable for the Number One hit from Boyzone "No Matter What" which only left the UK charts when the price of the CD single was changed to drop it out of the official top ten.
Song and Dance
,
The Woman in White
which Lloyd Webber explored his life long love affair with the English Choral and Pastoral tradition. The show opened to a bad critical response on Broadway and soon sank without trace. His
The Beautiful Game
opened in London and has never been seen on Broadway. The show had a respectable run at The Cambridge Theatre in London. The show was been re-worked into a new musical
The Boys in the Photograph
which had its world première at
The Liverpool Institute for Performing Arts in April 2008.
While some of his works have had enormous commercial success, his career has not been without failures, especially in the United States.
Song and Dance
,
Starlight Express
, and
The Woman In White
, all successes in London, did not meet the same reception in New York, and all lost money in short, critically panned runs. In 1995,
Sunset Boulevard
became a very successful Broadway show, opening with the largest advance in Broadway history, and winning seven Tony Awards that year. However, owing to high weekly costs, it became the biggest economic musical failure in history, losing 25 million dollars.
Somewhat unusually, Lloyd Webber (along with
Nigel Wright) was responsible for a 1992
Eurodance single featuring music from the computer game
Tetris
.
[8] [9] Released under the name
Doctor Spin,
Tetris
reached #6 on the
UK charts,
[10] although Lloyd Webber's involvement was not publicised. He was also involved with
Bombalurina's 1990 cover of "
Itsy Bitsy Teenie Weenie Yellow Polka Dot Bikini" (UK #1).
[11] The band, whose lead singer was children's TV presenter
Timmy Mallett was named after a character in
Cats
.
[12]
2000s to present day
Lloyd Webber produced a staging of
The Sound of Music
, which débuted November 2006. He made the controversial decision to choose an unknown to play leading lady Maria, who was found through the
reality television show
How Do You Solve a Problem Like Maria?
, in which he was a judge. The winner of the show was
Connie Fisher.
There have been a number of film adaptations of Lloyd Webber's musicals:
Jesus Christ Superstar
(1973) was directed by
Norman Jewison,
Evita
(1996) was directed by
Alan Parker, and most recently
The Phantom of the Opera
was directed by
Joel Schumacher (and co-produced by Lloyd Webber). Lloyd Webber produced
Bombay Dreams
with Indian composer
A. R. Rahman in 2002.
It was announced on 25 August 2006, on his personal website that his next project would be
The Master and Margarita
(however, Lloyd Webber has stated that the project will most likely be an opera rather than a musical).
In September 2006, Lloyd Webber was named to be a recipient of the prestigious
Kennedy Center Honors with
Zubin Mehta,
Dolly Parton,
Steven Spielberg, and
Smokey Robinson. He was recognised for his outstanding contribution to American performing arts.
[13] He attended the ceremony on 3 December 2006; it aired on 26 December 2006. On 11 February 2007, Lloyd Webber was featured as a guest judge on the
reality television show
Grease: You're the One that I Want!
. The contestants all sang "The Phantom of the Opera".
Between April and June 2007, appeared in
BBC One's
Any Dream Will Do!
, which followed the same format as
How Do You Solve a Problem Like Maria?
. Its aim was to find a new Joseph for his revival of
Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat
.
Lee Mead won the contest after quitting his part in the ensemble - and as understudy in
The Phantom of the Opera
to compete for the role. Viewers' telephone voting during the series raised more than £500,000 for the
BBC's annual
Children in Need
charity appeal, according to host Graham Norton on air during the final. During this period he made friends with Graham Norton and in turn appeared on the Graham Norton Show with little Britain star, whom he announced his relationship with for the first time. On 1 July 2007, Lloyd Webber presented excerpts from his musicals as part of the
Concert for Diana organised to celebrate the life of
Diana, Princess of Wales.
The
BBC Radio 2 broadcast a concert of music from Lloyd Webber's shows on 24 August 2007.
[14] Denise Van Outen introduced songs from
Whistle Down the Wind
,
The Beautiful Game
,
Tell Me on a Sunday
,
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 2002's Lloyd Webber-produced
Bollywood
-style musical
Bombay Dreams
by
A. R. Rahman and
Don Black.
In April 2008, Lloyd Webber reprised his role as judge, this time in the BBC musical talent show,
I'd Do Anything. The show followed a similar format to its 'Maria' and 'Joseph' predecessors, this time involving a search for an actress to play the role of Nancy in an upcoming West End production of the
Lionel Bart musical
Oliver! The show also featured a search for a young actor to play the title character, however the shows main focus was on the search for Nancy. The role was won by
Jodie Prenger despite Lloyd Webber's stated preference for one of the other contestants. Also in April 2008 he was featured on the U.S. talent show
American Idol, acting as a mentor when the 6 finalists had to select one of Lloyd Webber's songs to perform for the judges that week.
Lloyd Webber accepted the challenge of managing the
UK's entry for the
2009 Eurovision Song Contest, to be held in Moscow. In early 2009 a series, called
Eurovision: Your Country Needs You
, was broadcast to find a performer for a song that he would compose for the competition.
Jade Ewen won the right to represent Britain, winning with
It's My Time, by Lloyd Webber and
Diane Warren. At the contest, Jade was accompanied on stage by Lloyd Webber, who played the piano during the performance. Great Britain finished 5th in the contest.
[15]
Criticism
Plagiarism claims
Andrew Lloyd Webber has been accused of plagiarism in his works. His biographer,
John Snelson, has acknowledged the strong similarity between the opening melody of the slow movement of Mendelssohn's Violin Concerto and the
Jesus Christ Superstar
song "I Don't Know How to Love Him", but claims that Lloyd Webber:
"...brings a new dramatic tension to Mendelssohn's original melody through the confused emotions of Mary Magdalene. The opening theme may be Mendelssohn, but the rhythmic and harmonic treatment along with new lines of highly effective melodic development are Lloyd Webber's. The song works in its own right as its many performers and audiences can witness." [16]
In interviews promoting
Amused to Death
,
Roger Waters, formerly of
Pink Floyd, asserted that Andrew Lloyd Webber had plagiarized short chromatic riffs from "
Echoes" for sections of the
musical The Phantom of the Opera
; nevertheless, he decided not to file a
lawsuit regarding the matter.
[17] Curiously, the songwriter
Ray Repp made a similar claim about the same song, but insisted that Lloyd Webber stole the idea from him. Unlike Roger Waters, Ray Repp did decide to file a lawsuit, but the court eventually cleared Lloyd Webber of plagiarism.
[18]
Nevertheless, Waters attacked Lloyd Webber in the song
It's a Miracle
on the
Amused to Death
album:
"Lloyd Webber's awful stuff runs for years and years and years / An earthquake hits the theatre but the operetta lingers / Then the piano lid comes down and breaks his fucking fingers / It's a Miracle"
Lloyd Webber has also been accused of cribbing off
Puccini, most notably in
Requiem
[19] and
The Phantom of the Opera
. A claim regarding
Phantom
by the Puccini estate was settled out of court.
[20]
Honors
Lloyd Webber was
knighted by
Elizabeth II of the United Kingdom in 1992.
In 1997, he was created a
life peer as
Baron Lloyd-Webber
, of Sydmonton, in
Hampshire (also by Elizabeth II). His title is hyphenated but his surname is not.
Awards
Academy Awards
- 1996
- Best Original Song for "You Must Love Me" from Evita
(award shared with Sir Tim Rice)
Plus one nomination for Best Original Song: "
Learn to Be Lonely" from the 2004 motion picture
The Phantom of the Opera
.
Golden Globes
- 1997
- Best Original Song for "You Must Love Me" from Evita
(award shared with Sir Tim Rice)
Plus one nomination for Best Original Song: "
Learn to Be Lonely" from the 2004 motion picture
The Phantom of the Opera
.
Grammy Awards
- 1980
- Best Cast Show Album for Evita
- 1983
- Best Cast Show Album for Cats
- 1986
- Grammy Award for Best Contemporary Composition for Requiem
Tony Awards
- 1980
- Best Musical for Evita
- 1980
- Best Original Score for Evita (award shared with Tim Rice)
- 1983
- Best Musical for Cats
- 1983
- Best Original Score for Cats
- 1988
- Best Musical for The Phantom of the Opera
- 1995
- Best Musical for Sunset Boulevard
- 1995
- Best Original Score for Sunset Boulevard
Plus 9 additional nominations
[21]