Andrew Lloyd Webber
Andrew Lloyd Webber, born on March 22, 1948, in London, is a renowned composer celebrated for his influential contributions to musical theater. His most famous works include iconic musicals such as *Jesus Christ Superstar*, *Cats*, and *The Phantom of the Opera*, along with notable film scores for productions like *Evita*. Known for his exceptional talent in blending classical, show, and popular music, Lloyd Webber's compositions have garnered both critical acclaim and commercial success, establishing him as a pivotal figure in the musical landscape of the late twentieth century.
Lloyd Webber's early exposure to music, deeply rooted in his family's artistic background, paved the way for his career in theater. He initially collaborated with lyricist Tim Rice, creating several impactful musicals that transformed the genre, including the rock opera *Jesus Christ Superstar*. Over the decades, he received numerous accolades, including multiple Tony and Olivier Awards, and was knighted in 1992, further solidifying his legacy in the arts. His works extend beyond the stage, influencing film adaptations and popular music, with many of his songs becoming classics in their own right. Lloyd Webber continues to be an active and significant presence in theater and music today.
On this Page
Andrew Lloyd Webber
British composer and theater director
- Born: March 22, 1948
- Place of Birth: London, England
Lloyd Webber’s compositions, which include hit musicals such as Jesus Christ Superstar, Cats, and Phantom of the Opera, and his film scores, including those for Evita and Phantom of the Opera, brought him fame and critical acclaim and are classics in their respective genres. He has a genius for melody and a unique ability to combine classical, show, and popular music in a way that appeals to a universal audience.
Early Life
Andrew Lloyd Webber, born on March 22, 1948, in London, England, was the son of the composer William Lloyd Webber, who taught composition at the Royal College of Music, and Jean Johnston Lloyd Webber, an author, singer, violinist, and teacher at the Royal College of Music. Lloyd Webber’s younger brother, Julian, became a world-famous cellist. Lloyd Webber began playing the violin when he was three years old, and at age nine he composed and published, in the magazine Music Teacher, a suite of six pieces.
From an early age Lloyd Webber’s aunt Viola, a professional singer and actor, took him under her wing and encouraged his interest in theater. Together they built a toy theater for which he created musical productions. His aunt took him to see her shows and introduced him to happenings backstage. The two also attended such film musicals as Gigi and South Pacific.
Lloyd Webber became a queen’s scholar at Westminster and entered Oxford University, where he studied history. However, his love for theater led him to forsake school and join the young lyricist Tim Rice to write a number of popular songs recorded on single labels. In 1965, when Lloyd Webber was seventeen years old and Rice was twenty-one, they created their first musical, The Likes of Us, which was not performed until 2005. In 1968 the two created Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat for a performance at Colet Court prep school. The piece was a fifteen-minute rock-and-roll retelling of the biblical story of Joseph and his coat of many colors, and it was revised and expanded twice.
In 1972, Lloyd Webber married Sarah Hugill; the couple divorced in 1983. Together, Lloyd Webber and Hugill had two children, Imogen and Nicholas.
Life’s Work
Lloyd Webber and Rice were established as theater artists after their successful re-creation of Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat in 1973 as a full-length musical of forty minutes; the show opened in London’s West End. The musical was again expanded, this time to ninety minutes, in 1976; this show opened in New York City. Their next big success was the rock opera Jesus Christ Superstar. The work was first released as a concept album in 1970, staged in the West End; the work was staged in New York City in 1971. While billed as a rock opera, Jesus Christ Superstar also contains music of a classical quality, especially the score that accompanies the crucifixion scene. The opera made the rock musical an acceptable form in commercial theater.
Jesus Christ Superstar was made into an Oscar-nominated film in 1973, further adding to the reputation of Lloyd Webber and Rice. The film caused strong negative reactions from religious conservatives because of its presentation of Mary Magdalene as Christ’s close companion, revealed by her song “I Don’t Know How to Love Him.” Conservatives also criticized the presentation of Judas as a heroic and fundamentally tragic figure.
Lloyd Webber also began to compose scores for the films Gumshoe (1971) and The Odessa File (1974). In 1975, he composed, with Alan Ayckbourn as lyricist, the musical Jeeves, based on the novels of P. G. Wodehouse. Jeeves ran only three weeks, but as a revised and retitled By Jeeves, it had respectable runs in London and New York in 1996. In 1976, Lloyd Webber and Rice collaborated once more to create Evita , which presents the life of Evita (Eva) Perón, who rose from unknown struggling actor to the wife of the president of Argentina. Evita, featuring the song “Don’t Cry for Me Argentina,” was a major hit in London and transferred to Broadway, starring Patti Lupone, in 1979. Both productions ran for many years, and Lloyd Webber was established as England’s foremost musical theater composer.
Musical theater, however, was not Lloyd Webber’s only artistic contribution. In 1978 he created the album Variations , a set of variations based on Niccolò Paganini’s Caprice in A Minor. The album, featuring his brother and other rock musicians, made it to second place on the United Kingdom’s popular album chart. More work was produced in 1985 when, for his father’s funeral, he composed a Latin requiem mass, for which he won a Grammy Award.
In 1981, Cats, based on T. S. Eliot’s Old Possum’s Book of Practical Cats, was a London hit for Lloyd Webber, and when produced in New York it ran for fourteen years, setting a Broadway record unbroken until Lloyd Webber’s later work, The Phantom of the Opera (1986). In 1984 he presented Starlight Express, and, in the same year, he married singer Sarah Brightman, with whom he would remain until their divorce in 1990. The Phantom of the Opera, which set records for runs in London and New York, starred Brightman in the role of Christine. In 1989, Lloyd Webber presented Aspects of Love, and in 1993 came Sunset Boulevard.
In 1991, Lloyd Webber married Madeleine Gurdon, and the couple had three children, Alastair, William, and Isabella. In 1992 he was knighted by Queen Elizabeth II and in 1997 was created a life peer and given the title Baron Lloyd-Webber. In 1996, he had resuscitated By Jeeves, which was followed by Whistle Down the Wind (1996), The Beautiful Game (2000), and Tell Me on Sunday (2003). In 2004 came his next significant hit, The Woman in White, which was well received in London but less so in New York.
In 2010, a sequel to The Phantom of the Opera with music by Lloyd Webber, titled Love Never Dies, opened at the Adelphi Theatre in London's West End on March 9. The show closed briefly in November for substantial rewrites. The original London production received tepid reviews, but the rewritten Australian production was favorably reviewed. The Broadway production of Love Never Dies, which was originally slated to begin in 2010, was indefinitely postponed.
Lloyd Webber next began work on adapting the 1939 classic film The Wizard of Oz as a stage production, with some new songs and original music by Lloyd Webber and Rice in addition to songs from the original film. The musical opened on March 1, 2011, and ran for six months before closing in September 2012. The show was nominated for a 2012 Laurence Olivier Award for best musical revival. Also in 2012, Lloyd Webber revealed plans for a show based on the Profumo affair, a 1963 British political scandal involving the minister for war John Profumo, which Lloyd Webber developed into the musical Stephen Ward. The show, featuring original music by Lloyd Webber and lyrics by Don Black and Christopher Hampton, officially opened at the Aldwych Theatre in London on December 19, 2013.
In addition to musical theater, Lloyd Webber has worked extensively in film. The most successful film on which he worked was Evita, released in 1996 and starring pop singer Madonna. Evita grossed $50 million in the United States and $143 million worldwide. A video of Cats was released in 1998, and in 1999 the film version of Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat was released. The film Bombay Dreams was released in 2004 and was followed by the film version of The Phantom of the Opera in 2004. Lloyd Webber also created a 2002 digital video recording of the children’s story The Gruffalo. Lloyd Webber purchased the stage rights to the 2003 film School of Rock, for which he wrote the music with lyricist Glenn Slater.
Lloyd Webber has written more than a dozen musicals, a song cycle set of variations, film scores, and a Latin requiem mass. He has received numerous awards as well, including seven Tony Awards, seven Olivier Awards, three Grammys, an Academy Award, a Golden Globe Award, a Woodrow Wilson Award for public service, and a Kennedy Center Honors Award. In 2009, he was inducted into the American Theatre Hall of Fame. His management company, The Really Useful Group, owns many theaters in London, and he is an avid art enthusiast who has amassed a large and important art collection, mainly of Victorian art but also including famous masters from the Renaissance period and later years.
Lloyd Webber's memoir, Unmasked, was published in 2018. In 2022, the artist performed alongside Lin-Manuel Miranda in the BBC Platinum Jubilee Concert for Elizabeth II. The following year, Lloyd Webber's composition "Make a Joyful Noise" was performed during the enthronement of Queen Camilla.
Significance
Considered to be the dominant composer of the late twentieth century, Lloyd Webber has been so successful with his creations that he has held records for the two longest running shows on Broadway. In addition to his many awards, Lloyd Webber has amassed a personal fortune, which has enabled him to purchase and operate many of the theaters in London’s West End, making him a significant force in all types of British theatrical offerings.
Lloyd Webber remains a critical figure in the British and American film industries as well, as several of his stage works have been transformed into extremely successful motion pictures. Songs from his musicals also have become widely popular and have been covered by a variety of artists, including a 1977 Elvis Presley recording of “It’s Easy for You.” Among Lloyd Webber’s most memorable songs are “Don’t Cry for Me Argentina” from Evita, “I Don’t Know How to Love Him” from Jesus Christ Superstar, and “Music of the Night” from Phantom of the Opera.
Bibliography
Barone, Joshua. "5 Things We Learned from Andrew Lloyd Webber's New Memoior." New York Times, 5 Mar. 2018, www.nytimes.com/2018/03/05/theater/andrew-lloyd-webber-memoir-unmasked.html. Accessed 19 Aug. 2024.
Cavendish, Dominic. "Can Andrew Lloyd Webber's New Musical Stephen Ward Turn the Story of the Profumo Affair into a Hit?" Telegraph. Telegraph Media Group, 29 Nov. 2013. Web. 18 Dec. 2013.
Healy, Patrick. "Lloyd Webber's Latest Creation: Breathing Space." New York Times. New York Times, 14 July 2011. Web. 18 Dec. 2013.
Kershaw, Baz, ed. The Cambridge History of the British Theatre. Vol. 3. New York: Cambridge UP, 2002. Print.
Kreps, Daniel. "Hear Andrew Lloyd Webber's King Charles III Coronation Anthem 'Make a Joyful Noise." Rolling Stone, 6 May 2023, www.rollingstone.com/music/music-news/andrew-lloyd-webber-king-charles-iii-coronation-anthem-make-a-joyful-noise-1234730925/. Accesesd 19 Aug. 2024.
Lloyd Webber, Andrew. "Stephen Ward Became a Scapegoat for a Number of Things." WhatsOnStage. WhatsOnStage.com, 16 Dec. 2013. Web. 18 Dec. 2013.
Rice, Tim. Oh, What a Circus: The Autobiography, 1944–1978. London: Hodder, 1999. Print.
Snelson, John. Andrew Lloyd Webber. New Haven: Yale UP, 2004. Print.
Walsh, Michael. Andrew Lloyd Webber: His Life and Works. 1989. Rev. ed. New York: Abrams, 1997. Print.