Andrew Lloyd Webber
Andrew Lloyd Webber, Baron Lloyd-Webber (born 22 March 1948) is an English composer and impresario of musical theatre. Several of his musicals have run for more than a decade both in the West End and on Broadway. He has composed 21 musicals, a song cycle, a set of variations, two film scores, and a Latin Requiem Mass.
This British surname is barrelled, being made up of multiple names. It should be written as Lloyd Webber, not Webber.
The Lord Lloyd-Webber
Composer
1965–present
- Really Useful Group
- Andrew Lloyd Webber Foundation
- Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat (1968)
- Jesus Christ Superstar (1970)
- Evita (1976)
- Cats (1981)
- Starlight Express (1984)
- The Phantom of the Opera (1986)
- Sunset Boulevard (1993)
- School of Rock (2015)
- William Lloyd Webber (father)
Julian Lloyd Webber (brother)
Several of Lloyd Webber's songs have been widely recorded and widely successful outside of their parent musicals, such as "Memory" from Cats, "The Music of the Night" and "All I Ask of You" 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, and "Any Dream Will Do" from Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat. In 2001, The New York Times referred to him as "the most commercially successful composer in history".[1] The Daily Telegraph named him in 2008 the fifth-most powerful person in British culture, on which occasion lyricist Don Black said that "Andrew more or less single-handedly reinvented the musical."[2]
Lloyd Webber has received numerous awards, including a knighthood in 1992, followed by a peerage for services to the arts, six Tonys, seven Olivier Awards, three Grammys (as well as the Grammy Legend Award), an Academy Award, 14 Ivor Novello Awards, a Golden Globe, a Brit Award, the 2006 Kennedy Center Honors, and two Classic Brit Awards (for Outstanding Contribution to Music in 2008, and for Musical Theatre and Education in 2018).[3][4][5] In 2018, after Jesus Christ Superstar Live in Concert won the Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Variety Special (Live), he became the thirteenth person to win an Oscar, an Emmy, a Grammy, and a Tony.[6] He has a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame, is an inductee into the Songwriters Hall of Fame, and is a fellow of the British Academy of Songwriters, Composers, and Authors.[7]
The Really Useful Group, Lloyd Webber's company, 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 musicals under licence from the Really Useful Group. He is also the president of the Arts Educational Schools, London, a performing arts school located in Chiswick, West London. Lloyd Webber is involved in a number of charitable activities, including the Elton John AIDS Foundation, Nordoff Robbins, Prostate Cancer UK and War Child. In 1992, he started the Andrew Lloyd Webber Foundation which supports the arts, culture, and heritage of the UK.[8]
Lloyd Webber has been married three times. He married first Sarah Hugill on 24 July 1971; they divorced on 14 November 1983. Together they had two children, a daughter and a son:
He then married English soprano Sarah Brightman on 22 March 1984 in Hampshire. He cast Brightman in the lead role in his musical The Phantom of the Opera, among other notable roles. They divorced on 3 January 1990, but have remained close friends and have also continued to work together.[103]
Thirdly, he married Madeleine Gurdon in Westminster on 9 February 1991. They have three children, two sons and one daughter, all of whom were born in London:
Lloyd Webber and his third wife Madeleine founded the Watership Down Stud in 1992. In 1996, they expanded their equestrian holdings by purchasing Kiltinan Castle Stud near Fethard in County Tipperary, Ireland.[104] They were invited to ride in the King's procession at Royal Ascot 2023.[105]
In a 1971 interview with The New York Times, Lloyd Webber said he is an agnostic. He also said he views Jesus as "one of the great figures of history".[106]
He is a lifelong supporter of London-based football club Leyton Orient F.C.,[107] just like his younger brother Julian.[108]
In late 2009, Lloyd Webber had surgery for early-stage prostate cancer,[109] but had to be readmitted to hospital with post-operative infection in November. In January 2010, he declared he was cancer-free.[110] He had his prostate completely removed as a preventative measure.[111]
In 2023, Lloyd Webber's son, Nicholas died at the age of 43 after an 18 month battle with gastric cancer.[112]
Lloyd Webber has a house in Eaton Square in Belgravia, London; in 2024 he revealed he had had his house blessed by a priest in an attempt to displace a "poltergeist" that was haunting the property.[113]
Wealth[edit]
The Sunday Times Rich List 2006 ranked him the 87th-richest person in Britain with an estimated fortune of £700 million. His wealth increased to £750 million in 2007, but the publication ranked him 101st in 2008.[114] The Sunday Times Rich List of 2019 saw him ranked the richest musician in the UK (overtaking Paul McCartney) with a fortune of £820 million ($1.074 billion).[115][116] He lives at Sydmonton Court, Hampshire, and owns much of nearby Watership Down.[117]
Lloyd Webber is an art collector, with a passion for Victorian painting. 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. In 2006, Lloyd Webber planned to sell Portrait of Angel Fernández de Soto by Pablo Picasso to benefit the Andrew Lloyd Webber Foundation.[118] In November 2006, he withdrew the painting from auction after a claim that the previous owner had been forced to sell it under duress in Nazi Germany.[119] An out-of-court settlement was reached, where the foundation retained ownership rights.[120] On 23 June 2010, the painting was sold at auction for £34.7 million to an anonymous telephone bidder.[121]
Politics[edit]
Lloyd Webber was made a life peer in 1997, sitting for the Conservative Party.[126] By the end of 2015, he had voted only 33 times in the House of Lords.[127] Politically, Lloyd Webber has supported the Conservatives, allowing his song "Take That Look Off Your Face" to be used on a party promotional film seen by an estimated one million people before the 2005 general election.[128] In August 2014, Lloyd Webber was one of 200 public figures who were signatories to a letter to The Guardian opposing Scottish independence in the run-up to September's referendum on that issue.[129]
In October 2015, Lloyd Webber was involved in a contentious House of Lords vote over proposed cuts to tax credits, voting with the Government in favour of the plan. Lloyd Webber was denounced by his critics because he flew in from abroad on his personal plane to vote, when his voting record was scant.[130][131] In October 2017, Lloyd Webber retired from the House of Lords, stating that his busy schedule was incompatible with the demands of Parliament considering the upcoming crucial Brexit legislation.[132]
In July 2021, he told Good Morning Britain that he would never vote for the Conservatives again, due to their handling of the COVID-19 pandemic and poor treatment of the arts sector during that time.[133]
Film adaptations[edit]
There have been a number of film adaptations of Lloyd Webber's musicals: Jesus Christ Superstar (1973), directed by Norman Jewison; Evita (1996), directed by Alan Parker; The Phantom of the Opera (2004), directed by Joel Schumacher and co-produced by Lloyd Webber; and Cats (2019), directed by Tom Hooper and executive produced by Lloyd Webber. Cats (1998), Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat (1999), Jesus Christ Superstar (2000) and By Jeeves (2001) have been adapted into made-for-television films that have been released on DVD and VHS and often air on BBC.
A special performance of The Phantom of the Opera at the Royal Albert Hall for the 25th anniversary was broadcast live to cinemas in early October 2011 and later released on DVD and Blu-ray in February 2012. The same was also done with a reworked version of Love Never Dies. Filmed in Melbourne, Australia, it received a limited cinema release in the US and Canada in 2012, to see if it would be viable to bring the show to Broadway.
Musicals and show recordings
Other albums