Andrew Lloyd Webber
Andrew Lloyd Webber was born on the 22nd of March 1948 at Westminster Hospital in London. His father William worked as a composer and organist while his mother Jean Hermione Johnstone played the violin and piano. The young Andrew began playing both the piano and violin by age three. He started composing original music by age six and wrote a suite of six pieces when he was nine years old.
His family background provided immediate access to professional musicianship. Lloyd Webber studied at the Royal College of Music in London following his father's path. He also attended the Eric Gilder School of Music as a part-time student starting in 1963. During this period he worked on a musical project called Westonia! about Genghis Khan.
From 1960 to 1965 he served as a Queen's Scholar at Westminster School. He developed an avid interest in 1960s rock and pop music during these formative years. He later described The Rolling Stones song Satisfaction as the best record of the Sixties. Dusty Springfield's rendition of Son of a Preacher Man taught him the power of a perfect pop song.
In 1965 at age seventeen he met Tim Rice who was twenty years old at the time. Their first collaboration produced The Likes of Us based on the true story of Thomas John Barnardo. They created a demo tape for that work in 1966 but failed to secure financial backing. Although composed in 1965 the piece did not receive its first public performance until 2005.
Alan Doggett commissioned Lloyd Webber and Tim Rice to write a piece for Colet Court school choir in the summer of 1967. The request specified a pop cantata similar to Herbert Chappell's The Daniel Jazz from 1963. Novello provided a one hundred guinea advance for this new project which became Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat.
This biblical retelling humorously pastiched various pop styles including Elvis-style rock and roll Calypso and country music. Joseph began life as a short cantata that gained recognition after its second staging received a favorable review in The Times. Rice and Lloyd Webber revised the show adding new songs to expand it into a substantial length.
Continued expansion culminated in a 1972 stage musical followed by a two-hour production in the West End in 1973. This development occurred on the back of success from Jesus Christ Superstar which debuted on Broadway in 1971. By 1980 that musical had grossed more than ten million dollars worldwide.
Running for over eight years in London between 1972 and 1980 Jesus Christ Superstar held the record for longest-running West End musical before Cats took the title in 1989. The planned follow-up to Jesus Christ Superstar was intended to be a musical comedy based on P.G. Wodehouse novels but Tim Rice backed out of the venture.
Lloyd Webber embarked on his next project without a lyricist turning instead to poetry by T.S. Eliot. Cats opened in 1981 and became the longest-running musical in London where it ran for twenty-one years and 8,949 performances before closing. On Broadway Cats ran for eighteen years until another Lloyd Webber musical broke its record.
Elaine Paige collaborated again with Lloyd Webber originating the role of Grizabella in Cats. Her song Memory achieved a Top 10 UK hit status. Starlight Express followed in 1984 as a commercial hit despite negative reviews from critics. It ran for 7,409 performances in London making it the ninth longest-running West End show.
The Phantom of the Opera premiered at Her Majesty's Theatre in the West End in 1986 inspired by Gaston Leroux's 1911 novel. He wrote the part of Christine for his then wife Sarah Brightman who played the role alongside Michael Crawford. Charles Hart wrote lyrics with additional material provided by Richard Stilgoe.
In January 2006 Phantom overtook Cats as the longest-running show on Broadway. By February 2012 it had played its 10,000th show on Broadway. The production closed on the 16th of April 2023 after playing 13,981 performances which remains the most in Broadway history.
Among accusations of plagiarism Dutch composer Louis Andriessen stated that Lloyd Webber has yet to think up a single note. Biographer John Snelson acknowledged a similarity between the andante movement of Mendelssohn's Violin Concerto in E minor and Jesus Christ Superstar song I Don't Know How to Love Him.
An accusation regarding the 1971 Pink Floyd album Meddle claimed the sixth track Echoes contained a riff upon which Lloyd Webber allegedly based the opening organ riff in The Phantom of the Opera. Both riffs share very similar notes and order. Roger Waters pointed out this connection stating it was probably actionable but chose not to take it to court.
Noting similarities between The Music of the Night and a recurring melody in Giacomo Puccini's 1910 opera La fanciulla del West the Puccini estate filed a lawsuit against Lloyd Webber in 1987. The case settled out of court with no public details released. Ray Repp claimed in a court case that Lloyd Webber had stolen a melody from his own song Till You but the court ruled in favor of Lloyd Webber.
He then married English soprano Sarah Brightman on the 22nd of March 1984 in Hampshire. He cast Brightman in the lead role of The Phantom of the Opera among other notable roles. They divorced on the 3rd of January 1990 but remained close friends continuing to work together professionally.
Thirdly he married Madeleine Gurdon in Westminster on the 9th of February 1991. Together they have three children consisting of two sons and one daughter. In 1992 they founded the Watership Down Stud expanding their equestrian holdings by purchasing Kiltinan Castle Stud near Fethard in County Tipperary Ireland in 1996.
In late 2009 Lloyd Webber had surgery for early-stage prostate cancer requiring readmission with post-operative infection in November. He declared himself cancer-free in January 2010 after his prostate was completely removed as a preventative measure. His son Nicholas died at age 43 on the 25th of March 2023 following an eighteen-month battle with gastric cancer.
The Andrew Lloyd Webber Programme launched in 2013 to aid Music in Secondary Schools Trust aiming to give every child participating schools across the UK opportunity to study a musical instrument. He told LBC that music helps children become better people rather than necessarily making them musicians.
He designed
a Cats-themed Paddington Bear statue located in Chinatown London in 2014 which auctioned funds raised for National Society for Prevention of Cruelty to Children. Lloyd Webber was made a life peer in 1997 as Baron Lloyd-Webber sitting for Conservative Party.
By end of 2015 he had voted only thirty-three times in House of Lords. Politically he supported Conservatives allowing song Take That Look Off Your Face used on party promotional film seen by estimated one million people before 2005 general election. In July 2021 he stated he would never vote for Conservatives again due to handling of COVID-19 pandemic.
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Common questions
When was Andrew Lloyd Webber born and where did he grow up?
Andrew Lloyd Webber was born on the 22nd of March 1948 at Westminster Hospital in London. He grew up in a musical family with a father who worked as a composer and organist and a mother who played violin and piano.
What are the major musicals composed by Andrew Lloyd Webber and when were they released?
Andrew Lloyd Webber released Jesus Christ Superstar which debuted on Broadway in 1971 followed by Cats that opened in 1981 and The Phantom of the Opera which premiered in 1986. Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat began as a short cantata in 1967 before evolving into a full stage production in 1973.
How many performances has The Phantom of the Opera had on Broadway according to Andrew Lloyd Webber records?
The Phantom of the Opera closed on the 16th of April 2023 after playing 13,981 performances which remains the most in Broadway history. It overtook Cats as the longest-running show on Broadway in January 2006 and reached its 10,000th performance by February 2012.
Who did Andrew Lloyd Webber marry and how many children does he have?
Andrew Lloyd Webber married Sarah Brightman on the 22nd of March 1984 and later married Madeleine Gurdon on the 9th of February 1991. He has three children with his third wife consisting of two sons and one daughter.
What plagiarism accusations have been made against Andrew Lloyd Webber regarding his compositions?
Accusations include similarities between Echoes from Pink Floyd's Meddle album and the opening organ riff in The Phantom of the Opera. The Puccini estate also sued him in 1987 over similarities between The Music of the Night and a melody from La fanciulla del West though the case settled out of court.