Andrew Lloyd Webber is a British highly acclaimed English composer and impresario of musical theatre. He is famous for composing over 21 musicals, a song cycle, a set of variations, two film scores, and a Latin Requiem Mass, with many of his productions running for more than a decade in the West End and on Broadway. Among his most famous works are "The Phantom of the Opera", "Jesus Christ Superstar", and "Evita". During his career timeline, he has received numerous awards for his work, including a knighthood, a peerage, six Tonys, three Grammys, an Academy Award, 14 Ivor Novello Awards, seven Olivier Awards, a Golden Globe, and an Emmy Award. He's considered one of the most commercially successful composers in history and has a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. He is also the founder of the "Really Useful Group", one of the largest theatre operators in London, and the president of the Arts Educational Schools, London. He has also been involved in various charitable activities, including the Andrew Lloyd Webber Foundation, the Elton John AIDS Foundation, Nordoff Robbins, Prostate Cancer UK, and War Child.
Andrew Lloyd Webber is a highly successful English composer and director of popular musicals that have run for years on end at West End and Broadway. He's considered a cultural icon and has received many awards and honors, including a peerage from Queen Elizabeth II. He's been producing and making music for over five decades and has created some of the most successful theatre productions of the last 50 years, such as 'Jesus Christ Superstar' and 'Phantom of The Opera'. He's also the founder of the 'Really Useful Group' and the president of 'Arts Education Schools London'. He's involved with various charity organizations, including the 'Elton John AIDS Foundation' and 'Nordof Robbins'.
Andrew Lloyd Webber, born in Kensington, London on 22 March 1948, came from a family of accomplished musicians. He is the elder son of his father, William Lloyd Webber (1914–1982), a composer and organist, and his mother, Jean Hermione Johnstone (1921–1993), a violinist and pianist. His younger brother, Julian Lloyd Webber, is a world-renowned solo cellist. At the age of nine, he created a suite of six musical pieces and put on playful productions of them with his brother and aunt. His father enrolled him as a part-time student at the Eric Gilder School of Music in the spring of 1963. He then went on to attend Westminster School as a Queen's Scholar in 1965 and later enrolled at Magdalen College in Oxford to study history. However, he dropped out in 1965 to study musical theatre at the Royal College of Music. Despite dropping out of university, he then went on to become one of the most successful composers in musical theatre. His early exposure to music and supportive family helped nurture his talent, and he started creating music at a young age.
Lloyd Webber, in 1965, when met Tim Rice, and together they created a musical called "The Likes of Us" which was not publicly performed until 2005. The duo then created a piece for a school choir called "Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat", which began as a short cantata but was expanded over time and eventually became a successful stage musical in 1973. It was in the year 1969, Rice and Lloyd Webber wrote a song for the Eurovision Song Contest called "Try It and See" which was later repurposed as "King Herod's Song" in Jesus Christ Superstar (1970). This music became a huge success and grossed over $237 million worldwide by 1980. After this success, Lloyd Webber and Rice collaborated again to create "Evita" (1978), a musical based on the life of Eva Perón. It was first released as a concept album in 1976, featuring Julie Covington, and was later staged in the West End and on Broadway, winning seven Tony Awards.
In 1978, Lloyd Webber worked on a solo project called, the Variations, which reached number two on the UK pop album chart and was based on the 24th Caprice by Paganini. He was twice surprised by "This Is Your Life", first in 1980 and then again in 1994. He then turned to the poetry of T. S. Eliot for his next project and created the successful musical Cats, which ran for 21 years in London and 18 years on Broadway. "Starlight Express" which was also created by Lloyd Webber, was a commercial success but received negative reviews from critics. Likewise, he wrote a Requiem Mass dedicated to his father, which earned him a Grammy Award in 1986. He also collaborated with Tim Rice to create "Cricket" (1986), a short musical commissioned for Queen Elizabeth II's 60th birthday celebration, which later inspired several tunes used in Aspects of Love and Sunset Boulevard. In the same year, he premiered The Phantom of the Opera, which became a hit and is still running in both the West End and on Broadway which overtook Lloyd Webber's Cats as the longest-running show on Broadway in January 2006. On 11 February 2012, Phantom of the Opera played its 10,000th show on Broadway.
His musical "Aspects of Love", based on David Garnett's story and featuring the song "Love Changes Everything," had a successful four-year run in London but closed after less than a year on Broadway. His next musical, "Sunset Boulevard", was a project he had been considering since the 1970s, and it opened in London in 1993 with Christopher Hampton and Don Black as co-writers. He also wrote a restaurant and hotel review column for The Daily Telegraph from 1995 to 2000, and in 1998 he released a film version of "Cats" featuring the original London cast. "Whistle Down the Wind", written with Jim Steinman, and "The Beautiful Game" had mixed success and have been revised or reworked.
He achieved great success in musical theatre and was recognized by The New York Times as "the most commercially successful composer in history." He later turned to produce, bringing the musical "Bombay Dreams" to London and producing "The Woman in White", "The Sound of Music", and a revival of "Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat". He also participated as a judge in the reality television show "How Do You Solve a Problem Like Maria?", "Grease: You're the One that I Want!", and "Any Dream Will Do!".
Lloyd has been involved in several musical talent shows, including "I'd Do Anything" and "Eurovision: Your Country Needs You". He also launched "Love Never Dies", a sequel to The Phantom of the Opera, and held auditions for "Over the Rainbow" to cast the lead role in "The Wizard of Oz". He was a judge on "Superstar", a show that gave the public the chance to decide who would play the role of Jesus in an arena tour of "Jesus Christ Superstar". He also adapted the 2003 film "School of Rock" into a musical and revived "Sunset Boulevard" in London and on Broadway. His memoir, "Unmasked", was published in 2018.
Andrew Lloyd Webber, who has won Academy, Emmy, Grammy, and Tony Awards, co-wrote the song "Beautiful Ghosts" for the film adaptation of Cats but criticized the film as "ridiculous" for its changes from the original musical. He also opened a new version of "Cinderella" at the Gillian Lynne Theatre in the West End in 2021, delayed from 2020 due to the COVID-19 pandemic, and is set to compose a new piece for the "Coronation of Charles III" and "Camilla" in 2023.
Andrew Lloyd Webber is a highly successful English composer with a net worth of $1.3 billion as of 2023, making him the richest theater artist. He has made most of his money from the commercial success of his musical compositions, with The Phantom being one of his most successful shows, earning nearly $5.6 billion worldwide. Through his production company, the Really Useful Group, he owns all of his musical works and recently received a dividend of nearly $2.7 million. He is making his annual salary in millions of dollars. Despite numerous controversies and plagiarism accusations, his musicals' phenomenal success has silenced his detractors, making him the reigning Lord of Music and Melody. He also owns properties in New York, New Hampshire, New Jersey, and Pennsylvania, as well as a house in London worth $4 million. He is considered an ambassador and national icon in England.
His net worth has been ranked in several editions of The Sunday Times Rich List, with his estimated fortune increasing from £700 million in 2006 to £820 million in 2019, making him the richest musician in the UK. He resides in Sydmonton Court, Hampshire, and owns a large portion of nearby Watership Down. In 2010, he sold the Portrait of Angel Fernández de Soto by Pablo Picasso for £34.7 million to an anonymous telephone bidder to benefit the Andrew Lloyd Webber Foundation.
Andrew Lloyd Webber has been married three times to date. His first marriage was to Sarah Hugill on 24 July 1971, and they had two children together, a daughter named Imogen Lloyd Webber (born 31 March 1977) and a son named Nicholas Lloyd Webber (born 2 July 1979). They got divorced on 14 November 1983. He then married his second wife, Sarah Brightman on 22 March 1984 in Hampshire. Sarah is an English soprano. They divorced on 3 January 1990, but have remained friends and continued to work together. His third marriage was to Madeleine Gurdon on 9 February 1991. They have three children together, two sons named Alastair Adam Lloyd Webber and William Richard Lloyd Webber, and a daughter named Isabella Aurora Lloyd Webber. They also founded the Watership Down Stud in 1992 and expanded their equestrian holdings by purchasing Kiltinan Castle Stud near Fethard in County Tipperary, Ireland, in 1996. Andrew Lloyd Webber is currently in his third marriage and appears to be happy with his family life, with no indications of any impending separation or divorce.
Andrew Lloyd Webber, who is 73 years old as of 2022, has an average body type, with a height of 1.72 m or 172 cm or 5 ft 8 in, and a weight of 70 kg. He has brown eyes and dark brown hair, and despite his age, he still looks handsome. He maintains his physique with a strict diet. He has been able to maintain his body through a strict diet regimen. Despite being 73 years old, he looks quite attractive. He has got a healthy body right now. In late 2009, he had surgery for early-stage prostate cancer but had to be readmitted to the hospital with a post-operative infection in November. In January 2010, he declared he was cancer-free. He had his prostate completely removed as a preventive measure.
His family had a strong musical background, with his father William serving as the director of the London College of Music and his mother Jean as a piano teacher. Growing up, music played an important role in his life, and he had already developed skills in playing the piano, violin, and French Horn during his childhood. At the tender age of nine, he demonstrated his musical talent by composing his first piece, The Toy Theatre Suite, which was subsequently published.
In collaboration with Tim Rice, Andrew wrote two songs that were included in Elvis Presley's album "Moody Blue." The songs, titled "It's Easy for You" and "Please Don't Let Lorraine Come Down," showcased the duo's songwriting prowess and their ability to adapt to Presley's unique style. Despite Presley's declining health during the recording sessions, he was able to deliver powerful performances that complemented the duo's songwriting, resulting in a critically acclaimed album. His success in writing for Elvis Presley's album "Moody Blue" was a testament to his versatility as a songwriter. His ability to craft songs that complemented Presley's vocal style and capture the essence of the album's theme was an impressive feat.
His accomplishments as a musical composer are unparalleled. In 1991, he broke a record by having six productions run simultaneously in the West End, becoming the only musical composer to achieve such a feat. This impressive achievement is a testament to his creative genius and his ability to produce quality musical productions that captivate audiences. His success extended beyond the West End to Broadway, where he had four productions running at the same time, namely Sunset Boulevard, Cats, The Phantom of the Opera, and School of Rock – The Musical. This achievement earned him the record for the most concurrent shows on Broadway, a feat he now shares with musical legends Rodgers and Hammerstein. His legacy in the musical world is secured, with his unparalleled accomplishments and contributions to the art form cementing his place as one of the most talented and influential composers of our time.
The Really Useful Group, founded by Andrew Lloyd Webber, is a leading theatre company that owns seven London theatres. The company's impressive portfolio includes the Adelphi Theatre, Cambridge Theatre, London Palladium, New London Theatre, Her Majesty's Theatre, Theatre Royal Drury Lane, and The Other Palace. This impressive feat demonstrates the company's significant contribution to the London theatre scene and its commitment to supporting the performing arts. The acquisition of these prestigious venues has helped cement the Really Useful Group's position as a major player in the theatre industry.
Andrew Lloyd Webber, the renowned musical composer, is the proud father of five children. His first wife Sarah Hugill gave birth to Imogen Lloyd Webber in 1977 and Nicholas Lloyd Webber in 1979. Meanwhile, his current wife Madeleine Gurdon gave birth to Alastair Lloyd Webber in 1992, William Lloyd Webber in 1993, and Isabella Aurora Lloyd Webber in 1996. Imogen Lloyd Webber, one of Andrew's children with Sarah Hugill, is a political commentator and author based in New York. She has been nominated for four Emmy Awards and is a regular contributor to MSNBC and Fox News. In addition to her work as a political commentator, Imogen has authored three books. Nicholas, Andrew's other child with Sarah Hugill, has followed in his father's footsteps and become a composer. He has written several musicals, including The Little Prince in 2011, and is currently working on a new show called Fat Friends The Musical.