Andrew Lloyd Webber

Andrew Lloyd Webber stands out as a leading proponent of the rock musical, widely regarded as the foremost composer for both Broadway and the West End within his era. His scores routinely fuse gripping, sentiment-driven narratives with expansive melodies that blend classical traditions and rock influences. Pieces relying solely on song to advance the story—among them his third theatrical work, Jesus Christ Superstar from 1971—received the designation of rock operas, following the precedent set by the Who's Tommy. The London-born artist shattered attendance marks in Britain and New York through productions such as Cats (1981) and The Phantom of the Opera (1988), the first containing the celebrated number "Memory" and the second establishing the record for longest-running Broadway presentation. Across subsequent decades he ventured occasionally into film scoring, as with 1974's The Odessa File, and into concert-hall compositions, including the 1985 Requiem, yet maintained a steady schedule of new stage musicals, writing the music while frequent collaborators such as Tim Rice and Don Black supplied the words. An EGOT recipient, Lloyd Webber secured four Grammy Awards during the 1980s and 1990s, shared an Academy Award with Rice for the song "You Must Love Me" from the 1996 screen version of Evita, and gathered seven Tony Awards before completing the set with an Emmy for Jesus Christ Superstar: Live in Concert in 2018. A 2020 film edition of Cats yielded a highlights recording that carried the composer's periodic appearances on American and British soundtrack and cast-album listings into a sixth decade. His composition for the coronation of Charles III and Camilla, Make a Joyful Noise, formed part of the May 2023 service.

Born in Kensington in 1948, Andrew Lloyd Webber followed the example of his mother, violist and pianist Jean Hermione Johnstone, and his father, composer and organist William Lloyd Webber, who had once directed the London College of Music. His brother Julian Lloyd Webber later achieved international renown as a cellist. Andrew began inventing melodies at the age of seven and assembled a set of six piano pieces by eleven. Theater entered his experience through his aunt Viola, a stage performer. By fifteen he was already developing original musicals, prompting his father to enroll him part-time at the Eric Gilder School of Music. After completing studies at Westminster School and a term at Magdalen College, Oxford, he joined the Royal College of Music to focus on musical theater.

While most earlier figures in the field had been American songwriters rooted in Broadway conventions, Lloyd Webber formed a partnership with fellow Englishman Tim Rice to launch a musical centered on philanthropist Thomas John Barnardo. Titled The Likes of Us and dated 1965, the project failed to attract a producer, so the duo turned to the biblical tale of Joseph and his multicolored coat. Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat carried a pronounced rock-and-roll flavor. Still awaiting a producer, the pair conceived a musical recounting the life of Jesus Christ through the eyes of Judas, again infused with rock elements. Unable to stage the work immediately, Lloyd Webber and Rice recorded it instead, allowing Jesus Christ Superstar (1969) to achieve multimillion sales worldwide. A theatrical production reached the West End in 1973.

Lloyd Webber and Rice then parted ways temporarily. The composer supplied music for the 1974 film The Odessa File and collaborated with playwright Alan Ayckbourn on the 1975 musical Jeeves before Rice returned with a fresh concept—an account of Argentine First Lady Eva Perón. Evita (1976) followed the same trajectory as Jesus Christ Superstar: a successful original album preceded acclaimed stage runs in the West End and subsequently on Broadway. The production earned Lloyd Webber his initial Grammy, Tony, and Olivier Awards, respectively for Best Cast Show Album, Best Original Score, and Best Musical.

Operating without Rice, who proceeded to write Blondel and Chess with other composers, Lloyd Webber created a revue drawn from T.S. Eliot's lighthearted cat poems. This time the stage production preceded the recording and became one of the longest-running shows in Broadway history (eighteen years) and the West End (twenty-one years). Cats (1981), performed in animal costumes, largely set aside the rock textures of earlier works in favor of a style critics described as pastiche, drawing from classical and operatic sources. Elaine Paige, who created the role of Grizabella in the West End, took a version of "Memory" to number six on the U.K. singles chart, while Barbra Streisand's recording reached number 52 on the Billboard Hot 100. The Broadway mounting brought Lloyd Webber two Tonys—for best score and best musical—plus a second Olivier for best musical and a second Grammy for best cast album. By this point he had also become a recognized commercial entity through his Really Useful Company.

Further stage triumphs followed, among them Song & Dance in 1982 with lyricist Don Black and Starlight Express in 1984 with Richard Stilgoe, before another major success arrived in 1987 (1988 in New York) with a musical treatment of The Phantom of the Opera featuring lyrics by British colleague Charles Hart. After receiving the Olivier and Tony for best musical, Phantom established the record for longest-running Broadway production by a substantial margin. Meanwhile Lloyd Webber received the Grammy for Best Contemporary Composition for his Requiem, whose recording attained a career-best position of number 77 on the Billboard 200. With book and music by Lloyd Webber and lyrics by Black and Hart, Aspects of Love opened in 1989 (a year later in New York). Queen Elizabeth II named him Knight Bachelor in 1992.

A musical adaptation of the Billy Wilder film Sunset Boulevard reached the West End in 1993 with Patti LuPone as Norma Desmond; Glenn Close originated the part on Broadway the following year. That New York production secured Lloyd Webber Tonys for best score and best musical. In 1996 Alan Parker brought Evita to the screen, for which Lloyd Webber and Rice supplied the new song "You Must Love Me," performed by Madonna as Eva Perón and awarded Best Original Song at the subsequent Academy Awards.

Lloyd Webber continued to introduce new musicals well into the following century, although his adaptation of the 1961 film Whistle Down the Wind never reached Broadway and neither did 2000's The Beautiful Game, which addressed political tensions in 1969 Belfast. He produced the A.R. Rahman musical Bombay Dreams, which opened on the West End in 2002 and Broadway in 2004. His own The Woman in White, drawn from the Wilkie Collins novel, premiered on the West End in 2004 and Broadway in 2005, closing in both cities in 2006. Subsequent works included Love Never Dies in 2010, The Wizard of Oz in 2011 incorporating the film's score with a book by Lloyd Webber and Jeremy Sams, and Stephen Ward in 2013, which played the West End but not Broadway.

Adapted from the 2003 film and featuring lyrics by Glenn Slater, School of Rock in 2015 marked Lloyd Webber's return to Broadway and became the first British musical to receive its world premiere there. When a 2017 revival of Sunset Boulevard starring Glenn Close opened on Broadway, Lloyd Webber became only the second songwriter to have four shows running simultaneously in New York—joining School of Rock, The Phantom of the Opera, and a revival of Cats—matching the achievement first accomplished by Rodgers & Hammerstein in 1953. In 2018 he received both the Tony and Olivier lifetime achievement awards.

A much-discussed screen version of the sparely plotted Cats, featuring CGI fur on its human performers, appeared in late 2019 and early 2020. A soundtrack highlights album including Taylor Swift, Jennifer Hudson, Sir Ian McKellen, and Dame Judi Dench reached the Top 50 in the U.K. and number 16 on Billboard's soundtrack chart. After preview performances, Andrew Lloyd Webber's Cinderella opened in the West End in August 2021. With a book by Oscar-winning writer Emerald Fennell (Promising Young Woman) and lyrics by David Zippel (The Woman in White, City of Angels), the production reimagined the fairy tale through altered gender dynamics and themes such as body shaming. A companion concept album featuring guests including Adam Lambert and Sarah Brightman appeared on Polydor in June 2021 and earned a Grammy nomination for Best Musical Theater Album. Retitled Bad Cinderella for New York, the show reached Broadway in March 2023 and closed in June. During the same period Lloyd Webber was commissioned to write for the coronation of Charles III and Camilla; the resulting Make a Joyful Noise was performed in the ceremony and issued on Decca in May 2023.