Andrew Lloyd Webber

Andrew Lloyd Webber, Baron Lloyd-Webber (born March 22, 1948) is a highly successful British composer of musical theatre. He has arguably been the most popular theatre composer of the late 20th century, with multiple musicals which have run for more than a decade both on Broadway and in the West End. Throughout his career he has produced 15 musicals, 2 film scores, and a Latin requiem mass. He has also accumulated a number of honors, including seven Tony Awards, three Grammy Awards, an Oscar, an International Emmy, six Olivier Awards, and a Golden Globe Award. Several of his songs, notably "I Don't Know How to Love Him" from Jesus Christ Superstar, "Don't Cry For Me, Argentina" from Evita, "Memory" from Cats and "The Music of the Night" from The Phantom of the Opera have been widely recorded and were hits outside of their parent musicals.

Professional career

Andrew Lloyd Webber first gained success at the age of 19, when he and Tim Rice were commissioned to write Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat for a high school in 1968. The musical was a hit; a slightly rewritten version was soon produced by the Edinburgh Festival. Lloyd Webber and Rice continued to collaborate and later produced Jesus Christ Superstar (1970) and Evita (1976), both of which were released as albums before being brought to the stage. The two parted ways soon after, and Lloyd Webber's next large success was 1981's Cats. Webber defied convention by writing the score to existing lyrics, rather than the other way around. The lyrics were based on T.S. Eliot's 1939 Old Possum's Book of Practical Cats, which Lloyd Webber confessed was a childhood favourite. To date Cats has been the longest running Broadway musical, spanning a reign of more than twenty years. Next, he wrote Starlight Express, which was a commercial hit but panned by the critics. In 1986, he premiered his newest musical, The Phantom of the Opera, inspired by the 1911 Gaston Leroux novel. Although met with mixed reviews in New York, it became a hit and is still running there in 2005. His many other musical theatre works include Aspects of Love, Sunset Boulevard, Whistle Down the Wind, Song and Dance, and The Beautiful Game. While some of his works have had enormous commercial success, his career has not been without failures, especially in the United States. Song and Dance, Starlight Express, and Aspects of Love, all successes in London, did not meet the same reception in New York, and all lost money in short, critically panned runs. In 1995, Sunset Boulevard became one of the biggest financial disasters in Broadway history, and his subsequent works have not yet made it to New York.

Related Topics:
Tim Rice - Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat - 1968 - Jesus Christ Superstar - 1970 - Evita - 1976 - 1981 - Cats - T.S. Eliot - Old Possum's Book of Practical Cats - Starlight Express - 1986 - The Phantom of the Opera - 1911 - Gaston Leroux - Novel - Aspects of Love - Sunset Boulevard - Whistle Down the Wind - Song and Dance - The Beautiful Game

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Many of his stage musicals have been taken onto the big screen. Jesus Christ Superstar (1973) was directed by Norman Jewison, Evita (1996) was directed by Alan Parker, and most recently The Phantom of the Opera was directed by Joel Schumacher (and co-produced by Lloyd Webber).

Related Topics:
Jesus Christ Superstar - 1973 - 1996 - Alan Parker - The Phantom of the Opera - Joel Schumacher

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He was asked to write a piece for the 1992 Barcelona Olympics entitled Amigos Para Siempre.

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He has also composed for film. In 1984 he took a different music style and composed a requiem in memory of his father who had died in 1982.

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Lloyd Webber produced Bombay Dreams with Indian composer A. R. Rahman in 2002. His most recent show is The Woman in White (2004).

Related Topics:
Bombay Dreams - India - A. R. Rahman - 2002 - The Woman in White

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