In 1992, Lloyd Webber received a knighthood, and Queen Elizabeth II created him a life peer in 1997. In addition, he presided over Chiswick’s Arts Educational Schools in London from 1997 to 2017 and served as a Conservative in the House of Lords. Emmy, Grammy, Oscar, and Tony Award winner Andrew is the owner of the Really Useful Group, one of London’s biggest theater management companies.
He founded the Andrew Lloyd Webber Foundation in the early 1990s, which supports “the arts, culture, and legacy for the public good.” He was listed by “The Daily Telegraph” in 2008 as the “sixth most powerful person in British culture.” A number of Lloyd Webber’s musicals, such as “Jesus Christ Superstar,” “The Phantom of the Opera,” and “Cats,” have been turned into motion pictures. The 1996 version of “Evita,” starring Madonna, received an Academy Award and three Golden Globes. In 2018, Andrew released his autobiography, “Unmasked.”
Andrew Lloyd Webber Early Years
On March 22, 1948, in Kensington, London, England, Andrew Lloyd Webber was born. His father, William Lloyd Webber, was an organist and composer, and his mother, Jean Hermione Johnstone, was a pianist and violinist. Julian, Andrew’s younger brother, is a noted solo cellist. Young Andrew developed a passion of theater because to his aunt Viola, an actress who frequently took him to see her in plays.
Lloyd Webber started writing music at age 9 years old. In 1963, he enrolled at the Eric Gilder School of Music while also writing “Westonia!,” a musical about Genghis Khan, and setting “Old Possum’s Book of Practical Cats” to music. After enrolling at Magdalen College in Oxford and later attending Westminster School, where he was a Queen’s Scholar, Lloyd Webber left to pursue a career in musical theater at the Royal College of Music in late 1965.
Andrew Lloyd Webber Career
Tim Rice, a 21-year-old law student, sent a letter to Lloyd Webber when he was just 17 years old. The message stated: “My dear Andrew, I’ve heard that you’re seeking for a lyricist who has “it,” and because I’ve been composing pop songs for a while and especially enjoy writing the lyrics, I wonder whether you think it would be worthwhile for you to meet me.”
The musical “The Likes of Us,” which the two started composing shortly after, wouldn’t be presented in public for another 40 years. Andrew and Tim penned “Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat” in 1967 after being asked by a family friend named Alan Doggett to write something for the Colet Court school choir. The song was eventually developed and made into a theatrical musical in 1972.
Following the creation of “Jesus Christ Superstar,” Lloyd Webber and Alan Ayckbourn collaborated on the lyrics for the musical “Jeeves” since Rice wasn’t confident he could do the “Jeeves and Wooster” books justice. “Jeeves” debuted in 1975 but only lasted 38 performances before being revamped into the 1996 production “By Jeeves,” which eventually made it to Broadway in 2001.
For “Evita,” which was first released as a concept album in 1976 and then staged, Andrew and Tim got back together. The West End debut of the musical took place in 1978, when the song “Don’t Cry for Me Argentina” topped the UK Singles Chart. In 1979, “Evita” had its Broadway debut with Patti LuPone playing the title character. Following “Evita,” Andrew composed “Tell Me on a Sunday” with Don Black in 1979 and “Cats,” an adaptation of T. S. Eliot’s poetry, in 1981.
After 21 years, “Cats” ended its run as London’s longest-running musical. It held the record for the longest run on Broadway at 18 years before “The Phantom of the Opera,” which has been performing since 1988, broke it (though performances were suspended during the Covid-19 pandemic). He collaborated with Black once more on “Song and Dance” in 1982 before writing “Starlight Express” with Richard Stilgoe in 1984.
For his late father, Andrew composed the Grammy-winning Requiem Mass “Requiem” in 1986. A short musical titled “Cricket,” written by Lloyd Webber and Rice for Queen Elizabeth II’s 60th birthday celebration, was also commissioned by Prince Edward in 1986. Andrew later utilized some of the songs in the films “Aspects of Love” (1989) and “Sunset Boulevard” (1993). The third-longest-running musical in the West End as of this writing is “The Phantom of the Opera,” which made its West End debut in 1986.
For the 1992 Summer Olympics in Barcelona, Lloyd Webber and Black co-wrote the song “Amigos Para Siempre — Friends for Life,” and they also collaborated on “Sunset Boulevard” with Christopher Hampton.
The Broadway production of the musical was a hit and won seven Tony Awards. Then came “Whistle Down the Wind” from 1998, which was remade into “The Boys in the Photograph” in 2008, “The Beautiful Game” from 2000, and “The Woman in White” from 2004. The lead actress for the 2006 production of “The Sound of Music” was discovered by Andrew through the reality TV show “How Do You Solve a Problem Like Maria?,” on which he also appeared as a judge.
The follow-up to “The Phantom of the Opera,” “Love Never Dies,” was released in 2010, and Lloyd Webber’s next endeavor was a staging of “The Wizard of Oz” in 2011. He later collaborated with Black and Hampton to write “Stephen Ward the Musical” in 2013 and transformed the 2003 Jack Black movie “School of Rock” into a 2015 musical. In 2020, Andrew declared that “Cinderella” would debut in the West End in August of that year, but the Covid-19 pandemic forced a postponement.
Andrew Lloyd Webber Private Life
Sarah Hugill and Andrew were married from 1971 to 1983. On March 31, 1977, Imogen was born, and on July 2, 1979, Nicholas was born. He married Sarah Brightman, a vocalist, in 1984; their marriage lasted six years before they were divorced. She appeared in numerous of his musicals, including “The Phantom of the Opera.” Sons Alastair and William were born on May 3, 1992, and Isabella was born on August 24, 1993, after Lloyd Webber wed Madeleine Gurdon in 1991. (born April 30, 1996).
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Andrew and Madeleine founded the Watership Down Stud in 1992, and they acquired the Irish Kiltinan Castle Stud in 1996. Leyton Orient F.C. is supported by Lloyd Webber, who also has a sizable art collection. In 1997, he was made a Conservative life peer, and in 2005, he consented to the use of his song “Take That Look Off Your Face” in a Conservative Party of Great Britain campaign video.
After receiving an early-stage prostate cancer diagnosis in 2009, Andrew underwent surgery and later experienced a post-operative infection. He had his prostate removed, and at the beginning of 2010, he declared himself cancer-free. Singer Ray Repp, the band Pink Floyd, and the estate of Giacomo Puccini all accused Andrew Lloyd Webber of copying the opening riff from their song “Echoes.” However, the court found against Repp, and Roger Waters stated that Pink Floyd was not interested in pursuing legal action against Andrew. The two parties reached an out-of-court settlement after the Puccini estate sued on parallels between “The Music of the Night” and “La fanciulla del West” in Puccini’s works.
Andrew Lloyd Webber Honors and Awards
For “You Must Love Me” from “Evita,” Lloyd Webber won an Academy Award in 1997 for Best Music, Original Song, along with a Golden Globe. For “Jesus Christ Superstar Live in Concert,” he won a Primetime Emmy in 2018 for Outstanding Variety Special (Live), and he also won four Grammys, including the Grammy Legend Award and Best Cast Show Album for “Evita” and “Cats” (1990).
At the 2018 Tony Awards, Andrew was given the Lifetime Achievement in Theatre Award. He has also won Best Musical Tonys for “Sunset Boulevard,” “The Phantom of the Opera,” “Cats,” and “Evita,” as well as Best Original Score Tonys for those same three shows.
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Evita, Cats, and “The Phantom of the Opera” were awarded Best Musicals at the Olivier Awards, and Lloyd Webber received a Society’s Special Award (2008) and a Lifetime Achievement Award (2018). The American Academy of Achievement’s Golden Plate Award (2019), a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame (1993), the Kennedy Center Honors (2006), the Woodrow Wilson Award for Public Service (2008), the Brit Award for Outstanding Contribution to Music (2008), as well as numerous Ivor Novello and Laurence Olivier Awards, have all been given to Lloyd Webber. In 1995, he was admitted to the Songwriters Hall of Fame, and in 2009, he was admitted to the American Theatre Hall of Fame.
Andrew Lloyd Webber Real Estate
In 1987, Lloyd Webber spent $5.5 million purchasing a duplex in Manhattan’s Trump Tower that was over 5,000 square feet in size. In the fall of 2010, he ultimately sold it for $16.5 million after listing it for $15 million in 2000, $22.5 million in 2007, and $19 million in 2010. He has also owned a number of residences in England, including the Sydmonton Court estate in Hampshire, which is included on the country’s National Heritage List.
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Andrew Lloyd Webber Net Worth
Andrew Lloyd Webber, a British composer and musical theater tycoon with a $1.2 billion net worth, is also known as Baron Lloyd-Webber Kt. Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat (1968), Jesus Christ Superstar (1970), Evita (1976), Cats (1981), and The Phantom of the Opera are just a few of the musicals he has written (1986).