![]() ![]() This time, the show came before the album, and went on to become one of the longest-running musicals in the history of Broadway (18 years) and the West End (21 years). Working without Rice, who went on to write Blondel and Chess with other composers, Lloyd Webber next penned a musical revue based on T.S. The show won Lloyd Webber his first Grammy, Tony, and Olivier Awards, for Best Cast Show Album, Best Original Score, and Best Musical, respectively. ![]() Evita (1976) repeated the pattern of Jesus Christ Superstar, with its hit record album followed by a successful theatrical run in the West End and then on Broadway. ![]() Lloyd Webber and Rice then temporarily split, with the composer writing for film (1974's The Odessa File) and working on a musical with playwright Alan Ayckbourn (1975's Jeeves), after which Rice returned with another audacious idea: a musical based on the life of Argentine First Lady Eva Perón. A hit musical version followed on the West End in 1973. Unable to finance a stage version, Lloyd Webber and Rice did manage to record the show, and Jesus Christ Superstar (1969) went on to sales in the millions all over the world. As it, too, sought out a producer, the two hit on the idea of writing a musical based on the life of Jesus Christ from the point-of-view of Judas (not a typical premise for Broadway at the time) and, again, imbued with rock. Titled Joseph & the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat, it incorporated a strong rock & roll influence. Called The Likes of Us (1965), it couldn't find a producer, and the pair set about writing a musical based on the biblical story of Joseph and his coat of many colors. While Lloyd Webber's predecessors were, for the most part, American - New York-based songwriters steeped in Broadway tradition - he nevertheless partnered with a fellow Englishman, lyricist Tim Rice, to begin work on a musical about philanthropist Thomas John Barnardo. After leaving Westminster School and spending a term at Magdalen College, Oxford, he entered the Royal College of Music to study musical theater. By the age of 15, the young composer was already working on his own musicals, and his father enrolled him part-time at the Eric Gilder School of Music. In the meantime, he was exposed to theater by his aunt Viola, an actress. ![]() Andrew started writing his first melodies at age seven and compiled a suite of six piano pieces when he was 11. His younger brother, Julian Lloyd Webber, became an internationally celebrated cellist. His anthem for the coronation of Charles III and Camilla, Make a Joyful Noise, was incorporated into the May 2023 ceremony.īorn in Kensington in 1948, Andrew Lloyd Webber took after his parents, violist/pianist Jean Hermione Johnstone and composer/organist William Lloyd Webber, a one-time director of the London College of Music. soundtrack and cast album charts into a sixth decade. In 2020, a film version of Cats produced a highlights album that extended the composer's intermittent presence on the U.S. An EGOT winner, Lloyd Webber took home four Grammys in the '80s and '90s, won an Oscar (with Rice) for "You Must Love Me" from the 1996 film adaptation of his Evita, and collected seven Tony Awards before capping off the acronym with an Emmy win for Jesus Christ Superstar: Live in Concert in 2018. Over the years, Lloyd Webber occasionally branched into other forms, including a film score (1974's The Odessa File) and classical works (1985's Requiem), but he continued to premiere musicals at a regular rate, composing the music while frequent writing partners including Tim Rice and Don Black provided lyrics. The London native broke box-office records at home and in New York with shows like Cats (1981) and The Phantom of the Opera (1988), the former of which featured the hit song "Memory" and latter of which became the longest-running show in Broadway history. Those works that also featured storytelling with no dialogue - including his third stage musical, 1971's Jesus Christ Superstar - were dubbed rock operas in the tradition of the Who's Tommy. His work typically combines dramatic, emotional plots with anthemic music that incorporates both classical and rock elements. A prime torchbearer of the rock musical, Andrew Lloyd Webber is the most successful Broadway and West End composer of his generation. ![]()
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