70 Facts About Andrew Lloyd Webber

Andrew Lloyd Webber, Baron Lloyd-Webber was born on 22 March 1948 and is an English composer and impresario of musical theatre.

Andrew Lloyd Webber has composed 21 musicals, a song cycle, a set of variations, two film scores, and a Latin Requiem Mass.

Lloyd Webber has received numerous awards, including a knighthood in 1992, followed by a peerage for services to the arts, six Tony Awards, seven Laurence Olivier Awards, three Grammy Awards, an Academy Award, 14 Ivor Novello Award, a Golden Globe Award, a Brit Award, the 2006 Kennedy Center Honors, and two Classic Brit Awards.

Andrew Lloyd Webber has a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame, is an inductee into the Songwriters Hall of Fame, and is a fellow of the British Academy of Songwriters, Composers, and Authors.

Andrew Lloyd Webber is the president of the Arts Educational Schools, London, a performing arts school located in Chiswick, west London.

Lloyd Webber is involved in a number of charitable activities, including the Elton John AIDS Foundation, Nordoff Robbins, Prostate Cancer UK and War Child.

Andrew Lloyd Webber's younger brother, Julian Lloyd Webber, is a world-renowned solo cellist.

Lloyd Webber started writing his own music at a young age: a suite of six pieces at the age of nine.

Andrew Lloyd Webber put on "productions" with Julian and his aunt Viola in his toy theatre.

Andrew Lloyd Webber's father enrolled him as a part-time student at the Eric Gilder School of Music in 1963.

From 1960 to 1965, Lloyd Webber was a Queen's Scholar at Westminster School.

Andrew Lloyd Webber studied history for a term at Magdalen College, Oxford, although he abandoned the course in the winter of 1965 to study at the Royal College of Music in London and pursue his interest in musical theatre.

In 1965, when Lloyd Webber was a 17-year-old budding musical-theatre composer, he was introduced to the 20-year-old aspiring pop-song writer Tim Rice.

For its subsequent performances, Rice and Lloyd Webber revised the show and added new songs to expand it to a more substantial length.

In 1969, Rice and Lloyd Webber wrote a song for the Eurovision Song Contest called "Try It and See", which was not selected.

Lloyd Webber collaborated with Rice to write Evita, a musical based on the life of Eva Peron.

Rice and Lloyd Webber parted ways soon after Evita, although they have sporadically worked together since then.

In 1978, Lloyd Webber embarked on a project with his cellist brother Julian, the Variations, based on the 24th Caprice by Paganini; this reached number two in the pop album chart in the United Kingdom.

Andrew Lloyd Webber composed the instrumental "Argentine Melody" as the theme music for the BBC's coverage of the 1978 FIFA World Cup held in Argentina.

Lloyd Webber was the subject of This Is Your Life in November 1980 when he was surprised by Eamonn Andrews in the foyer of Thames Television's Euston Road Studios in London.

Andrew Lloyd Webber would be honoured a second time by the television programme in November 1994 when Michael Aspel surprised him at the West End's Adelphi Theatre.

Lloyd Webber embarked on his next project without a lyricist, turning instead to the poetry of T S Eliot.

Lloyd Webber wrote a Requiem Mass dedicated to his father, William, who had died in 1982.

Lloyd Webber had on a number of occasions written sacred music for the annual Sydmonton Festival.

Lloyd Webber received a Grammy Award in 1986 for Requiem in the category of best classical composition.

Lloyd Webber premiered The Phantom of the Opera at Her Majesty's Theatre in the West End in 1986, inspired by the 1911 Gaston Leroux novel.

Andrew Lloyd Webber wrote the part of Christine for his then wife, Sarah Brightman, who played the role in the original London and Broadway productions alongside Michael Crawford as the Phantom.

Charles Hart wrote the lyrics for Phantom with some additional material provided by Richard Stilgoe, with whom Lloyd Webber co-wrote the book of the musical.

In 1998, Lloyd Webber released a film version of Cats, which was filmed at the Adelphi Theatre in London.

Originally opening in Washington, Lloyd Webber was reportedly not happy with the casting or Harold Prince's production and the show was revised for a London staging directed by Gale Edwards.

Lloyd Webber produced a staging of The Sound of Music, which debuted in November 2006.

In September 2006, Lloyd Webber was named a recipient of the Kennedy Center Honors with Zubin Mehta, Dolly Parton, Steven Spielberg, and Smokey Robinson.

Andrew Lloyd Webber was recognised for his outstanding contribution to American performing arts.

Andrew Lloyd Webber attended the ceremony on 3 December 2006; it aired on 26 December 2006.

On 1 July 2007, Lloyd Webber presented excerpts from his musicals as part of the Concert for Diana held at Wembley Stadium, London, an event organised to celebrate the life of Princess Diana almost 10 years after her death.

The role was won by Jodie Prenger despite Lloyd Webber's stated preference for one of the other contestants; the winners of the Oliver role were Harry Stott, Gwion Wyn-Jones and Laurence Jeffcoate.

Also in April 2008, Lloyd Webber was featured on the US talent show American Idol, acting as a mentor when the 6 finalists had to select one of his songs to perform for the judges that week.

Lloyd Webber accepted the challenge of managing the UK's entry for the 2009 Eurovision Song Contest, to be held in Moscow.

At the contest, Lloyd Webber accompanied her on the piano during the performance.

On 8 October 2009, Lloyd Webber launched the musical Love Never Dies at a press conference held at Her Majesty's Theatre, where the original Phantom has been running since 1986.

Andrew Lloyd Webber cast the winner, Danielle Hope, in the role of Dorothy Gale, and a dog to play Toto in his forthcoming stage production of The Wizard of Oz.

In 2012, Lloyd Webber fronted a new ITV primetime show Superstar which gave the UK public the chance to decide who would play the starring role of Jesus in an arena tour of Jesus Christ Superstar.

In 2013, Lloyd Webber reunited with Christopher Hampton and Don Black on Stephen Ward the Musical.

Lloyd Webber wrote the song "Beautiful Ghosts" with Taylor Swift for the film adaptation of Cats, produced by Greg Wells and released in December 2019.

In 2022, Lloyd Webber appeared alongside Lin-Manuel Miranda in the BBC Platinum Jubilee Concert for Platinum Jubilee of Elizabeth II.

In 2023, Lloyd Webber was one of twelve composers asked to write a new piece for the coronation of Charles III and Camilla.

Andrew Lloyd Webber's anthem, "Make a Joyful Noise", was performed during the enthronement of Queen Camilla.

In 2024, Lloyd Webber announced that his next musical will be an adaptation of the 2006 film The Illusionist, which will feature lyrics by Bruno Major, book by Chris Terrio and will be directed by Jamie Lloyd and produced by Michael Harrison.

The songwriter Ray Repp claimed in a court case that Lloyd Webber had stolen a melody from his own song "Till You", but the court ruled in Lloyd Webber's favour.

Andrew Lloyd Webber married first Sarah Hugill, youngest daughter of Lieutenant-Commander Antony Hugill and Fanny nee Gore Browne, on 24 July 1971; they divorced on 14 November 1983.

Andrew Lloyd Webber then married English soprano Sarah Brightman on 22 March 1984, in Hampshire.

Andrew Lloyd Webber cast Brightman in the lead role in his musical The Phantom of the Opera, among other notable roles.

Andrew Lloyd Webber said he views Jesus as "one of the great figures of history".

Andrew Lloyd Webber is a lifelong supporter of London-based football club Leyton Orient FC, as is his younger brother Julian.

In late 2009, Lloyd Webber had surgery for early-stage prostate cancer, but had to be readmitted to hospital with post-operative infection in November.

Andrew Lloyd Webber had his prostate completely removed as a preventative measure.

Lloyd Webber has a house in Eaton Square in Belgravia, London; in 2024 he revealed he had had his house blessed by a priest in an attempt to displace a "poltergeist" that was haunting the property.

Lloyd Webber is an art collector, with a passion for Victorian painting.

Lloyd Webber is involved in a number of charitable activities, including the Elton John AIDS Foundation, Nordoff Robbins, Prostate Cancer UK and War Child.

In 2013, the Andrew Lloyd Webber Programme was launched to aid the Music in Secondary Schools Trust, which aims to give every child at participating schools across the UK the opportunity to study a musical instrument as part of the curriculum.

In 2014, Lloyd Webber designed a Cats-themed Paddington Bear statue, which was located in Chinatown, London, with the statues auctioned to raise funds for the National Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children.

Lloyd Webber was made a life peer in 1997, sitting for the Conservative Party.

Politically, Lloyd Webber has supported the Conservatives, allowing his song "Take That Look Off Your Face" to be used on a party promotional film seen by an estimated one million people before the 2005 general election.

In October 2015, Lloyd Webber was involved in a contentious House of Lords vote over proposed cuts to tax credits, voting with the Government in favour of the plan.

Lloyd Webber was denounced by his critics because he flew in from abroad on his personal plane to vote, when his voting record was scant.

In October 2017, Lloyd Webber retired from the House of Lords, stating that his busy schedule was incompatible with the demands of Parliament considering the upcoming crucial Brexit legislation.

Lloyd Webber was knighted in the Queen's 1992 Birthday Honours for services to the arts.

Andrew Lloyd Webber was given a life peerage in the 1997 New Year Honours and created Baron Lloyd-Webber, of Sydmonton in the County of Hampshire, on 18 February 1997.

Andrew Lloyd Webber is properly styled "The Lord Lloyd-Webber"; the title is hyphenated, although his surname is not.

Andrew Lloyd Webber sat as a Conservative member of the House of Lords until his retirement from the House on 17 October 2017.