Andrew Lloyd Webber's parents were musical, so it is no surprise that he and his brother Julian displayed musical talent at a young age and then followed naturally into careers in music. In Andrew's case, while still studying music at college in Oxford, he had already met up with Tim Rice and they were creating shows together. One of those early shows was "Joseph and his Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat" which was performed in a few local theatres before its growing popularity with young and old led to more widespread success. Their next project together was still apparently bringing religious topics together with popular and rock music, "Jesus Christ Superstar", though in this case the production brought some controversy over its subject matter. Despite this, the musical became an international success and was also made into a film version.
Their collaboration seemed to go from strength to strength, with "Evita" being their next big hit. This was based on the life of Eva Peron and the song "Don't Cry for me Argentina" resulted in chart placings and numerous cover versions. Lloyd Webber and Rice didn't always work together, and indeed one production "Jeeves" where Lloyd Webber worked with playwright Alan Ayckbourn was not particular successful. The musical "Cats" was largely based on verses from T. S. Elliot's "Old Possum's Book of Practical Cats" with some additional lyrics by Richard Stilgoe. A mixture of songs and dance numbers with excellent makeup and characterisation, this has been enormously popular and has played in many countries for years. Again this musical gave rise to a hit song "Memory" sung originally by Elaine Paige. Along came "The Phantom of the Opera" in the 1980s again with Stilgoe contributing lyrics. This brought a new success to actor/singer Michael Crawford, and the female lead Sarah Brightman was married to Lloyd Webber for a time. By now the winning formula was obvious, and Andrew Lloyd Webber produced show after show including "Starlight Express", "Aspects of Love", "Sunset Boulevard" and "Whistle Down the Wind" to name only a few. Although the peak of his popularity had been reached with the earlier shows, later musicals were still very successful financially producing more hit songs and often making their singers into stars.
Although it is the musical format mixed with popular song which has brought Lloyd Webber widespread recognition, he has participated in other forms of music. In the 70s he composed traditional soundtrack scores for a few films such as "Gumshoe" and "The Odessa File". A few of Andrew's stage musicals have also been turned into films, including "Jesus Christ Superstar", "Evita" and now The Phantom of the Opera. For his cellist brother Julian Lloyd Webber he wrote "Variations", based upon Paganini's original theme for violin (for which many other composers have provided variations including Brahms and Rachmaninov). This piece also employed pop and rock music styles and was recorded by Julian together with Gary Moore on guitar and the vocals of Phil Collins. One of the variations from this was to become the theme tune for the television arts programme "The South Bank Show". Honouring another member of his family, Andrew wrote "Requiem" in memory of his father who was a professor of music.
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Note that there are typically many different recordings of Lloyd Webber's musicals, original London cast, Broadway cast, film versions and special recordings. These links should point you in the right direction:
See Andrew Lloyd Webber's company The Really Useful Group. See also our review of the soundtrack to the new film version of The Phantom of the Opera.
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