59 Fun Facts About Andrew Lloyd Webber

Which Broadway composer shares Lloyd Webber's 22 March birthday?

Stephen Sondheim. The supposed rivals were born 18 years apart to the day, and at a 1998 London gala they performed together for the first time, spoofing their own songs by tangling Send in the Clowns with The Music of the Night.

Which former James Bond walked out of Lloyd Webber's Aspects of Love weeks before its 1989 premiere?

Roger Moore. He withdrew from the lead shortly before the 1989 opening, saying he had come to feel that the musical stage was not for him.

Lloyd Webber and Rice's first musical, The Likes of Us, told the story of which Victorian founder of children's homes?

Thomas Barnardo. The 1965 show about his work with destitute children never found a backer, so it sat unstaged for 40 years until the pair finally mounted it at Lloyd Webber's own Sydmonton Festival in July 2005.

Which biblical figure is the hero of the 15-minute pop cantata Lloyd Webber and Rice wrote for a London school in 1968?

Joseph. The piece for the boys of Colet Court grew with each outing, and at its second performance one parent in the audience was the Sunday Times critic Derek Jewell, whose warm review set it on the road to a full-length show.

Which Jesus Christ Superstar character taunts Jesus in a jaunty vaudeville-style number, daring him to walk across a swimming pool?

King Herod. His song began as Try It and See, a pop tune the pair wrote as a hopeful for the 1969 Eurovision Song Contest; it missed out, was recorded by Rita Pavone and was then rewritten for the show.

In what form did Jesus Christ Superstar first reach the public in 1970, before any stage production existed?

A concept album. Nobody would back a stage show about the last days of Christ, so the pair recorded it instead; the double LP topped the US chart in early 1971 and the Broadway production followed that October.

Which Deep Purple frontman sang the role of Jesus on the original Jesus Christ Superstar album?

Murray Head was Judas and Yvonne Elliman sang Mary Magdalene, a role she repeated on stage in Pittsburgh and on Broadway.

Which country banned Jesus Christ Superstar on religious grounds after its 1971 Broadway opening?

South Africa. On Broadway the show was condemned by Christian and Jewish groups alike, but South Africa went further and banned it altogether.

Which English comic playwright wrote the book and lyrics for Lloyd Webber's 1975 flop Jeeves?

Alan Ayckbourn. He stepped in after Tim Rice dropped out, and savage reviews closed the show within five weeks; two decades later the pair rebuilt it as By Jeeves, which opened in Scarborough in 1996 and reached the West End and Broadway.

After Julie Covington turned down the stage role, which little-known actress became a star as Eva Perón in London's Evita in 1978?

Elaine Paige. Covington had sung Eva on the 1976 recording but declined to play her, so hundreds of women were auditioned over several months; the part lifted Paige from near obscurity at 30 and made her name.

Which future star of The Princess Bride won a 1980 Tony Award as Che in the original Broadway production of Evita?

Mandy Patinkin. Broadway's first Che was his breakthrough role and won him the featured-actor Tony, one of seven the show took in 1980; seven years later he was the swordsman Inigo Montoya.

Which ballad, written for Madonna's dying Eva in the 1996 Evita film, won Lloyd Webber and Rice the Best Original Song Oscar?

You Must Love Me. Only a song written for the film itself could compete, so the pair added this new number to their twenty-year-old score; it brought Lloyd Webber his first Oscar and Tim Rice his third.

Lloyd Webber's 1978 Variations, written for his brother Julian, rework a famous caprice by which violin virtuoso?

Paganini. His 24th Caprice is put through 23 variations for Julian and a rock band, and the opening became familiar to millions of British viewers as the theme tune of The South Bank Show.

Cats is based on a 1939 collection of light verse by which poet?

T. S. Eliot. He wrote the verses of Old Possum's Book of Practical Cats in the 1930s to amuse his godchildren, and his poems supply most of the show's lyrics.

In Cats, the Jellicle tribe gathers to choose which of them will ascend to what?

The Heaviside Layer. The cats' heaven borrows the name of a real band of the upper atmosphere that bounces radio waves back to earth, predicted in 1902 by the self-taught English engineer Oliver Heaviside.

Which actress withdrew from the original Cats a week before previews after snapping her Achilles tendon?

Judi Dench. She had been cast as both Grizabella and Jennyanydots when the tendon went in rehearsal, so the faded glamour cat and her big ballad passed to a late stand-in.

Who wrote the lyrics of "Memory", drawing on Eliot's poem "Rhapsody on a Windy Night"?

Lloyd Webber played the tune to his Puccini-expert father, who reportedly said it sounded "like a million dollars".

Which musical overtook Cats in 2006 as the West End's longest-running musical?

Les Misérables. Cats had closed in May 2002 on its 21st birthday, and in 2018 its old London home was renamed the Gillian Lynne Theatre after the show's choreographer.

In Starlight Express, the actors perform on what?

Roller skates. The story is a child's train set come to life, with engines racing to be the fastest in the world, so the cast skate at speed on ramps that loop out around the audience.

Starlight Express has run since 1988 in a purpose-built theatre in Bochum, a city in which country?

Germany. The Bochum venue was built around the show's racing ramps and it has played there since June 1988; by January 2025 more than 19 million people had seen it, a Guinness record for a single theatre.

The Phantom of the Opera is inspired by a novel by which French author?

Gaston Leroux. Lloyd Webber picked up a battered second-hand copy of the novel, read it in an afternoon and saw that it could carry the big romantic score he had been trying to write.

Who played the Phantom in the original 1986 London production, winning both the Olivier and the Tony?

Michael Crawford. He was known mainly for comedy, above all as the hapless Frank Spencer on British television, but Lloyd Webber remembered him from the musical Flowers for Algernon and backed a hunch.

Which young unknown rewrote Richard Stilgoe's lyrics for The Phantom of the Opera and took the main lyricist credit?

Charles Hart. He was fourth in line for the job: Jim Steinman was busy, Alan Jay Lerner fell fatally ill and Richard Stilgoe's draft was largely rewritten, leaving the newcomer's words on Broadway's longest-running show.

Cats became Broadway's longest-running show in 1997 by overtaking which backstage musical?

A Chorus Line. Cats passed its record at performance 6,138 on 19 June 1997 and kept the title until another Lloyd Webber show, The Phantom of the Opera, took it in January 2006.

Which British producer announced in 2022 that Broadway's Phantom would close after 35 years?

Cameron Mackintosh. He blamed a weakening box office and rising costs, saying you don't want to run a great show into the ground; the curtain fell in April 2023 after 13,981 performances.

Which lot number is the famous chandelier in the auction prologue of The Phantom of the Opera?

Lot 666. It comes up straight after a monkey music box, and as the auctioneer has the wrecked chandelier switched on it flickers to life and rises to the ceiling, carrying the opera house back to its glory days.

Which Pink Floyd member accused Lloyd Webber of lifting the Phantom's riff from "Echoes"?

Roger Waters. He called the likeness probably actionable but chose not to sue, and instead took a swipe at Lloyd Webber's long-running shows in his 1992 song It's a Miracle.

"Love Changes Everything", from Aspects of Love (1989), became the signature song of which performer?

Michael Ball. He opened Aspects of Love singing it as the young Alex, and his single climbed to number 2 in the British chart in early 1989, launching the recording career he has run beside his stage work ever since.

For which event did Lloyd Webber write "Amigos Para Siempre", sung by Sarah Brightman and José Carreras?

The 1992 Barcelona Olympics. José Carreras, born in the city, was music director of the Games' ceremonies and sang it with Sarah Brightman at the closing one.

Sunset Boulevard is based on a 1950 film by which director?

Billy Wilder. Hal Prince held the stage rights when he and Lloyd Webber discussed the film in 1976, but the composer did not come back to the idea until after Aspects of Love, more than a decade later.

Which star sued Lloyd Webber when the Broadway Sunset Boulevard role went to Glenn Close?

Patti LuPone. She had created Norma Desmond in London on the promise of Broadway, and she spent part of a settlement reported at $1 million on a swimming pool that she named after the composer.

Which pop star won the 2025 Tony for Best Actress in a Musical as Norma Desmond in Sunset Boulevard?

Nicole Scherzinger. The former Pussycat Doll won in a Jamie Lloyd staging that sends her co-star out into the street to sing the title song, filmed live for a giant screen on stage.

Which Irish group took "No Matter What", from Lloyd Webber's Whistle Down the Wind, to number one in Britain in 1998?

Boyzone. On stage it is no romantic ballad: a group of children sing it to an escaped convict they have taken for Jesus, promising to love him whatever happens.

In 2002 Lloyd Webber produced Bombay Dreams, with music by which Indian film composer?

A. R. Rahman. Lloyd Webber heard his film soundtracks and asked him to write a stage musical, his first, which opened in the West End in June 2002 and ran for two years.

The Woman in White (2004) adapts an 1860 mystery novel, first serialised in Charles Dickens's magazine, by which author?

Wilkie Collins. A close friend of Dickens, he published the story in weekly parts in All the Year Round from November 1859 to August 1860, and its success firmly established his reputation.

Which chat-show host presented all four of Lloyd Webber's BBC casting contests, from the search for a Maria to Over the Rainbow?

Graham Norton. He fronted each BBC One search, beginning in 2006 with a Maria for The Sound of Music, while Lloyd Webber led the judges and a public phone vote chose the winner.

Lloyd Webber said in 2007 that his kitten Otto jumped on his digital piano and wiped the score of which Phantom sequel?

Love Never Dies. The six-month-old kitten got inside his Clavinova, which has a built-in computer, though his spokesman insisted that little was lost; the show finally opened in London in 2010.

In Lloyd Webber's 2010 Phantom sequel, the Phantom has hidden for ten years among the sideshows of which resort?

Coney Island. Calling himself Mr Y, he owns a pleasure ground there and lures Christine across the Atlantic with the offer of one well-paid performance.

Lloyd Webber's 2009 Eurovision song gave the UK its best result since 2002 by finishing where?

Fifth. He accompanied Jade Ewen on piano in Moscow as It's My Time, written with Diane Warren, scored 173 points, the country's best placing in seven years.

Which period-drama writer wrote the book for Lloyd Webber's 2015 musical School of Rock?

Julian Fellowes. The creator of Downton Abbey expanded the Jack Black film comedy for the stage, and the show's child actors play their own instruments live at every performance.

Lloyd Webber's four Broadway shows at once in 2017 matched which team's 1953 feat?

Rodgers and Hammerstein. Lloyd Webber, who counts the pair among his idols, matched them in February 2017 when a Sunset Boulevard revival opened alongside School of Rock, Cats and The Phantom of the Opera.

Which star of NBC's live Jesus Christ Superstar completed an EGOT alongside Lloyd Webber in 2018?

John Legend. He played Jesus, but the Emmy that completed his set came as one of the broadcast's producers, the same award that made EGOT winners of both writers on the same night.

Lloyd Webber wrote the song "Beautiful Ghosts" for the 2019 Cats film with which pop star?

Taylor Swift. She also appeared in the film, which Lloyd Webber thought so wrong that he went out and bought a dog for the first time in his life, a Havanese puppy he has called his therapy animal.

Which Killing Eve head writer wrote the book for Lloyd Webber's 2021 Cinderella?

Emerald Fennell. With pandemic limits on audiences still in force in 2021, Lloyd Webber said he was prepared to be arrested in order to open her retelling of the fairy tale to full houses.

Which London football club does Lloyd Webber support, along with his brother Julian?

Leyton Orient. Julian bet him that the club would get at least a draw from a match against Hull City, and when it did the forfeit was to write his brother a piece, which became the hit album Variations.

Lloyd Webber's younger brother Julian became one of Britain's best-known soloists on which instrument?

Cello. Julian Lloyd Webber was celebrated for his playing of Elgar's concerto, but in 2014 a herniated disc in his neck weakened his bowing arm and forced him to give up performing.

Which famous West End theatre has Lloyd Webber's company owned since 2000?

The London Palladium. His company took it over in 2000; decades earlier its live Sunday-night variety bill, on ITV from 1955, drew such audiences that it helped establish commercial television in Britain.

Which Rolling Stones song did Lloyd Webber call 'the best record of the Sixties'?

(I Can't Get No) Satisfaction. He first heard it at school, and he says its sense of rebellion was a huge influence on Jesus Christ Superstar.

Lloyd Webber won a place to read history at which university in 1965, then gave it up for musicals?

Oxford. The place was at Magdalen College, but he met Tim Rice in 1965, when he was about to go up, and writing musicals with his new partner soon won out over the history degree.

A BBC family-history programme showed Lloyd Webber that a distant uncle, Sir Peregrine Maitland, commanded the Foot Guards at which battle?

Waterloo. His brigade of Foot Guards lay waiting as Napoleon's Imperial Guard came on, and at Wellington's call of "Now, Maitland, now's your time" they rose, fired and drove the French back.

Lloyd Webber's anthem 'Make a Joyful Noise' was written for which 2023 event?

The coronation of Charles III. The King chose it himself as one of twelve new pieces for the service, and Lloyd Webber set words adapted from Psalm 98 for the choir and organ of Westminster Abbey.

Which 2006 film set in Vienna inspired a musical Lloyd Webber announced in 2024?

The Illusionist. The show about the conjuror Eisenheim was announced in October 2024, but in July 2026 it was reported shelved, with Lloyd Webber writing a musical about the 1911 theft of the Mona Lisa instead.

In 2025 Lloyd Webber reunited with Tim Rice for songs in a Christmas whodunit about which detective?

Sherlock Holmes. In the comedy, which opened at Birmingham Rep in November 2025, West End performers keep dying mid-scene, and Holmes works out that the killer is following the gifts in The Twelve Days of Christmas.

Lloyd Webber and his wife Madeleine founded a racehorse stud in 1992 named after which Hampshire hill?

Watership Down. The hill near their home gave Richard Adams the setting and title of his 1972 novel about a colony of rabbits, and the stud's mare Dar Re Mi won three Group 1 races in the couple's colours.

In 2019 the Sunday Times Rich List named Lloyd Webber the UK's richest musician, overtaking whom?

Paul McCartney. The 2019 list put the composer on £820 million against the former Beatle's £750 million, but the lead did not last: by 2024 Sir Paul was back on top as Britain's first billionaire musician.

Which artist painted the portrait that Lloyd Webber's art foundation sold for £34.7 million in 2010 after settling a Nazi-era claim?

Pablo Picasso. The Blue Period portrait of his friend Angel Fernández de Soto was pulled from an earlier sale when a Berlin banker's heirs claimed he had been forced to sell it under the Nazis; a settlement cleared the auction.

Lloyd Webber's collection of which school of painting was exhibited at the Royal Academy in 2003?

Pre-Raphaelite. His taste for Victorian painting started young: he found Leighton's Flaming June in a London shop for £50, but his grandmother refused to lend him the money, dismissing it as Victorian junk.

On which benches did Lloyd Webber sit in the House of Lords before retiring in 2017?

Conservative. He seldom voted, and in 2015 he drew fire when he reportedly flew back from New York to back George Osborne's tax-credit cuts, a vote the government lost anyway.

Which chivalric honour was Lloyd Webber given on St George's Day 2024?

Knight of the Garter. The date was no accident: St George is the order's patron saint, so new knights are announced on 23 April, and the monarch chooses them personally rather than on the prime minister's advice.