Andrew Lloyd Webber

Andrew Lloyd Webber has composed the scores of some of the world’s most famous musicals. From Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat (1968) to Cinderella (2021), his work has been consistently seen on world stages. Before the COVID pandemic hit, Lloyd Webber had shows continually running in the West End for 48 years and on Broadway for 41, with School of Rock being the first British musical to have its world premiere on Broadway. When Sunset Boulevard joined School Of Rock, Cats and Phantom of the Opera, he equalled Rodgers and Hammerstein’s record of four shows running simultaneously on Broadway.

He is one of the select group of artists with EGOT status, having received an Emmy, four Grammys (including Best Contemporary Classical Composition for Requiem), an Oscar and eight Tony Awards (including the 2018 Special Tony for Lifetime Achievement in the Theatre). He has also won seven Oliviers and a Golden Globe – and his honours include a Classic Brit award for Outstanding Contribution to Music, the Praemium Imperiale, the Richard Rodgers Award for Excellence in Musical Theatre, a BASCA Fellowship, and the Kennedy Center Honor.

Lloyd Webber has also co-produced his own shows, including Cats andThe Phantom Of The Opera. As a solo producer, he presented the groundbreaking Bombay Dreams, which introduced the double Oscar winning Bollywood composer AR Rahman to the Western stage. Other productions include the Olivier Award Winning Daisy Pulls It Off and La Bete, the record breaking London Palladium production of The Sound Of Music and The Wizard of Oz.

Andrew owns six London theatres, including the iconic London Palladium and Theatre Royal, Drury Lane. Over the past three years, the latter has been completely restored and renovated at a cost of over £60 million. It is one of the biggest projects ever undertaken by a private theatre owner in recent times. His mantra that every penny of profit made from his theatres is ploughed back into the buildings has meant that considerable work has been undertaken across his theatre portfolio during the pandemic, including the complete re-modelling and re-seating of the Gillian Lynne.

Lloyd Webber is passionate about the importance of musical education and diversity in the arts. The Andrew Lloyd Webber Foundation provides 30 performing arts scholarships every year for talented students with financial need and supports a range of projects such as the Music In Secondary School Trust and commissioning research into diversity in theatre.

Andrew Lloyd Webber was knighted in 1992 and created an honorary life peer in 1997. To mark his 70th birthday, his bestselling autobiography Unmasked was published by Harper Collins in March 2018.