Lloyd Webber, Andrew

Lloyd Webber, Andrew, 1948–, British theatrical composer. A member of a successful musical family, he began composing musicals as a teenager; Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat (1968) was an early work done in collaboration with the lyricist Tim Rice. Lloyd Webber's spectacular string of hit musicals beginning in the 1970s helped transform London into the major center for new musicals. His scores include those for Jesus Christ, Superstar (1971), his first major success, also in collaboration with Rice; Evita (1978), a fictional biography of Eva Perón; The Phantom of the Opera (1986; Tony); Aspects of Love (1989); Sunset Boulevard (1993; Tony); and The Woman in White (2004), based on Wilkie Collins's suspense novel. His Cats (1981), based on poems by T. S. Eliot, was the longest-running production in Broadway history until surpassed by The Phantom of the Opera. Since 2000 he also has been the dominant owner in London's theater district. Lloyd Webber was knighted in 1992 and created a life peer (Baron Lloyd-Webber of Sydmonton) in 1997.

See his memoir, Unmasked (2018).

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