Jesus Christ Superstar

Andrew Lloyd Webber

b. March 22, 1948

Andrew Lloyd Webber is the composer of some of the world’s best known musicals, including Cats, Evita, Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat, Jesus Christ Superstar, The Phantom of the Opera (which celebrates its 30th anniversary on Broadway this year), and Sunset Boulevard. When Sunset Boulevard joined School of Rock – The Musical, Cats, and Phantom on Broadway in February 2017, Lloyd Webber became the only person to equal the record set in 1953 by Rodgers and Hammerstein with four shows running concurrently. 

Lloyd Webber was born in Kensington, London, the elder son of William Lloyd Webber, a composer and organist, and Jean Hermione Johnstone, a violinist and pianist. His younger brother, Julian Lloyd Webber, is a noted solo cellist.

Lloyd Webber started writing his own music at a young age. At age nine, he wrote his first composition, a suite of six pieces. He also put on "productions" with Julian and his Aunt Viola in his toy theatre (which he built at Viola's suggestion). His aunt Viola, an actress, introduced him to theatre and took him to see many of her shows. He also had originally set music to “Old Possum's Book of Practical Cats” at the age of 15, which he later did with the musical Cats. 

In 1965, Lloyd Webber began at the Royal College of Music to pursue his interest in musical theatre. That same year he met an aspiring songwriter named Tim Rice. This meeting resulted in much collaboration, including Jesus Christ Superstar.

His awards, both as a composer and theatrical producer, include seven Tonys, seven Oliviers (The UK version of the Tonys), a Golden Globe, an Oscar, the Praemium Imperiale, the Richard Rodgers Award for Excellence in Musical Theatre, a BASCA Fellowship, the Kennedy Center Honor, and a Grammy for Best Contemporary Classical Composition. He owns seven London theaters, including the Theatre Royal, Drury Lane, and the London Palladium.

Lloyd Webber was knighted by Her Majesty The Queen in 1992 and became a Lord in 1997. He is passionate about the importance of music in education, and the Andrew Lloyd Webber Foundation has become one of Britain’s leading charities supporting the arts and music. In 2016, the foundation funded a major new national initiative which endowed the American Theatre Wing with a $1.3 million, three-year grant to support theatre education opportunities for underserved young people and public schools across the U.S. His autobiography "Unmasked" was published in 2018.

Tim Rice

b. November 10, 1944

Tim Rice has worked in music, theater, and films since 1965, when he met Andrew Lloyd Webber, a fellow struggling songwriter. Rather than pursue Rice’s ambition to write rock or pop songs, they turned their attention to Webber’s obsession – musical theater. Their first collaboration (lyrics by Rice, music by Lloyd Webber), was an unsuccessful show, The Likes of Us. Their next three musicals were blockbusters – Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat, Jesus Christ Superstar, and Evita. Rice has since worked with other distinguished popular composers, such as Elton John (The Lion King, Aida), Alan Menken (Beauty and the Beast), Bjorn Ulvaeus and Benny Andersson from ABBA (Chess), and Freddie Mercury (his Barcelonaalbum).

Rice was born near Amersham, England, a small town northwest of London. His parents both served in WWII and later worked for an aircraft company.
After his secondary education (or high school in the U.S.), Rice started work as a clerk for a law firm in London. He later attended University of Paris for a year.

After the year of study, Rice joined EMI Records as a management trainee in 1966. When an EMI producer left to set up his own organization in 1968, Rice joined him as an assistant producer. Following the success of Jesus Christ Superstar, his career shifted primarily to being a lyricist. 

Rice was Knighted by Queen Elizabeth II in 1994 for his services to music. He is a regular broadcaster/presenter on BBC Radio 2, drawing on his extensive knowledge of the history of popular music. He has won several awards: three Oscars, three Tonys, three Golden Globes, five Grammys, 13 Ivor Novello Awards, and many more. Rice also has a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.