Barney Wragg Steps Down as Really Useful Group Managing Director

Andrew Lloyd Webber's Really Useful Group today announced that Managing Director, Barney Wragg, has decided to step down after completing his five year term with the company.

Andrew Lloyd Webber said: "Barney was appointed Managing Director of the Really Useful Group ('RUG') on a five year contract in 2011 with a specific brief to rationalize and refocus the company into a streamlined licensing organization and to scale down RUG's production activities.

The proposed new shape of the company resulted from a strategic decision taken by the family necessitated by my personal health issues. However, five years on, my health has taken a huge turn for the better and RUG is rapidly moving forward into a completely different phase that neither Barney nor I could possibly have anticipated when he joined us.

Barney has completed the task of reorganizing RUG magnificently and provided a solid and profitable platform for us to go forward. I am hugely grateful to him for the work he has done in rationalizing our company and both Madeleine and I wish him every success in the future."

Wragg said: "It has been an absolute privilege to work with Andrew Lloyd Webber and the team at Really Useful Group. My brief five years ago was to help transform and reinvigorate the business. This has seen us create a world class production company and become the first British company to produce a brand new musical on Broadway. I look forward to watching 'School of Rock' and all of the company's properties continue to be successful around the world."

The Really Useful Group is Andrew Lloyd Webber's theatre producing and rights licensing company and controls the theatrical rights for all of Andrew's works, including School or

Rock, The Phantom of the Opera, Cats, Jesus Christ Superstar, Evita, Joseph and the Amazing Technicolour Dreamcoat, Starlight Express and Sunset Boulevard. The Really Useful Group reached over 20 million people across the globe last year from live theatre and concert audiences, cinema goers, television viewers and music fans, to social media and art lovers. 2016 sees The Really Useful Group continue to work across film, television and theatre as it produces and develops new projects and partnerships worldwide alongside its ongoing work in education, amateur licensing and music publishing.