Andrew Lloyd Webber Talks Tim Rice, Wizard of Oz & More

In a recent Mail Online article, author Cole Moreton writes about a visit with Andrew Lloyd Webber during which he discussed his long career as well as why he's teaming up with Tim Rice again after 34 years.

"I'm working with Tim tomorrow, for the first time in 34 years," Webber said. "He's doing the songs for The Wizard Of Oz with me. The new ones."

"They split up when Rice wanted to do a musical about chess and Lloyd Webber was more interested in writing about cats. That was never going to end well. The two were also reported to have fallen out, but Lloyd Webber doesn't seem to remember it that way," writes Moreton.
Webber explained that they've been close over the years, but just hadn't found something that they both wanted to do. Now, they've found the project they both want in The Wizard of Oz starring Danielle Hope, who won Webber's reality television series.

But don't compare him to Simon Cowell. "We have a high-powered back-up team, offering the best coaching the young people could ever get. We do care about them. We nurture; we don't torture," said Webber. "We're entertainment too, but we have a twist, because the person we cast in the role has got to deliver. Our endgame is the winner doing eight shows a week in The Wizard Of Oz, opening at the London Palladium next February."

Last year, the composer was diagnosed with cancer and had to have his prostate removed.
"I am cleared," he said. "I'm not 100 per cent, because the operation was a little more complicated than some of them; I don't think I'll ever be quite back to where I was. Some days are good and some are not. I can get a bad day and suddenly I have to flake out a bit. Nature is taking its course. But the cancer has gone." He added, "All three of my wives rallied around. There was one hysterical situation where I had them all on the phone at the same time."

Webber also talked about that fact that he never had a yearning for the stage. "I never wanted to be a performer. I suppose I was precocious, really. I loved medieval architecture when I was very small; I don't know why. We lived just by South Kensington Tube station. I was at this do at Westminster Abbey the other day and the dean came up to me and said, ‘There's something I really want to show you.' It was a letter they'd received from me aged six, with a two-and-six postal order, saying I was worried about the state of the building and I'd saved up to give them this money. He'd found it in the archive."

Webber went on to talk about CATS, meeting Tim Rice, the government, and more. To read the full article, click here.