Earlier this year, Andrew Lloyd Webber made the confession of his life: he was an alcoholic. So pronounced had his drinking become – endless bottles of wine, counting down the minutes in the morning until he was able to have a drink – that he decided he needed help.
‘You think it’s secret, but it’s not,’ the 78-year-old theatrical legend told an interviewer in April.
‘Everybody knows. I started getting into a downhill spiral and about 18 months ago the family were in a desperate state. My wife was feeling she couldn’t go on.’
And so he took action: rehab, AA, sponsors, auctioning off his famously decadent wine collection in its entirety – and, most importantly, adopting a new mental outlook, one that was even more focused.
Certainly it’s true that without the booze, he has become even more productive, recently bagging some of his best reviews – such as for his 2026 Cats revival at Regent’s Park. There appears to be a new, ever more perspicacious single-mindedness to him.
And, I’m told by a well-placed source that it’s this clarity which has directly led to this week’s falling out with his best-known professional partner, Tim Rice. As a duo, of course, both were all-conquering, creating Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat, Jesus Christ Superstar and Evita together, with Lloyd Webber composing the music and Rice the lyrics.
Little wonder, then, that there was delight when it was revealed that, some 50 years since they got together, both men had cooperated on six songs for a new show, Sherlock Holmes and the 12 Days of Christmas, soon set to open in London after a run in Birmingham last year.
Produced by Rice’s children Eva and Donald, it follows the detective on the trail of a killer who is working his way through lords-a-leaping and drummers drumming, as per the Christmas carol. Don asked Lloyd Webber to contribute some songs for it, because of the family connection. The critics found the songs, and the play, enjoyable enough. It was a minor hit.
Tim Rice and Andrew Lloyd Webber pictured together in 1971
This week, though, it was revealed that those songs have been either ‘withdrawn’ or ‘ditched’ depending on which side you speak to. The row seems pointed, with questions over whether these great partners will ever collaborate again. Rice says Lloyd Webber is directly responsible, while Lloyd Webber blames Rice’s children. He said they ‘decided not to use the music I composed for the Birmingham production for two reasons… apparently there needed to be further work on the project which, with my schedule this year, simply would have been impossible for me to undertake’.
He added: ‘I was asked to sign away my rights in advance for five years without any right of approval over its use in a production I hadn’t seen and with a team I had never worked with before!’
I’m told by a source close to Lloyd Webber: ‘Andrew has new- found clarity because he has got sober, and that will have been a factor [in this falling out]. This row is truly nothing much but it is a point of principle which is vital to people in the creative industries – and that is that if you are the creator then you get paid.’ The friend continues: ‘It is a real storm in a teacup. Donald and Eva made ridiculous demands and Andrew just thought “No! Eff that”.’
For his part, Rice told The Times: ‘Andrew really didn’t want to continue with the show. Andrew is more concerned with much bigger productions.’ That much is true – Lloyd Webber’s business, LW Entertainment is a huge one, and he is co-writing an operatic new musical, The Illusionist, as well as planning an immersive production of The Phantom of the Opera.
Composer Howard Goodall has now stepped in to write new songs for the Sherlock Holmes show. Asked if the new songs were better than those Lloyd Webber had composed, Rice replied: ‘I have no comment to make on that.’ He said: ‘Andrew just felt it was not up his alley. He is running a huge theatrical empire and very graciously we decided that it is not crucial. We’ll start again.’
It all seems rather unnecessary, as my source agrees. ‘Tim could have sorted this out with one phone call to Andrew but he didn’t because it was about backing his kids and they both get that,’ they said. ‘The truth is there will always be love between them… and there will always be friction, too.’
It seems there may be lingering insecurities on Lloyd Webber’s side too. ‘Andrew felt in his shadow as the nerdy plain one back in the days of Jesus Christ Superstar and Joseph,’ said the source. ‘They would be out together in New York and all the women would fall at Tim’s feet. Tim is so charming he is like a warm velvet glove.’
That much is obvious from Rice’s eventful romantic life.
He has remained married to Jane McIntosh since 1974, but had an 11-year affair in the 1980s with Elaine Paige, Evita’s leading lady.
He has a grown-up daughter from a relationship with artist Nell Sully and a young daughter, Charlotte, after a romance with playwright Laura-Jane Foley.
Lloyd Webber has been married three times – to Sarah Hugill, whom he met when she was a schoolgirl, soprano Sarah Brightman, his ‘Christine’ in Phantom of the Opera, and his current wife equestrian Madeleine Gurdon.
Webber and Rice pose with their Oscars after winning Best Achievement for an Original Song during the 69th Academy Awards ceremony in Los Angeles in 1997
Photographs from their golden decade – between 1968-1978 when they created Joseph, Jesus Christ Superstar and Evita – show them grinning for photographers in kipper ties and jumpers, with shy gawky Lloyd Webber alongside Rice, his debonair pal. Their partnership was famously born after Rice wrote Lloyd Webber a letter offering his services, and describing himself as a ‘with-it’ lyricist in 1965.
Rice was then 20 and Lloyd Webber just 17. What they created was magical productions that changed popular culture. The power of all three shows is evident decades later. Next spring, actress Rachel Zegler will open Evita on Broadway after making a sensational success of the role in the West End in 2025.
Meanwhile, Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat is to be made into a movie directed by John M Chu, who was behind the Wicked films. A new version of Superstar is currently wowing the West End, with Sam Ryder as Jesus.
The two men have continued to occasionally work together since, adding songs to a revival of The Wizard of Oz in 2011 and writing You Must Love Me for the film version of Evita (starring Madonna) in 1996. They also wrote a half-hour musical called Cricket, performed privately for the Queen at Windsor Castle in 1986.
Their biggest previous row took place in 1975 when they were working on a show about Jeeves and Wooster, intended to be a follow-up to Superstar.
Sir Tim told an interviewer: ‘We were working on a show called Jeeves, but after a few months, I felt it wasn’t good enough.
‘We didn’t actually have a row, although Andrew was probably a bit miffed that I wanted to abandon Jeeves – and I was a bit miffed that he didn’t immediately want to go and do Evita.’
Following Evita, they went their separate ways, with Lloyd Webber creating Cats, Phantom Of The Opera and Starlight Express; and Sir Tim doing Chess, and The Lion King (working with Elton John on the film and musical).
As a result, one thing they are not competitive over is cash. Lloyd Webber is said to be worth over £500million and Rice £150million. ‘Honestly, Tim gets about £3million a year in royalties from Disney alone,’ sighs a friend. ‘They definitely don’t worry about how much the other person has.’
As to what their relationship now involves, I’m told: ‘They are true friends but they don’t hang out together. They are not in each other’s pockets at all.
‘Maybe they see each other once or twice a year. When they do it’s really glorious, they will fall into each other’s arms.’
How sad it would be if this latest clang of discord was the last note they struck.