Majorca was the set for the latest big birthday bash for two well-known birthday boys recently.
Andrew Lloyd Webber hosted the event that celebrated his 60th birthday and Michael Caine's 75th. The party included performances by a Majorcan rock band. The two were surrounded by 40 close friends and family for the celebration. Some of the more well-known guests included Sir Tim Rice, Lord Melvyn Bragg, Sir Trevor Nunn, Ben Elton and Michael Winner.
Andrew Lloyd Webber was born on March 22, 1948 in South Kensington in London, England. His mother, Jean Hermione Johnstone Webber, was a violinist and pianist. His father, William Lloyd Webber was a composer. His brother is the famed cellist Julian Lloyd Webber. Lloyd Webber has always had an ear for music. As a very young lad, he began composing his own music. At the age of nine, he wrote his first published suite of six pieces.
At the insistence of his aunt Viola, he built a fake theater. He would create and compose full productions with his brother Julian and their aunt Viola in his makeshift theater. Viola was an actress and would often take her young nephew to see her shows.
At Westminster School, Lloyd Webber was a Queen's Scholar. He also studied history for a while at Magdalen College in Oxford. Later, in pursuance of his musical theater career, he abandoned the history course.
Lloyd Webber has been married three times and has five children, of whom he is immensely proud. His eldest daughter Imogen runs a theater production company, ILW Productions. She is also an accomplished author. His son Nicholas (Nick) is also a composer. His younger sons Alastair and William attend Eton College, a prestigious boarding school. His youngest daughter Isabella attends Cheam School.
Over the course of his career, he has composed 13 musicals, a song cycle, a set of variations, two film scores and a Latin Requiem Mass. He was knighted in 1992. Later, in 1997, he was created a life peer as Baron Lloyd-Webber, of Sydmonton in the County of Hampshire. For his efforts, he has received three Tony Awards, three Grammy Awards, an Oscar, an International Emmy, six Olivier Awards, a Golden Globe and the Kennedy Center Honors in 2006.
Some of his more notable compositions include "I Don't Know How to Love Him" from Jesus Christ Superstar, "Don't Cry for Me, Argentina" from Evita, "Memory" from Cats and "The music of the Night" from The Phantom of the Opera. His second wife, Sarah Brightman, was cast in the lead role of Christine, in The Phantom of the Opera.
Many of his works have been widely recorded and have become hits aside from their original places in musical theater. The Really Useful Group is one of Lloyd Webber's companies and is one of the largest theater operators in London. The company also issues licenses to reproduce and stage productions of Lloyd Webber's musicals.
Lloyd Webber has worked with many other notable composers, such as Tim Rice, on multiple occasions. Some of their most famous collaborations include The Likes of Us and Evita. He has also composed music with his brother Julian Lloyd Webber.
In the 1980s he embarked on a new project without a lyricist. Instead, he turned to the poetry of T.S. Eliot. Eliot's Old Possum's Book of Practical Cats was one of Lloyd Webber's childhood favorites.
For his 60th birthday bash, Lord Lloyd-Webber made reservations at La Residencia, his favorite hotel in Majorca. Over the weekend, his guests dined at his favorite restaurant in Deia. He owns an estate in the beautiful village of Deia, as do Michael Douglas and Catherine Zeta-Jones. |
