Editing Andrew Lloyd Webber (section)

===Early years===
{{quote box|width=29%|align=right|quote="The names of Andrew Lloyd Webber and [[Tim Rice]] are, of course, forever bound together in musical theatre history, like those of [[Gilbert and Sullivan]]."|source=—Theatre critic [[Mark Shenton]] on the partnership of Lloyd Webber and Rice.<ref>{{cite news |title=Mark Shenton meets Sir Tim Rice |url=https://www.londontheatre.co.uk/theatre-news/interviews/mark-shenton-meets-sir-tim-rice |access-date=21 November 2023 |work=London Theatre}}</ref>}}
In 1965, when Lloyd Webber was a 17-year-old budding musical-theatre composer, he was introduced to the 20-year-old aspiring pop-song<!--please do not join the words "song" and "writer"; "aspiring pop-song writer" is correct as is and joining the words "song" and "writer" here is incorrect and inaccurate--> writer [[Tim Rice]].<ref name=chandler/><ref name=ellis/> Their first collaboration was ''[[The Likes of Us]]'', an ''[[Oliver!]]''-inspired musical based on the true story of [[Thomas John Barnardo]].<ref>{{cite news |title=Duo who lost their harmony: Can Tim Rice and Andrew Lloyd Webber make up? |url=https://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/theatre-dance/features/duo-who-lost-their-harmony-can-tim-rice-and-andrew-lloyd-webber-make-up-8913927.html |work=The Independent |date=30 October 2013 |access-date=21 November 2023}}</ref> They produced a demo tape of that work in 1966,<ref name=chandler>{{cite journal |last=Chandler |first=David |title='Everyone should have the opportunity': Alan Doggett and the modern British musical |journal=Studies in Musical Theatre |volume=6 |issue=3 |pages=275–289 |year=2012 |doi=10.1386/smt.6.3.275_1}}</ref> but the project failed to gain a backer.<ref name=ellis>Ellis, Samantha. [https://www.theguardian.com/stage/2003/sep/24/theatre "Joseph, London, February 1973"]. ''[[The Guardian]]''. 24 September 2003.</ref>

Although composed in 1965, ''The Likes of Us'' was not publicly performed until 2005, when a production was staged at Lloyd Webber's [[Sydmonton Festival]]. In 2008, amateur rights were released by the National Operatic and Dramatic Association (NODA) in association with the Really Useful Group. The first amateur performance was by a children's theatre group in Cornwall called "Kidz R Us". Stylistically, ''The Likes of Us'' is fashioned after the Broadway musical of the 1940s and 1950s; it opens with a traditional overture comprising a medley of tunes from the show, and the score reflects some of Lloyd Webber's early influences, particularly [[Richard Rodgers]], [[Frederick Loewe]], and [[Lionel Bart]]. In this respect, it is markedly different from the composer's later work, which tends to be either predominantly or wholly [[through-composed]], and closer in form to opera.

[[File:Paul Nicholas Allan Warren.jpg|thumb|upright=0.8|''[[Jesus Christ Superstar]]'', starring [[Paul Nicholas]], at the [[Palace Theatre, London|Palace Theatre]], London in 1972. Its success saw Lloyd Webber and Tim Rice expand and release their previous biblical-based musical ''[[Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat|Joseph]]''.]]

In the summer of 1967, Alan Doggett, a family friend of the Lloyd Webbers who had assisted on ''The Likes of Us'' and who was the music teacher at the [[Colet Court]] school in London, commissioned Lloyd Webber and Rice to write a piece for the school's choir.<ref name=chandler/><ref name=ellis/><ref>{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=_g-DDQAAQBAJ&pg=PA564|title=The Oxford Handbook of the British Musical|first1=Robert|last1=Gordon|first2=Olaf|last2=Jubin|date=21 November 2016|publisher=Oxford University Press|via=Google Books|isbn=9780199988754}}</ref> Doggett requested a "pop cantata" along the lines of [[Herbert Chappell]]'s ''The Daniel Jazz'' (1963) and [[Michael Hurd (composer)|Michael Hurd]]'s ''Jonah-Man Jazz'' (1966), both of which had been published by [[Novello & Co|Novello]] and were based on the [[Old Testament]].<ref name=chandler/> The request for the new piece came with a 100-[[guinea (coin)|guinea]] advance from Novello.<ref name=chandler/> This resulted in ''[[Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat]]'', a retelling of the biblical story of [[Joseph (son of Jacob)|Joseph]], in which Lloyd Webber and Rice humorously pastiched a number of pop-music styles such as Elvis-style rock'n'roll, [[Calypso music|Calypso]] and [[country music]]. ''Joseph'' began life as a short [[cantata]] that gained some recognition on its second staging with a favourable review in ''[[The Times]]''. For its subsequent performances, Rice and Lloyd Webber revised the show and added new songs to expand it to a more substantial length. Continued expansion eventually culminated in a 1972 stage musical and then a two-hour-long production being staged in the West End in 1973 on the back of the success of ''[[Jesus Christ Superstar]]''.<ref>{{cite web|author=Robert Bradley |url=http://www.springfieldcontemporarytheatre.org/blog/andrew-lloyd-webber-and-jesus-christ-superstar |title=Andrew Lloyd Webber and 'Jesus Christ Superstar' |work=Springfield Contemporary Theatre |date=31 March 2017}}</ref>

In 1969, Rice and Lloyd Webber wrote a song for the [[Eurovision Song Contest]] called "Try It and See", which was not selected. With rewritten lyrics, it became "King Herod's Song" in their third musical, ''Jesus Christ Superstar'' (1970). Debuting on [[Broadway theatre|Broadway]] in 1971, by 1980 the musical had grossed more than {{US$|237&nbsp;million|long=no}} worldwide.<ref>{{cite news |title=London's Longest-Running Musical To Close |url=https://www.newspapers.com/newspage/107621009/ |access-date=8 June 2020 |work=[[The Indianapolis Star]] |date=20 August 1980 |page=25}}</ref> Running for over eight years in London between 1972 and 1980, it held the record for longest-running [[West End theatre|West End]] musical before it was overtaken by ''Cats'' in 1989.<ref>{{cite book|title=The Megamusical|first=Jessica|last=Sternfeld|year=2006|publisher=[[Indiana University Press]]|isbn=978-0-253-34793-0|page=169}}</ref> The planned follow-up to ''Jesus Christ Superstar'' was a musical comedy based on the ''[[Jeeves and Wooster]]'' novels by [[P. G. Wodehouse]]. Tim Rice was uncertain about this venture, partly because of his concern that he might not be able to do justice to the novels that he and Lloyd Webber so admired.<ref>(Rice, 1999)</ref> Rice backed out of the project and Lloyd Webber subsequently wrote the musical ''Jeeves'' with [[Alan Ayckbourn]], who provided the book and lyrics.<ref>Andrew Lloyd Webber: His Life and Works – Walsh, Michael (1989, revised and expanded, 1997). p. 82, Abrams: New York</ref> ''Jeeves'' failed to make any impact at the box office and closed after a run of only 38 performances in the West End in 1975.<ref>{{cite news |title=By Jeeves - Review |url=https://www.theguardian.com/stage/2011/feb/21/by-jeeves-review |access-date=29 June 2019 |work=The Guardian}}</ref> Many years later, Lloyd Webber and Ayckbourn revisited this project, producing a thoroughly reworked and more successful version entitled ''[[By Jeeves]]'' (1996).<ref>{{cite web | url=https://variety.com/1997/film/reviews/by-jeeves-2-1200449214/ | last=Isherwood | first=Charles | title=By Jeeves | website=Variety | access-date= 21 November 2023 | date=16 March 1997}}</ref>