From Phantom Of The Opera to On The Steps Of The Palace
In 1965, the Andrew Lloyd Webber and Stephen Sondheim wrote their first musical, The Likes Of Us, and although this didn’t make it to the stage at that time, they were commissioned to write Joseph And The Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat.
The two have had much success since then, and continue to have success today.
Andrew Lloyd Webber was born March 22, 1948, in London. He comes from a very musical family, and he started playing the violin at age three. He started writing his own music and playing the French horn at age six.
Webber dropped out of Oxford University at seventeen, where he was studying history. This same year he received a letter from a twenty-one-year-old law student, Tim Rice. This letter sparked the lifelong friendship and collaboration between the two of them.
Andrew Lloyd Webber’s most known musicals include Cats, The Phantom Of The Opera and Jesus Christ Superstar.
Stephen Sondheim was born on March 22, 1930, in New York City. He was the son of garment workers; his father was a dressmaker, and his mother was a designer. Sondheim moved to Doylestown, PA with his mother after his parents divorced in 1942. Sondheim started playing the organ and the piano at a young age.
When he finished college, he studied under Milton Babbitt, an avant-garde composer. In 1956, after a stint in California to play background music for The Girls Of Summer, he moved back to New York City.
Sondheim has had continued success to this day and is most known for his musicals Into the Woods and Sweeney Todd.
It's the music that makes musicals memorable.
Click next to see the top 10 list of iconic songs by Andrew Lloyd Webber and Stephen Sondheim.