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Iconic composer Andrew Lloyd Webber has revealed in an interview with The Times that he is a recovering alcoholic. Webber previously had announced that he had quit drinking in 2016, selling off his wine collection. However, he has now revealed that, at that time, he had just stopped for 18 months while producing School of Rock on Broadway, but then went back to it for fear of not being creative enough without it.
“I am a recovering alcoholic. Sixteen months ago I decided that I needed help and it’s the best thing that ever happened to me,” he said. Webber is auctioning off the last of his wine, and said that he is committed to quitting this time, going to rehab and AA.
Webber opened up about how he was going on a downward spiral and first checked himself into a clinic, which didn’t work. That was when he went to his first AA meeting.
“What I love about it is, you go into a room and everybody’s equal. I’ve made friends that I wouldn’t have thought possible,” he said of his experience at AA. He now attends a meeting every day.
Webber said that now, without alcohol, he’s the most productive he’s ever been. Cats: The Jellicle Ball is now playing on Broadway and he is also working on two new musicals.
As BroadwayWorld reported just last week, Webber is working on a new musical about the theft of the Mona Lisa, which he will begin writing soon. As BroadwayWorld reported in 2024, Webber is also working on a musical adaptation of The Illusionist, based on Steven Millhauser’s short story ‘Eisenheim the Illusionist’, which was previously adapted into a film in 2006. Jamie Lloyd is set to direct.
In his interview with The Times, Webber revealed another small detail about the Mona Lisa musical, an idea that came to him while he was in rehab.
“I think it will be unlike anything I’ve done for a long while — more like Joseph [and the Amazing Technicolour Dreamcoat], 70 or 80 minutes, quite funny,” he said.
Christie’s will host an auction beginning this week, called Final Treasures from the Wine Cellar of Andrew Lloyd Webber, an online sale drawn from Webber’s private collection. All proceeds, estimated at about £300,000, will be donated to The Music in Secondary Schools Trust, which is dedicated to transforming the lives of disadvantaged students through music, and is part-funded by the Andrew Lloyd Webber Foundation.
Learn more about the auction here and read the original interview with Webber on The TImes.
Andrew Lloyd Webber is currently represented on Broadway with the reimagined Cats: The Jellicle Ball, which recently opened at the Broadhurst Theatre. Masquerade, an immersive production of The Phantom of the Opera, is running off-Broadway.
Recently, productions of Evita, Starlight Express, and Sunset Boulevard hit the stage in the West End, with the latter transferring to Broadway starring Nicole Scherzinger. Evita, starring Rachel Zegler, is in talks to transfer next.
Webber’s other work from his extensive career includes Love Never Dies, School of Rock, Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat, and Jesus Christ Superstar, among others.
