Lloyd Webber diagnosed with cancer
ANDREW Lloyd Webber has been diagnosed with prostate cancer, a publicist for the composer and theatre tycoon confirmed yesterday.
“The condition is in its very early stages,” said the publicist. “Andrew is now undergoing treatment and expects to be fully back at work before the end of the year.”
Lloyd Webber is best known for composing a vast number of successful musicals, including Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat, Jesus Christ Superstar, Evita, Cats, The Phantom of the Opera and Starlight Express.
But the music mogul also owns the thriving theatre company, the Really Useful Group, which operates seven of London’s biggest theatres, including the Theatre Royal Drury Lane and the London Palladium.
Last year, the Really Useful Group posted a near-10 per cent increase in pre-tax profit to £73.1m, with takings from productions up almost £9m to £33.9m despite the turbulent economic backdrop. Lloyd Webber paid himself a dividend of £38m after selling off the group’s ticketing arm for £63.5m.
The composer, who also owns a number of properties in the UK and abroad and boasts an impressive personal art collection, was ranked 52nd in this year’s Sunday Times Rich List, with a personal wealth of around £750m.
Lloyd Webber has also recently branched out into other business areas, including hosting a number of lucrative television casting shows for musical theatre such as the BBC’s “How Do You Solve A Problem Like Maria?” and “Any Dream Will Do”.
He has agreed a contract to work with the BBC again next year to cast the roles of Dorothy and Toto in a new theatrical production of The Wizard of Oz.
Lloyd Webber was knighted in 1992 and made an honorary life peer in 1997.