Reginald Jeeves is a fictional character in the short stories and novels of P. G. Wodehouse, being the valet of Bertie Wooster (Bertram Wilberforce Wooster). Created in 1915, Jeeves continued to appear in Wodehouse's work until his final completed novel Aunts Aren't Gentlemen in 1974. He was Wodehouse's most famous character. The name "Jeeves" comes from Percy Jeeves, a Warwickshire cricketer killed in the First World War.^[1]

Both the name "Jeeves" and the character of Jeeves have come to be thought of as the quintessential name and nature of a valet or butler inspiring many similar characters (as well as the name of the Internet search engine Ask Jeeves). A "Jeeves" is now a generic term in references such as the Oxford English Dictionary.^[2]

In a conversation with a policeman in "Jeeves and the Kid Clementina," Jeeves refers to himself as both a "gentleman's personal gentleman" and a "personal gentleman's gentleman."^[3] This means that Jeeves is a valet, not a butler—that is, he serves a man and not a household. However, Bertie Wooster has lent out Jeeves as a butler on several occasions, and notes: "If the call comes, he can buttle with the best of them."^[4]

Character[link]

The premise of the Jeeves stories is that the brilliant valet is firmly in control of his rich and foppish young employer's life. When Bertie gets into an unwanted social obligation, legal trouble, or engagement to marry, Jeeves invariably comes up with a subtle plan to save him, often without Bertie's knowledge.

Jeeves is known for his convoluted yet precise speech and for quoting from Shakespeare and famous romantic poets. In his free time, he likes to relax with "improving" books such as the complete works of Spinoza, or to read "Dostoyevsky and the great Russians".^[5] He "glides" or "shimmers" in and out of rooms and may appear or disappear suddenly and without warning. His potable concoctions, both of the alcoholic and the morning-after variety, are legendary.

Jeeves frequently displays mastery over a vast range of subjects, from philosophy (his favourite philosopher is Spinoza; he finds Nietzsche "fundamentally unsound"^[6]) through an encyclopaedic knowledge of poetry, science, history, psychology, geography, politics, and literature. He is also a "bit of a whizz" in all matters pertaining to gambling, car maintenance, etiquette, and women. However, his most impressive feats are a flawless knowledge of the British aristocracy and making antidotes (especially for hangovers). His mental prowess is attributed to eating fish, according to Bertie, who often offers the dish to Jeeves.

Jeeves has a distinct—and often negative—opinion of items about which Bertie is enthusiastic, such as a garish vase, an uncomplimentary painting of Wooster created by one of the many women with whom he is briefly infatuated, a moustache, monogrammed handkerchiefs, a straw boater, an alpine hat, a scarlet cummerbund, spats in the Eton colours, white dinner jacket, or purple socks. Wooster's decision to take up playing the banjolele in Thank You, Jeeves almost led to a permanent rift between the two.

Jeeves is a member of the Junior Ganymede Club, a London club for butlers and valets, in whose club book all members must record the exploits of their employers to forewarn other butlers and valets. The section labelled "WOOSTER, BERTRAM" is the largest in the book. In Jeeves and the Feudal Spirit it contained "eleven pages",^[7] and by Much Obliged, Jeeves it has grown to eighteen pages.^[8] However, at the end of Much Obliged, Jeeves, Jeeves informs Wooster that he has destroyed the eighteen pages, anticipating that he will never leave the latter's employment.

Only once in the Wodehouse canon does Jeeves appear without Wooster: Ring for Jeeves, in which he is on loan to the 9th Earl of Rowcester while Wooster attends a school where the idle rich learn self-sufficiency in case of social upheaval. The novel was adapted from Wodehouse's play Come On, Jeeves, which he felt needed a more conventional ending; but he was unwilling to marry Wooster off.

Jeeves's first job was as a page boy at a girls' school, after which he had at least eleven other employers. Before entering the employ of Bertie Wooster, he was with Lord Worplesdon, resigning after nearly a year because of Worplesdon's eccentric choice of evening dress; Mr Digby Thistleton (later Lord Bridgnorth), who sold hair tonic; Mr Montague Todd, a financier who was in the second year of a prison term when Jeeves mentioned him to Bertie; Lord Brancaster, who gave port-soaked seedcake to his pet parrot; and Lord Frederick Ranelagh, swindled in Monte Carlo by recurring antagonist Soapy Sid. His tenure with Bertie had occasional lapses, during which he was employed elsewhere: he worked for Lord Rowcester for the length of Ring for Jeeves; Marmaduke "Chuffy" Chuffnell for a week in Thank You, Jeeves, after giving notice because of Bertie's unwillingness to give up the banjolele; J. Washburn Stoker for a short period; Gussie Fink-Nottle, who masqueraded as Bertie in The Mating Season; and Sir Watkyn Bassett as a trick to get Bertie released from prison in Stiff Upper Lip, Jeeves.

Richard Usborne, a leading scholar of the life and works of Wodehouse, describes Jeeves as a "godlike prime mover" and "master brain who has found to have engineered the apparent coincidence or coincidences".^[9]

Jeeves's first name of Reginald was not revealed for 56 years, in the penultimate novel in the series, Much Obliged, Jeeves (1971), when Bertie hears a "Hullo, Reggie" greeting Jeeves. The readers may have been surprised to learn Jeeves's first name, but Bertie was stunned by the revelation "that he had a first name" in the first place.^{[10] [11]}

Inspiration and effect[link]

In his 1953 semi-autobiographical book written with Guy Bolton, Bring on the Girls!, Wodehouse suggests that Jeeves was based on an actual butler called Eugene Robinson that Wodehouse employed for research purposes. He recounts a story where Robinson extricated Wodehouse from a real-life predicament. Wodehouse also recounts that he named his Jeeves after Percy Jeeves (1888–1916), a then-popular English cricketer for Warwickshire. Percy Jeeves was killed at the Battle of the Somme during the attack on High Wood in July 1916, two months before the first appearance of the eponymous butler who would make his name a household word.

Jeeves' propensity for wisdom and knowledge is so well known that it inspired the original name of the Internet search website Ask.com (called "AskJeeves" from 1996 to 2006). In the twenty-first century, a "Jeeves" is a generic term (in the fashion of "a Jonah") for any useful and reliable person, found in dictionaries such as the Oxford English Dictionary^[12] or the Encarta World English Dictionary.^[13] The term has even infiltrated World of Warcraft, where an engineering character may construct a "Jeeves" robot to repair equipment.^[14]

Family[link]

Jeeves has three aunts who, he informs Wooster, are very placid in nature, in contrast to Wooster's aunts. One of Jeeves's aunts is resident in the vicinity of Maiden Eggesford and owns a cat, which features in Aunts Aren't Gentlemen. Her address is mentioned to be "Balmoral Castle, Mafeking Road". In Right Ho, Jeeves he refers to his Aunt Annie: "in times of domestic disagreement it was necessary only to invite my Aunt Annie for a visit to heal all breaches between the other members of the household. In the mutual animosity excited by Aunt Annie, those who had become estranged were reconciled almost immediately." The third aunt had varicose veins in her legs that were hideous to view, though improved to such a great extent by a patent medicine that she allowed them to be photographed for an advertisement for the product.

Jeeves also has an uncle, Charlie Silversmith, who is butler at Deverill Hall in Hampshire. Jeeves frequently writes letters to his uncle and Wooster holds Charlie in high regard. On occasion, Jeeves has been known to take the place of his uncle when circumstances necessitate his absence.^{[citation needed]}

By virtue of Uncle Charlie, Jeeves has a cousin, Queenie. Queenie is engaged to a police constable named Dobbs. She is also briefly engaged, in complicated circumstances, to Catsmeat Potter-Pirbright.^{[citation needed]}

In The Rummy Affair of Old Biffy, we learn he also has a niece named Mabel, who falls in love with Charles Edward "Biffy" Biffen during an ocean voyage. An old friend of Bertie's, Biffy is so absent-minded that he subsequently forgets everything but her first name and that he successfully proposed to her. Feeling she has been toyed with, Mabel breaks off the engagement, only to resume it when Jeeves intervenes and sends Bertie, Biffin, and Roderick Glossop (to whose daughter, Honoria, Biffy became betrothed after the disappearance of Mabel) to see a historical sideshow at a fair in which Mabel is appearing.^{[citation needed]}

Stories[link]

The Jeeves "canon" consists of 35 short stories and 11 novels. With minor exceptions, the short stories were written and published first (between 1915 and 1930); the novels later (between 1934 and 1974).

The concept which eventually became Jeeves actually preceded Bertie in Wodehouse's imagination: he had long considered the idea of a butler—later a valet—who could solve any problem. A character named Reggie Pepper, who was very much like Bertie but without Jeeves, was the protagonist of seven short stories. Wodehouse decided to rewrite the Pepper stories, switching Reggie's character to Bertie Wooster and combining him with an ingenious valet.

Jeeves and Bertie first appeared in "Extricating Young Gussie", a short story published in September 1915, in which Jeeves's character is minor and not fully developed and Bertie's surname appears to be Mannering-Phipps. The first fully recognisable Jeeves and Bertie story was "The Artistic Career of Corky", published in early 1916. As the series progressed, Jeeves assumed the role of Bertie's co-protagonist; indeed, their meeting was told in November 1916 in "Jeeves Takes Charge".

Bertie narrates all the stories but two, "Bertie Changes His Mind" (which Jeeves himself narrates), and Ring for Jeeves (which features Jeeves but not Bertie and is written in the third person). The stories are set in three primary locations: London, where Bertie has a flat and is a member of the raucous Drones Club; various stately homes in the English countryside, most commonly Totleigh Towers or Brinkley Court; or New York City and a few other locations in the United States. All take place in a timeless world based on an idealised vision of England before World War II, essentially the same world found in the fiction of Wodehouse's near-contemporary, Agatha Christie. Only Ring for Jeeves mentions World War II.

Most of the Jeeves stories were originally published as magazine pieces before being collected into books, although 11 of the short stories were reworked and divided into 18 chapters to make an episodic semi-novel called The Inimitable Jeeves. Other collections, most notably The World of Jeeves, restore these to their original form of 11 distinct stories.

• The Man with Two Left Feet (1917)—One story in a book of thirteen
  • "Extricating Young Gussie"—The first appearances of Jeeves and Bertie, originally published 1915.
• (My Man Jeeves (1919)—Four stories in a book of eight, all four reprinted in Carry on, Jeeves. The non-Jeeves stories feature Reggie Pepper.)
  • ("Leave It to Jeeves", was reprinted in Carry on, Jeeves as "The Artistic Career of Corky"), originally published 1916.
  • ("Jeeves and the Unbidden Guest", was reprinted in Carry on, Jeeves), originally published 1916.
  • ("Jeeves and the Hard-boiled Egg", was reprinted in Carry on, Jeeves), originally published 1917.
  • ("The Aunt and the Sluggard", was reprinted in Carry on, Jeeves), originally published 1916.
• The Inimitable Jeeves (1923)—A semi-novel consisting of eighteen chapters, originally published as eleven short stories (some of which were split for the book):
  • "Jeeves Exerts the Old Cerebellum" with "No Wedding Bells for Bingo" (together "Jeeves in the Springtime", originally published 1921)
  • "Aunt Agatha Speaks Her Mind" with "Pearls Mean Tears" (together "Aunt Agatha Takes the Count", originally published 1922.)
  • "The Pride of the Woosters Is Wounded" with "The Hero's Reward" (together "Scoring Off Jeeves", originally published 1922.)
  • "Introducing Claude and Eustace" with "Sir Roderick Comes to Lunch" (together "Sir Roderick Comes to Lunch", originally published 1922.)
  • "A Letter of Introduction" with "Startling Dressiness of a Lift Attendant" (together "Jeeves and the Chump Cyril", originally published 1918.)
  • "Comrade Bingo" with "Bingo Has a Bad Goodwood" (together "Comrade Bingo", originally published 1922.)
  • "The Great Sermon Handicap", originally published 1922.
  • "The Purity of the Turf", originally published 1922.
  • "The Metropolitan Touch", originally published 1922.
  • "The Delayed Exit of Claude and Eustace", originally published 1922.
  • "Bingo and the Little Woman" with "All's Well" (together "Bingo and the Little Woman", originally published 1922.)
• Carry on, Jeeves (1925)—Ten stories:
  • "Jeeves Takes Charge" – Recounts the first meeting of Jeeves and Bertie, originally published 1916.
  • "The Artistic Career of Corky", a rewrite of "Leave It to Jeeves", originally published in My Man Jeeves
  • "Jeeves and the Unbidden Guest", originally published in My Man Jeeves
  • "Jeeves and the Hard-boiled Egg", originally published in My Man Jeeves
  • "The Aunt and the Sluggard", originally published in My Man Jeeves
  • "The Rummy Affair of Old Biffy", originally published 1924.
  • "Without the Option", originally published 1925.
  • "Fixing It for Freddie", a rewrite of a Reggie Pepper story, "Helping Freddie", originally published in My Man Jeeves
  • "Clustering Round Young Bingo"
  • "Bertie Changes His Mind"—The only story in the canon narrated by Jeeves, originally published 1922.
• Very Good, Jeeves (1930)—Eleven stories:
  • "Jeeves and the Impending Doom", originally published 1926.
  • "The Inferiority Complex of Old Sippy", originally published 1926.
  • "Jeeves and the Yule-tide Spirit" (US title: Jeeves and the Yuletide Spirit), originally published 1927.
  • "Jeeves and the Song of Songs", originally published 1929.
  • "Episode of the Dog McIntosh" (US title: Jeeves and the Dog McIntosh), originally published 1929.
  • "The Spot of Art" (US title: Jeeves and the Spot of Art), originally published 1929.
  • "Jeeves and the Kid Clementina", originally published 1930.
  • "The Love That Purifies" (US title: Jeeves and the Love That Purifies), originally published 1929.
  • "Jeeves and the Old School Chum", originally published 1930.
  • "The Indian Summer of an Uncle", originally published 1930.
  • "The Ordeal of Young Tuppy" (US title: Tuppy Changes His Mind), originally published 1930.
• Thank You, Jeeves (1934)—The first full-length Jeeves novel
• Right Ho, Jeeves (1934) (US title: Brinkley Manor)
• The Code of the Woosters (1938)
• Joy in the Morning (1946) (US title: Jeeves in the Morning)
• The Mating Season (1949)
• (Come On, Jeeves—1952 play with Guy Bolton, adapted 1953 into Ring for Jeeves, produced 1954, published 1956)
• Ring for Jeeves (1953)—Only novel without Bertie (US title: The Return of Jeeves), adapting the play Come On, Jeeves
• Jeeves and the Feudal Spirit (1954) (US title: Bertie Wooster Sees It Through)
• A Few Quick Ones (1959)—One short story in a book of ten
  • "Jeeves Makes an Omelette", a rewrite of a Reggie Pepper story originally published in My Man Jeeves
• Jeeves in the Offing (1960) (US title: How Right You Are, Jeeves)
• Stiff Upper Lip, Jeeves (1963)
• Plum Pie (1966)—One short story in a book of nine
  • "Jeeves and the Greasy Bird"
• Much Obliged, Jeeves (1971) (US title: Jeeves and the Tie That Binds)
• Aunts Aren't Gentlemen (1974) (US title: The Cat-nappers)

The collection The World of Jeeves (first published in 1967, reprinted in 1989) contains all of the Jeeves short stories (with the exception of "Extricating Young Gussie") presented more or less in narrative chronological order. An efficient method of reading the entire Jeeves canon is to read The World of Jeeves followed by the eleven novels in order of publication. The novels share a certain amount of sequential narrative development between them, and the later novels are essentially sequels to the earlier ones.

Jeeves adaptations[link]

By chronological order on the first item of each sub-section:

Films[link]

There have been a few theatrical films based upon or inspired by Wodehouse's novels:

• Thank You, Jeeves! (1935)—Arthur Treacher as Jeeves, and David Niven as Bertie, meet a girl and help her brother stop two spies trying to get his secret plans. The film has almost nothing to do with the book of that title. Although Treacher looks the part, the script calls on him to play the character as unhelpful and rather unpleasant, with none of the trademark brilliance of the literary Jeeves.
• Step Lively, Jeeves! (1936)—Arthur Treacher as Jeeves is conned by two swindlers who claim he has a fortune waiting for him in America, where Jeeves meets some gangsters. Bertie does not appear, Jeeves is portrayed as a naive bumbler, and the film has nothing to do with any Wodehouse story.
• By Jeeves (2001)—A recorded performance of the musical, released as a video (with UK Martin Jarvis as Jeeves, and US John Scherer as Bertie). It was also aired on television.

Plays[link]

• Come On, Jeeves (opened 1954, still presented from time to time as of 2008^[update] under its name or as Ring for Jeeves)—A 1952 play by Guy Bolton and Wodehouse (adapted into the 1953 novel Ring for Jeeves), opened 1954 in Worthing, England (cast unknown), published in 1956.

Television[link]

• The World of Wooster (30 May 1965 to 17 November 1967, 20 episodes of 30 minutes)—A half-hour comedy series for BBC1 (with Dennis Price as Jeeves, and Ian Carmichael as Bertie, plus Derek Nimmo playing Bingo Little).^[15]
• Jeeves and Wooster (22 April 1990 to 20 June 1993, 23 episodes of 55 minutes)—A hit ITV series starring double-act Fry and Laurie (with Stephen Fry as Jeeves, and Hugh Laurie as Bertie).

Musicals[link]

• Jeeves (22 April 1975 to 24 May 1975, 38 performances)—An unsuccessful musical loosely based on Wodehouse, opened in London (with Michael Aldridge as Jeeves, and David Hemmings as Bertie). Music by Andrew Lloyd Webber, Lyrics & Book by Alan Ayckbourn and based on the Wodehouse book: "Code of The Woosters."
• By Jeeves (1 May 1996 to 12 February 1997; 28 October 2001 to 30 December 2001, 73 performances)—A more successful complete rewrite of the earlier version, opened in London (with Malcolm Sinclair as Jeeves, and Steven Pacey as Bertie), and premiered in the U.S. in November 1996 (with Richard Kline as Jeeves, and John Scherer as Bertie). It was produced again in 2001 on Broadway (with Martin Jarvis as Jeeves, and Scherer as Bertie), with one recorded performance released as a video film and aired on TV.

Radio[link]

• What Ho, Jeeves! (1972 to 1981)—A popular BBC Radio 4 series adapting various Jeeves stories (with Michael Hordern as Jeeves, and Richard Briers as Bertie).
• The Code of the Woosters (2006)—A BBC Radio 4 dramatisation of The Code of the Woosters (with Andrew Sachs as Jeeves, and Marcus Brigstocke as Bertie).

Comics[link]

• In Alan Moore's comic The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen: Black Dossier, Jeeves appears in the segment "What Ho, Gods of the Abyss?" in which he contacts the League through a cousin in the British Museum to help combat the arrival of a Mi-go to Brinkley Court and Bertie's Aunt Dahlia's possession by Cthulhu. The Lovecraftian menaces are driven off by a League consisting of Mina Murray, Allan Quatermain, Carnacki, and Orlando.

Biography[link]

A fictional biography of Jeeves, entitled Jeeves: A Gentleman's Personal Gentleman by Northcote Parkinson, fills in a great deal of background information about him.

Also, both Jeeves and Bertie Wooster make cameo appearances in Spider Robinson's Lady Slings the Booze.

See also[link]

• List of characters in the Jeeves stories
• List of fictional butlers, also including once-butler valets such as Jeeves

References[link]

Main primary sources consulted

All Jeeves books are relevant, but many key points are sourced from: Carry on, Jeeves (1925, first meeting, poaching Anatole); Ring for Jeeves (1953, butler, WW2); Jeeves and the Feudal Spirit (1954, great Russians, eleven pages section); Much Obliged, Jeeves (1971, eighteen pages section, Reginald).

Secondary sources consulted

• Kuzmenko, Michel (The Russian Wodehouse Society) (2007-03-22 update). "Wodehouse books". Bibliography. http://wodehouse.ru/bibeng.htm. Retrieved 2007-08-15. 
• Reggie (2007-03-16 update). "Wodehouse Who's Who: Jeeves". Blandings, a Companion to the Works of P. G. Wodehouse. http://webcitation.org/query?date=2007-08-15&url=http://www.blandings.org.uk/who/Jeeves.htm. 
• Usborne, Richard (2003). Plum Sauce: A P. G. Wodehouse Companion. New York: The Overlook Press. pp. 81–93, 187. ISBN 1-58567-441-9. 
• Wodehouse, P. G. (1963). Stiff Upper Lip, Jeeves. New York: Simon & Schuster. pp. 1–2. ISBN 0-7432-0410-7. 

Endnotes

Further reading[link]

• Parkinson, C. Northcote (1981) [1979]. Jeeves: A Gentleman's Personal Gentleman (U.S. edition ed.). New York: St. Martin's Press. ISBN 0-312-44144-4. —Mock biography of Jeeves.

External links[link]

Look up Jeeves in Wiktionary, the free dictionary.

Television adaptations

• BBC's World of Wooster (March 2007 Archive.org cache) at the BBC Comedy Guide (down)
• ITV's Jeeves and Wooster (March 2007 Archive.org cache) at the BBC Comedy Guide

The Right Honourable The Lord Lloyd-Webber Kt.
in 2007.
Born	Andrew Lloyd Webber (1948-03-22) 22 March 1948 (age 64) Kensington, London, England
Nationality	British
Education	Westminster School
Alma mater	Royal College of Music
Occupation	Composer, panellist, television personality, businessman, songwriter, theatre director
Years active	1965–present
Notable work(s)	See below and Discography
Net worth	£700 million (est.)
Spouse	Sarah Hugill (m. 1972–1983) «start: (1972-07-24)–end+1: (1983-11-15)»"Marriage: Sarah Hugill to Andrew Lloyd Webber" Location: (linkback:http://en-wiki.pop.wn.com/index.php/Andrew_Lloyd_Webber) (divorced) Sarah Brightman (m. 1984–1990) «start: (1984-03-22)–end+1: (1990-01-04)»"Marriage: Sarah Brightman to Andrew Lloyd Webber" Location: (linkback:http://en-wiki.pop.wn.com/index.php/Andrew_Lloyd_Webber) (divorced) Madeleine Gurdon (m. 1991) «start: (1991-02-09)»"Marriage: Madeleine Gurdon to Andrew Lloyd Webber" Location: (linkback:http://en-wiki.pop.wn.com/index.php/Andrew_Lloyd_Webber)
Children	The Hon. Imogen (born 1978) The Hon. Nicholas (born 1979) The Hon. Alistair Adam (born 1992) The Hon. William Richard (born 1993) The Hon. Isabella Aurora (born 1996)
Parents	William Lloyd Webber (1914–1982) Jean Hermione (née Johnstone, 1921–1993)
Relatives	Julian Lloyd Webber (Brother)
Awards	Best Original Song 1996: Evita Best Original Score 1980: Evita Best Original Song 1996: Evita Performing Arts 2001: Jesus Christ Superstar Best Cast Show Album 1980: Evita 1983 Cats Best Contemporary Composition 1985: Lloyd Webber: Requiem 2008: Society of London Theatre Special Award
Website
AndrewLloydWebber.com

Andrew Lloyd Webber, Baron Lloyd-Webber Kt. (born 22 March 1948) is an English composer and impresario of musical theatre.^[1]

Lloyd Webber has achieved great popular success in musical theatre. Several of his musicals have run for more than a decade both in the West End and on Broadway. He has composed 13 musicals, a song cycle, a set of variations, two film scores, and a Latin Requiem Mass. He has also gained a number of honours, including a knighthood in 1992,^[2] followed by a peerage from the British Government for services to Music, seven Tony Awards, three Grammy Awards, an Academy Award, fourteen Ivor Novello Awards, seven Olivier Awards, a Golden Globe Award, and the Kennedy Center Honors in 2006.^[3][4]

Several of his songs have been widely recorded and were hits outside of their parent musicals, notably "The Music of the Night" from The Phantom of the Opera, "I Don't Know How to Love Him" from Jesus Christ Superstar, "Don't Cry for Me, Argentina" and "You Must Love Me" from Evita, "Any Dream Will Do" from Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat and "Memory" from Cats.

His company, the Really Useful Group, is one of the largest theatre operators in London. Producers in several parts of the UK have staged productions, including national tours, of the Lloyd Webber musicals under licence from the Really Useful Group.

Early life[link]

Andrew Lloyd Webber was born in Kensington, London, the elder son of William Lloyd Webber (1914–1982), a composer, and Jean Hermione (née Johnstone; 1921–1993), a violinist and pianist.^[5] His younger brother, Julian Lloyd Webber, is a renowned solo cellist.

Lloyd Webber started writing his own music at a young age, a suite of six pieces at the age of nine. He also put on "productions" with Julian and his Aunt Viola in his toy theatre (which he built at the suggestion of Viola, of whom he was fond). Later, he would be the owner of a number of West End theatres, including the Palace. His aunt Viola, an actress, took him to see many of her shows and through the stage door into the world of the theatre. He also claims that he had originally set music to Old Possum's Book of Practical Cats at the age of fifteen.

In 1965, Lloyd Webber was a Queen's Scholar at Westminster School and studied history for a term at Magdalen College, Oxford, although he abandoned the course in Winter 1965 to study at the Royal College of Music and pursue his interest in musical theatre.^[6][7]

Professional career[link]

Early years[link]

Lloyd Webber's first collaboration with lyricist Tim Rice was The Likes of Us, a musical based on the true story of Thomas John Barnardo. Although composed in 1965, it was not publicly performed until 2005, when a production was staged at Lloyd Webber's Sydmonton Festival. In 2008, amateur rights were released via 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 '40s and '50s; 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 than to the Broadway musical.

In 1968, Rice and Lloyd Webber were commissioned to write a piece for the Colet Court preparatory school which resulted in Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat, a retelling of the biblical story of Joseph in which Lloyd Webber and Rice humorously pastiche a number of musical styles such as Elvis-style rock'n'roll, 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. This culminated in a two-hour long production being staged in the West End on the back of the success of Jesus Christ Superstar.

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).

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.^[8] After doing some initial work on the lyrics, he pulled out of the project and Lloyd Webber subsequently wrote the musical with Alan Ayckbourn who provided the book and lyrics. Jeeves failed to make any impact at the box office and closed after a short run of only three weeks. Many years later, Lloyd Webber and Ayckbourn revisited this project, producing a thoroughly reworked and more successful version entitled By Jeeves (1996). Only two of the songs from the original production remained ("Half a Moment" and "Banjo Boy").

Mid-1970s[link]

Lloyd Webber collaborated with Rice once again to write Evita (1978 in London/1979 in U.S.), a musical based on the life of Eva Perón. As with Jesus Christ Superstar, Evita was released first as a concept album (1976) and featured Julie Covington singing the part of Eva Perón. The song "Don't Cry for Me Argentina" became a hit single and the musical was staged at the Prince Edward Theatre in a production directed by Harold Prince and starring Elaine Paige in the title role.

Patti LuPone created the role of Eva on Broadway for which she won a Tony. Evita was a highly successful show that ran for ten years in the West End. It transferred to Broadway in 1979. Rice and Lloyd Webber parted ways soon after Evita.

In 1978, Lloyd Webber embarked on a solo project, the "Variations", with his cellist brother Julian based on the 24th Caprice by Paganini, which reached number two in the pop album chart in the United Kingdom. The main theme was used as the theme tune for ITV1's long-running South Bank Show throughout its 32-year run.

1980s[link]

Lloyd Webber embarked on his next project without a lyricist, turning instead to the poetry of T. S. Eliot. Cats (1981) was to become the longest running musical in London, where it ran for 21 years before closing. On Broadway, Cats ran for eighteen years, a record which would ultimately be broken by another Lloyd Webber musical, The Phantom of the Opera.^[9][10]

Starlight Express (1984) was a commercial hit but received negative reviews from the critics. It enjoyed a record run in the West End, but ran for less than two years on Broadway. The show has also seen two tours of the US, as well as an Australian/Japanese production, a three-year UK touring production, which transferred to New Zealand later in 2009. The show also runs full-time in a custom-built theatre in Bochum, Germany, where it has been running since 1988.

Lloyd Webber wrote a Requiem Mass dedicated to his father, William, who had died in 1982. It premiered at St. Thomas Church in New York on 24 February 1985. Church music had been a part of the composer's upbringing and the composition was inspired by an article he had read about the plight of Cambodian orphans. Lloyd Webber had on a number of occasions written sacred music for the annual Sydmonton Festival.^[11] Lloyd Webber received a Grammy Award in 1986 for Requiem in the category of best classical composition. Pie Jesu from Requiem achieved a high placing on the UK pop charts.

Cricket (1986), also called Cricket (Hearts and Wickets), reunited Lloyd Webber with Tim Rice to create this short musical for Queen Elizabeth's 60th birthday, first performed at Windsor Castle. Several of the tunes were later used for Aspects of Love and Sunset Boulevard.

Lloyd Webber also premiered The Phantom of the Opera in 1986, inspired by the 1911 Gaston Leroux novel. He wrote the part of Christine for his then-wife, Sarah Brightman, who played the role in the original London and Broadway productions alongside Michael Crawford as the Phantom. The production was directed by Harold Prince, who had also earlier directed Evita. Charles Hart wrote the lyrics for Phantom with some additional material provided by Richard Stilgoe, with whom Lloyd-Webber co-wrote the book of the musical. It became a hit and is still running in both the West End and on Broadway; in January 2006 it overtook Cats as the longest-running musical on Broadway.On February 11, 2012, Phantom of the Opera played its 10,000th show on Broadway.^[10]

Aspects of Love followed in 1989, a musical based on the story by David Garnett. The lyrics were by Don Black and Charles Hart and the original production was directed by Trevor Nunn. Aspects had a run of four years in London but closed after less than a year on Broadway. It has since gone on a tour of the UK, and is beginning to enjoy more acclaim than its original production.^{[citation needed]}

1990s[link]

Lloyd Webber was asked to write a song for the 1992 Barcelona Olympics and composed "Amigos Para Siempre — Friends for Life" with Don Black providing the lyrics. This song was performed by Sarah Brightman and José Carreras.

Lloyd Webber had toyed with the idea of writing a musical based on Billy Wilder's critically acclaimed movie, Sunset Boulevard, since the early 1970s when he saw the film, but the project didn't come to fruition until after the completion of Aspects of Love when the composer finally managed to secure the rights from Paramount Pictures^[12] The composer worked with two collaborators, as he had done on Aspects of Love; this time Christopher Hampton and Don Black shared equal credit for the book and lyrics. The show opened at the Adelphi Theatre in London on 12 July 1993, and ran for 1,529 performances. In spite of the show's popularity and extensive run in London's West End, it lost money due to the sheer expense of the production.

In 1994, Sunset Boulevard became a successful Broadway show, opening with the largest advance in Broadway history, and winning seven Tony Awards that year. Even so, by its closing in 1997, "it had not recouped its reported $13 million investment."^[13]

In 1998, Lloyd Webber released a film version of Cats, which was filmed at the Adelphi Theatre in London. David Mallet directed the film, and Gillian Lynne choreographed the film. The cast consisted of performers who had been in the show before, including Ken Page (Original Old Deuteronomy on Broadway) as Old Deuteronomy, Elaine Paige (Original Grizabella in London) and Sir John Mills as Gus: the Theatre Cat.

In 1998 Whistle Down the Wind made its debut, a musical written with lyrics supplied by rock legend Jim Steinman. Originally opening in Washington, Lloyd Webber was reportedly not happy with the casting or Harold Prince's production and the show was subsequently revised for a London staging directed by Gale Edwards, the production is probably most notable for the Number One hit from Boyzone "No Matter What" which only left the UK charts when the price of the CD single was changed to drop it out of the official top ten. His The Beautiful Game opened in London and has never been seen on Broadway. The show had a respectable run at The Cambridge Theatre in London. The show has been re-worked into a new musical The Boys in the Photograph which had its world première at The Liverpool Institute for Performing Arts in April 2008.

2000s[link]

On 16 September 2004, his production of The Woman in White opened at the Palace Theatre in London. It ran for 19 months and 500 performances. A revised production opened on Broadway at the Marquis Theatre on 17 November 2005. Garnering mixed reviews from critics, due in part to the frequent absences of the show's star Maria Friedman due to breast cancer treatment, it closed only a brief three months later on 19 February 2006.

Lloyd Webber produced a staging of The Sound of Music, which débuted November 2006. He made the controversial decision to choose an unknown to play leading lady Maria, who was found through the reality television show How Do You Solve a Problem Like Maria?, in which he was a judge. The winner of the show was Connie Fisher.

It was announced on 25 August 2006, on his personal website that his next project would be The Master and Margarita (Lloyd Webber has stated that the project will most likely be an opera rather than a musical), however it was announced in late March 2007 that he had abandoned the project.^[14]

Then U.S. President George W. Bush and First Lady Laura Bush stand with the Kennedy Center honourees in the Blue Room of the White House during a reception Sunday, 3 December 2006. From left, they are: singer and songwriter William "Smokey" Robinson; Andrew Lloyd Webber; country singer Dolly Parton; film director Steven Spielberg; and conductor Zubin Mehta.

In September 2006, Lloyd Webber was named to be a recipient of the prestigious Kennedy Center Honors with Zubin Mehta, Dolly Parton, Steven Spielberg, and Smokey Robinson. He was recognised for his outstanding contribution to American performing arts.^[15] He attended the ceremony on 3 December 2006; it aired on 26 December 2006. On 11 February 2007, Lloyd Webber was featured as a guest judge on the reality television show Grease: You're the One that I Want!^[16] The contestants all sang "The Phantom of the Opera".

Between April and June 2007, he appeared in BBC One's Any Dream Will Do!, which followed the same format as How Do You Solve a Problem Like Maria?. Its aim was to find a new Joseph for his revival of Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat. Lee Mead won the contest after quitting his part in the ensemble – and as understudy in The Phantom of the Opera to compete for the role. Viewers' telephone voting during the series raised more than £500,000 for the BBC's annual Children in Need charity appeal, according to host Graham Norton on air during the final. On 1 July 2007, Lloyd Webber presented excerpts from his musicals as part of the Concert for Diana organised to celebrate the life of Diana, Princess of Wales.

The BBC Radio 2 broadcast a concert of music from the Lloyd-Webber musicals on 24 August 2007.^[17] Denise Van Outen introduced songs from Whistle Down the Wind, The Beautiful Game, Tell Me on a Sunday, The Woman in White, Evita and Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat – as well as Rodgers and Hammerstein's The Sound of Music, which Webber revived in 2006 at the London Palladium and 2002's Lloyd Webber-produced Bollywood-style musical Bombay Dreams by A. R. Rahman and Don Black.

In April 2008, Lloyd Webber reprised his role as judge, this time in the BBC musical talent show, I'd Do Anything. The show followed a similar format to its 'Maria' and 'Joseph' predecessors, this time involving a search for an actress to play the role of Nancy in an upcoming West End production of the Lionel Bart musical Oliver! The show also featured a search for three young actors to play and share the title character's role, the show's main focus was on the search for Nancy. The role was won by Jodie Prenger despite Lloyd Webber's stated preference for one of the other contestants; the winners of the Oliver role were Harry Stott, Gwion Wyn-Jones and Laurence Jeffcoate. Also in April 2008 he was featured on the U.S. talent show American Idol, acting as a mentor when the 6 finalists had to select one of Lloyd Webber's songs to perform for the judges that week.

Lloyd Webber and Jade Ewen

Lloyd Webber accepted the challenge of managing the UK's entry for the 2009 Eurovision Song Contest, to be held in Moscow. In early 2009 a series, called Eurovision: Your Country Needs You, was broadcast to find a performer for a song that he would compose for the competition. Jade Ewen won the right to represent Britain, winning with It's My Time, by Lloyd Webber and Diane Warren. At the contest, Lloyd Webber accompanied her on the piano during the performance. Great Britain finished 5th in the contest. The winner was, of course, Norway's Alexander Rybak with his world record composition "Fairytale".^[18]

On 8 October 2009, Lloyd Webber launched the musical Love Never Dies at a press conference held at Her Majesty's Theatre, where the original Phantom has been running since 1986. Also present were Sierra Boggess, who has been cast as Christine Daaé, and Ramin Karimloo, who portrayed Phantom, a role he most recently played in the West End.

2010s[link]

Following the opening of Love Never Dies, Lloyd Webber again began a search for a new musical theatre performer in the BBC One series Over the Rainbow. He cast the winner, Danielle Hope, in the role of Dorothy and a dog to play Toto in his forthcoming stage production of The Wizard of Oz. He and lyricist and composer Tim Rice wrote a number of new songs for the production to supplement the songs from the film.^[19]

On 26 February 2010, he appeared on BBC's Friday Night with Jonathan Ross to promote Love Never Dies.

On 1 March 2011, The Wizard of Oz opened at The Palladium Theatre, starring Danielle Hope as Dorothy and Michael Crawford as the Wizard.

On May 16, 2012, Lloyd Webber announced that a new ITV primetime show "Superstar" will give the UK public the chance to decide who will play the starring role of Jesus in an upcoming arena tour of Jesus Christ Superstar. The arena tour, starting 21 September 2012, will also star comedian Tim Minchin as Judas Iscariot, former Spice Girl Melanie C as Mary Magdalene and BBC Radio 1 DJ Chris Moyles as King Herod.^[20] Tickets for most venues went on sale on the 18th of May 2012.

Accusations of plagiarism[link]

Lloyd Webber has been accused of plagiarism in his works. The Dutch composer Louis Andriessen commented that: "There are two sorts of stealing (in music) - taking something and doing nothing with it, or going to work on what you've stolen. The first is plagiarism. Andrew Lloyd Webber has yet to think up a single note; in fact, the poor guy's never invented one note by himself. That's rather poor".^[21]

However, Lloyd Webber's biographer, John Snelson, counters such accusations. He acknowledges, for example, the strong similarity between the opening melody of the slow movement of Mendelssohn's Violin Concerto and the Jesus Christ Superstar song "I Don't Know How to Love Him", but opines that Webber:

...brings a new dramatic tension to Mendelssohn's original melody through the confused emotions of Mary Magdalene. The opening theme may be Mendelssohn, but the rhythmic and harmonic treatment along with new lines of highly effective melodic development are Lloyd Webber's. The song works in its own right as its many performers and audiences can witness."^[22]

In interviews promoting Amused to Death, Roger Waters, formerly of Pink Floyd, claimed that Lloyd Webber had plagiarised short chromatic riffs from the 1971 song "Echoes" for sections of The Phantom of the Opera, released in 1986; nevertheless, he decided not to file a lawsuit regarding the matter.^[23] The songwriter Ray Repp made a similar claim about the same song, but insisted that Lloyd Webber stole the idea from him. Unlike Roger Waters, Ray Repp did decide to file a lawsuit, but the court eventually ruled in Lloyd Webber's favour.^[24]

Rick Wakeman, on his Grumpy Old Rockstar tour of 2008, accused Lloyd Webber of borrowing the main riff for the Phantom of the Opera tune from a section of his 1977 work "Judas Iscariot" from the album Criminal Record.^{[citation needed]}

Lloyd Webber has also been accused of plagiarising Puccini, most notably in Requiem^[25] and The Phantom of the Opera. The Program Guide for the San Francisco Opera's performance (2009–2010 season) of Puccini's Girl of the Golden West states (p. 42):

"The climactic phrase in Dick Johnson'a aria, "Quello che taceta," bears a strong resemblance to a similar phrase in the Phantom's song, "Music of the Night," in Lloyd Webber's 1986 musical The Phantom of the Opera. Following the musical's success, the Puccini estate filed suit against Lloyd Webber, accusing him of plagiarism, and the suit was settled out of court."^[26]

Personal life[link]

Lloyd Webber has married three times. First, he married Sarah Hugill on 24 July 1972, but they divorced on 14 November 1983. Together they had two children, a daughter and a son:

• Hon. Imogen Lloyd Webber (born 31 March 1978)
• Hon. Nicholas Lloyd Webber (born 2 July 1979)

He then married singer/dancer Sarah Brightman on 22 March 1984 in Hampshire. He cast Brightman in the lead role in his musical The Phantom of the Opera. This marriage did not produce any children, and they divorced on 3 January 1990.

Thirdly, he married Madeleine Gurdon in Westminster on 9 February 1991. They have three children, two sons and one daughter, all of whom were born in Westminster:

• Hon. Alastair Adam Lloyd Webber (born 3 May 1992)
• Hon. William Richard Lloyd Webber (born 24 August 1993)
• Hon. Isabella Aurora Lloyd Webber (born 30 April 1996).^[27]

The Sunday Times Rich List 2006 ranked him the 87th-richest man in Britain with an estimated fortune of £700 million. His wealth increased to £750 million in 2007, but the publication ranked him 101st in 2008.^[28] He lives at Sydmonton Court, near Kingsclere in Hampshire, and also owns much of Watership Down. Lloyd Webber is an art collector, with a passion for Victorian art. An exhibition of works from his collection was presented at the Royal Academy in 2003 under the title Pre-Raphaelite and Other Masters – The Andrew Lloyd Webber Collection. He is also a devoted supporter of Leyton Orient Football Club.

Politically, Lloyd Webber has supported the UK's Conservative Party, allowing his song "Take That Look Off Your Face" to be used on a party promotional film seen by an estimated 1 million people in 80 cinemas before the 2005 UK General Election to accompany pictures of Prime Minister Tony Blair allegedly "smirking", the party said.^[29] In 2009, he publicly criticised the Labour government's introduction of a new 50 per cent rate of income tax on Britain's top earners, claiming it would damage the country by encouraging talented people to leave.^[30]

In late 2009 Lloyd Webber had surgery for early-stage prostate cancer,^[31] but had to be readmitted to hospital with post-operative infection in November. In January 2010, he declared he was cancer-free.^[32]

As of March 2010, Lloyd Webber decided to sell Portrait of Angel Fernández de Soto by Pablo Picasso art to benefit the Andrew Lloyd Webber Foundation.^[33] In 2006, he withdrew the painting from auction after a claim that the previous owner was forced to sell it under duress in Nazi Germany.^[34] An out-of-court settlement was reached, where the foundation retained ownership rights.^[35] On 23 June 2010, the painting was sold at auction for £34.7 million to an anonymous telephone bidder.^[36]

Honours[link]

Andrew Lloyd Webber was knighted by Elizabeth II in 1992.

In 1997, Elizabeth II created him a life peer as Baron Lloyd-Webber, of Sydmonton in the County of Hampshire.^[37] He sits as a Conservative member of the House of Lords.

Awards[link]

Academy Awards[link]

• 1996 – Best Original Song for "You Must Love Me" from Evita (award shared with Sir Tim Rice)

One nomination for Best Original Song Score and Adaptation: 1973 motion picture Jesus Christ Superstar

One nomination for Best Original Song: "Learn to Be Lonely" from the 2004 motion picture The Phantom of the Opera .

Golden Globes[link]

• 1997 – Best Original Song for "You Must Love Me" from Evita (award shared with Sir Tim Rice)

Plus one nomination for Best Original Song: "Learn to Be Lonely" from the 2004 motion picture The Phantom of the Opera.

Grammy Awards[link]

• 1980 – Best Cast Show Album for Evita
• 1983 – Best Cast Show Album for Cats
• 1986 – Grammy Award for Best Contemporary Composition for Requiem
• 1990 – Grammy Legend Award

Tony Awards[link]

• 1980 – Best Musical for Evita
• 1980 – Best Original Score for Evita(award shared with Sir Tim Rice)
• 1983 – Best Musical for Cats
• 1983 – Best Original Score for Cats
• 1988 – Best Musical for The Phantom of the Opera
• 1995 – Best Musical for Sunset Boulevard
• 1995 – Best Original Score for Sunset Boulevard

Olivier Awards[link]

• 1978 - Best Musical for Evita
• 1981 - Best Musical for Cats
• 1986 - Best Musical for The Phantom of the Opera
• 2008 - Society's Special Award
• Three other Production Awards

• 1988 Drama Desk Award for Outstanding Orchestrations for The Phantom of the Opera
• 7 Laurence Olivier Awards (including Special Award presented for his 60th birthday in 2008)^[38]
• 14 Ivor Novello Awards from the British Academy of Songwriters, Composers and Authors^[38]
• Star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame for live theatre (1993)
• Kennedy Center Honors (2006)
• Woodrow Wilson Award for Public Service^[39] (2008)
• American Songwriter's Hall of Fame^[38]

Shows[link]

Note: Music composed by Andrew Lloyd Webber unless otherwise noted.

Film adaptations[link]

There have been a number of film adaptations of the Lloyd Webber musicals. Jesus Christ Superstar (1973) was directed by Norman Jewison, Evita (1996) was directed by Alan Parker, and The Phantom of the Opera, in 2004, was directed by Joel Schumacher and co-produced by Lloyd Webber. Cats, Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat, Jesus Christ Superstar and By Jeeves have been adapted into made for television films that have been released on DVD and VHS and often air on BBC.

Lloyd Webber produced Bombay Dreams with Indian composer A. R. Rahman in 2002.

A special performance of "Phantom of the Opera" for the 25th anniversary was broadcast live to cinemas from the Royal Albert Hall in early October 2011 and later released on DVD and Blu-ray in February 2012.

Other works[link]

• Variations (1978) – A set of musical variations on Niccolò Paganini's Caprice in A minor that Lloyd Webber composed for his brother, cellist Julian. This album featured fifteen rock musicians including guitarist Gary Moore and pianist Rod Argent and reached number 2 in the UK album chart upon its release. It was later combined with Tell Me on a Sunday to form one show, Song and Dance. Lloyd Webber also used variation five as the basis for Unexpected Song in Song and Dance. The main theme is used as the theme music to The South Bank Show.

• Requiem (1985) – A classical choral work composed in honour of his father, William.

Discography[link]

• The Likes of Us (1965)
• Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat (1968)
• Jesus Christ Superstar (1970)
• Jeeves (1975)
• Evita (1976)
• Tell Me On A Sunday (1979)
• Cats (1981)
• Song and Dance (1982)
• Starlight Express (1984)
• The Phantom of the Opera (1986)
• Aspects of Love (1989)
• Sunset Boulevard (1993)
• Whistle Down the Wind (1998)
• The Beautiful Game
• The Woman in White (2004)
• Love Never Dies (2010)

See also[link]

	Book: Andrew Lloyd Webber
Wikipedia books are collections of articles that can be downloaded or ordered in print.

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Andrew Lloyd Webber

• Pre-Raphaelite and Other Masters: The Andrew Lloyd Webber Collection – Royal Academy of Arts, London 2003 ISBN 1-903973-39-2
• View of Geelong, 1856 painting once owned by Webber
• Andrew Lloyd Webber's Official website
• Cats on a Chandelier – Coveney, M (1999), Hutchinson, London
• Biography at the Really Useful Group
• Oh What a Circus – Rice, Tim (1999), Hodder & Stoughton, London
• Andrew Lloyd Webber – Snelson, John (2004), Yale University Press, New Haven CT. ISBN 0-300-10459-6
• Andrew Lloyd Webber: His Life and Works – Walsh, Michael (1989, revised and expanded, 1997), Abrams: New York

References[link]

External links[link]

• Official website
• Biography at SBGMusic.com
• Pre-Raphaelite and Other Masters—The Andrew Lloyd Webber Collection – article by Christopher Wood at the Art Renewal Center
• Andrew Lloyd Webber at the Internet Movie Database
• Ladyghost's site
• Performance of Variations by Julian Lloyd Webber and Colosseum II
• Cat Destroys Lloyd Webber's Phantom Sequel Score
• Andrew Lloyd Webber Interview on The Hour with George Stroumboulopoulos
• Works by or about Andrew Lloyd Webber in libraries (WorldCat catalog)
• fan-site: biography, gallery, articles, musical samples
• Andrew Lloyd Webber interviewed on NYC-ARTS