The British musician Andrew Lloyd Webber (born 1948) was the composer of such musical theater hits as Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat, Jesus Christ Superstar, Evita, Cats, Starlight Express, The Phantom of the Opera, and Aspects of Love. His early successes brought him four Tony awards, four Drama Desk awards, and three Grammys.

Andrew Lloyd Webber was born on March 22, 1948, in London, England. His father was the director of the London College of Music and his mother, a piano teacher. Thus, Lloyd Webber came by his musical ability naturally. As a boy he played piano, violin, and French horn. Excerpts from his first musical composition, The Toy Theatre, were published in a British music magazine.

As a child, Webber aspired to become Britain's chief inspector of ancient monuments. He won a Challenge Scholarship to Westminster and in 1965 entered Oxford as a history major. In the 1980s he exercised...