Andrew Lloyd Webber and Michael Harrison are launching a new musical theater venture.
The well-known composer and international producer have come together to form Lloyd Webber Harrison Musicals, a joint endeavor that will see the long-time collaborators producing new entries for Webber’s musical catalog.
Lloyd Webber described Harrison as “easily one of the world’s leading young theater producers” in a partnership that “will build on our relationship.”
“On a personal level, I am thrilled,” the composer said in a statement. “I will now concentrate on composing knowing that I have a first-rate producer to collaborate with in the future.”
Related Stories
Their new partnership will see the company finding and developing new musicals, alongside the creation of new productions based on Lloyd Webber’s existing and expanding musical catalog. The duo’s existing projects and business at their independent companies — Lloyd Webber’s Really Useful Group and Michael Harrison Entertainment — will continue to operate outside of the new company.
“I am delighted to be joining forces with Andrew Lloyd Webber to create Lloyd Webber Harrison Musicals, which I hope will be a major force in producing musical theater across the world,” Harrison said in his own statement. “Andrew has written some of the greatest musicals of all time, and I look forward to producing new interpretations of these shows as well as his new work and other musicals by writers Andrew and I both admire.”
The duo previously worked on the latest stagings of Lloyd Webber and Tim Rice’s Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat musical at The London Palladium and its international tour, along with the annual pantomime at the London Palladium.
The company serves as one of the first major partnerships between the composer and a producer since his time with Cameron Mackintosh, working on long-running Broadway hits Cats and The Phantom of the Opera.
Lloyd Webber has had shows running continually in the West End for 50 years and on Broadway for 43, including notable productions such as School Of Rock, Cats and The Phantom Of the Opera. He owns six London theaters including the Palladium and Theatre Royal, Drury Lane.
Harrison, chief executive of Crossroads Pantomimes, has had a number of productions staged across the West End. That includes Mel Brooks’ Young Frankenstein, Annie and The Bodyguard, in addition to producing Disney’s Bedknobs and Broomsticks on tour in the U.K.
