Tim Rice

Tim Rice was born in 1944. He began songwriting in 1965 in which year the first song he wrote, "That’s My Story" (tune as well as words), was recorded by a rock group called The Nightshift whose career never recovered. That same year he met fellow budding songwriter Andrew Lloyd Webber whose musical ambitions were in theatre rather than rock or pop. They teamed up and wrote four musicals together from 1965 to 1978. The first, The Likes of Us (1965-1966), was performed for the first time in 2005 and became available on CD just 40 years after its creation. The other three, Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat (1968), Jesus Christ Superstar (1969-1971) and Evita (1976-1978) were more immediate successes.

Feeling certain that they could never top this lot, the pair went their separate ways in the early 1980s, whereupon ALW immediately topped that lot with Cats. Tim Rice then wrote Blondel (1983), a mediaeval romp, with Stephen Oliver, which ran for a year in London but not for long anywhere else (revived at the Pleasance London, Christmas 2006). This was followed in 1986 by Chess, in collaboration with Abba’s Björn Ulvaeus and Benny Andersson. Chess had a healthy run in the West End but flopped on Broadway in 1988, the New York Times bloke being particularly forceful in his disapproval. In 1989, Tim translated the famous French musical Starmania (by Michel Berger and Luc Plamondon) into English, which merely resulted in a hit album – in France. In the 1990s, he worked primarily and happily with the Disney empire, contributing lyrics to the movies Aladdin (music Alan Menken) and The Lion King (music Elton John and Hans Zimmer) and to the stage shows Beauty and the Beast (Alan Menken), The Lion King and Aida (both Sir Elton). Between Disney commitments he wrote the words for Cliff Richard’s theatrical blockbuster Heathcliff (music John Farrar), which toured the UK in 1995-1996.

He is currently reworking an operatic musical he has written with Alan Menken (King David), and on new treatments, for both stage and screen, of Chess, the New York Times bloke having been replaced. He also has a brand new idea, which may or may not see the light of day. He has won a variety of awards, mainly for the wrong things, or for simply turning up. He lives in London, Cornwall and on the motorway between the two, has three children, his own cricket team and a knighthood.