Getting your questions ready
Getting your questions ready
Beat the crowd
10 questions No timer
60 free Andrew Lloyd Webber trivia questions with answers — music quiz, new questions added Aug 2026.
Andrew Lloyd Webber has written 21 musicals, a Requiem Mass and some of the most-recorded show tunes of all time, and several of his productions have run for more than a decade in both the West End and on Broadway. This quiz covers his whole career: the schoolboy cantata that became Joseph, the concept albums that launched Jesus Christ Superstar and Evita, the poems behind Cats, the chandelier of The Phantom of the Opera, the roller-skating trains of Starlight Express, Sunset Boulevard's lawsuits, the reality-TV casting shows and the late flourishes of School of Rock and Cinderella. Easy questions ask which show is based on T. S. Eliot and who sang Christine first; harder ones cover the Eurovision reject that became King Herod's song, the Paganini variations that opened The South Bank Show, and the cat that destroyed a Phantom sequel. It suits musical-theatre fans, West End and Broadway regulars, and quiz nights that want a music round with more than pop charts in it. Every answer has been checked against the Wikipedia articles on Lloyd Webber and his individual shows, and each question shows its source once you have answered.
30 of 60 questions with answers and explanations. Play the quiz
Q 01Andrew Lloyd Webber was born in London in which year?
1948
His father William was a composer and organist, his mother a violinist and pianist, and his younger brother Julian became a renowned cellist.
Q 02By 2025, how many musicals had Andrew Lloyd Webber composed, by the tally that also lists a Latin Requiem?
21
The New York Times called him "the most commercially successful composer in history" in 2001.
Q 03Lloyd Webber and Rice's first collaboration, The Likes of Us (1965), was based on which philanthropist's story?
Thomas Barnardo
The Oliver!-style show failed to find a backer and went unperformed until the 2005 Sydmonton Festival.
Q 04Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat began in 1968 as a cantata for which London school?
Colet Court
A family friend who taught music there commissioned it, with a 100-guinea advance from the publisher Novello.
Q 05Which Jesus Christ Superstar character sings the number built on Lloyd Webber and Rice's rejected 1969 Eurovision tune?
King Herod
The original entry was called "Try It and See".
Q 06In what form did Lloyd Webber and Rice first release Jesus Christ Superstar in 1970?
A concept album
It was an immediate success and led to the Broadway debut in October 1971.
Q 07Which Deep Purple frontman sang the role of Jesus on the original Jesus Christ Superstar album?
Ian Gillan
Murray Head was Judas and Yvonne Elliman sang Mary Magdalene, a role she repeated on stage in Pittsburgh and on Broadway.
Q 08Besides Hungary, which country banned Jesus Christ Superstar, calling it 'irreligious'?
South Africa
The Broadway show was condemned by several religious groups on opening in 1971.
Q 09Who wrote the book and lyrics for Lloyd Webber's 1975 flop Jeeves after Rice backed out?
Alan Ayckbourn
The pair reworked it two decades later as the far more successful By Jeeves (1996).
Q 10Who sang Eva Perón on the 1976 Evita recording, giving "Don't Cry for Me Argentina" its first hit outing?
Julie Covington
On the London stage the role went to Elaine Paige in a production directed by Harold Prince.
Q 11What distinction did Evita earn on Broadway in 1979?
Only British musical yet to win the Tony for Best Musical
It won seven Tonys in all and helped launch two major Broadway careers.
Q 12Which song written for the 1996 Evita film won Lloyd Webber and Rice the Best Original Song Oscar?
You Must Love Me
It was later added to the 2006 London revival and many subsequent stage productions.
Q 13Lloyd Webber's 1978 Variations, written for his cellist brother, are based on whose caprice?
Paganini
Q 21Which tenor joined Sarah Brightman and a boy soprano at the 1985 premiere of Lloyd Webber's Requiem?
Plácido Domingo
Its Pie Jesu became a certified silver hit in Britain, and the work won the 1986 Grammy for Best Classical Contemporary Composition.
Q 22The Phantom of the Opera is inspired by a novel by which French author?
Gaston Leroux
The disfigured genius haunts the labyrinth beneath the Paris Opera House and becomes obsessed with the soprano Christine Daaé.
Q 23Who played the Phantom in the original 1986 London production, winning both the Olivier and the Tony?
Michael Crawford
The main theme became the signature tune of ITV's The South Bank Show for its entire 32-year run.
Q 14Cats is based on a 1939 collection of light verse by which poet?
T. S. Eliot
Old Possum's Book of Practical Cats was written for the poet's godchildren, and the show sets his poems almost unaltered.
Q 15In Cats, the Jellicle tribe gathers to choose which of them will ascend to what?
The Heaviside Layer
It is the cats' version of heaven, from which the chosen cat returns to a new life.
Q 16Which actress withdrew from the original Cats a week before previews after snapping her Achilles tendon?
Judi Dench
Casting her had been one of the director's conditions for taking the job; Elaine Paige took over Grizabella.
Q 17Who wrote the lyrics of "Memory", drawing on Eliot's poem "Rhapsody on a Windy Night"?
Trevor Nunn
Lloyd Webber played the tune to his Puccini-expert father, who reportedly said it sounded "like a million dollars".
Q 18How many performances did Cats play during its 21-year run in London?
8,949
On Broadway it ran 18 years and 7,485 performances, a record later broken by The Phantom of the Opera.
Q 19In Starlight Express, the actors perform on what?
Roller skates
The story follows Rusty, an obsolete steam engine racing modern diesel and electric locomotives to impress the observation car Pearl.
Q 20Starlight Express has run since 1988 in a purpose-built theatre in which German city?
Bochum
It holds the Guinness World Record for the most visitors to a musical in a single theatre.
Lloyd Webber wrote Christine for his then wife Sarah Brightman, who played her in London and on Broadway.
Q 24Who wrote the lyrics for The Phantom of the Opera, with additional material by Richard Stilgoe?
Charles Hart
Harold Prince, who had also staged Evita, directed the production at Her Majesty's Theatre.
Q 25In which year did The Phantom of the Opera overtake Cats as the longest-running show in Broadway history?
2006
It went on to play its 10,000th Broadway performance in February 2012, the first production ever to do so.
Q 26How many performances had Phantom of the Opera played when Broadway closed it in April 2023?
13,981
That total remains the most in Broadway history.
Q 27Which lot number is the famous chandelier in the auction prologue of The Phantom of the Opera?
Lot 666
The auctioneer describes it as connected to "the strange affair of the Phantom of the Opera, a mystery never fully explained".
Q 28Which Pink Floyd member accused Lloyd Webber of lifting the Phantom's riff from "Echoes"?
Roger Waters
He called it "probably actionable" but never went to court; the Puccini estate did sue over "The Music of the Night" and settled.
Q 29"Love Changes Everything", from Aspects of Love (1989), became the signature song of which performer?
Michael Ball
It spent 14 weeks in the UK singles chart, peaking at number 2.
Q 30For which event did Lloyd Webber write 'Amigos Para Siempre', sung by Brightman and Carreras?
The 1992 Barcelona Olympics
Don Black provided the lyrics for the song, whose title means "friends for life".