Andrew Lloyd Webber & "Cats" 1981 Original London Cast

Andrew Lloyd Webber is the most successful composer of musicals of his generation and also a breaker of molds for the form. His predecessors were, for the most part, American: New York-based songwriters steeped in Broadway tradition. Lloyd Webber saw his share of shows as a child, too, but he was born in London, the son of William Lloyd Webber, Director of the London College of Music, and was trained at the Royal Academy of Music, hardly the sort of place where you'd be likely to hear Oklahoma! Nevertheless, Lloyd Webber hooked up with lyricist Tim Rice, and the two began wor...