Really Useful Group
Encyclopedia
The Really Useful Group Ltd. (RUG) is an international company set up in 1977 by Andrew Lloyd Webber
. It is involved in theatre
, film
, television
, video
and concert
productions, merchandising
, magazine publishing
, records
and music publishing. The name is inspired by a phrase from The Railway Series
of children's stories in which Thomas the Tank Engine
and other trains are referred to as "Really Useful Engines". André Ptaszynski
, formerly chief executive of Really Useful Theatres, was appointed chief executive of the group in December 2005.
Robert Stigwood
, decided to take greater control over the management of his creative works. All Lloyd Webber compositions and productions created from that point have been owned by the company.
The Really Useful Group was floated on the stock market in 1986. Four years later, Lloyd Webber took it back into private ownership, selling 30% to film and music group PolyGram
to fund the cost of buying back shares. In 1995, PolyGram was bought by Canadian conglomerate Seagram
, with the Really Useful stake being passed to its own film and music subsidiary, Universal
. In 1999, Lloyd Webber paid $75m for Universal's 30% stake, giving the Really Useful Group 100% ownership of all the composer's works.
, to produce its works, as it had done in the 1980s with Cameron Mackintosh
.
Among its productions and co-productions are:
Really Useful Films is responsible for the production of film versions of Andrew Lloyd Webber's catalogue. Until recently, these had consisted of lower budget straight-to-video versions of the shows (notably Cats
, Jesus Christ Superstar
and Joseph
), but 2004 saw Really Useful Films complete the major motion picture The Phantom of the Opera
, directed by Joel Schumacher
and starring Gerard Butler
and Emmy Rossum
, which was nominated for three Academy Awards and three Golden Globes. The film was the largest independent film ever made, and was a commercial success.
It has also released DVD and video versions of Andrew Lloyd Webber's 50th birthday concert at the Royal Albert Hall
, the 2001 Masterpiece - Andrew Lloyd Webber in China concert, and a musical version of the Gruffalo
, with music and lyrics by Jon Fiber, Robin Price and Olivia Jacobs.
The film director Nick Morris
is regularly involved with the films division.
to release albums through its Polydor
label. Really Useful continues to release its albums and DVDs through Universal, current owners of PolyGram. Outside of cast albums, Lloyd Webber has also produced albums for Marti Webb
, Sarah Brightman
, Connie Fisher
, Andrea Ross
and Michael Ball
via the label. The Managing Director of the record division is Tris Penna, who has recently overseen the remastered and re-release of a significant portion of the back-catalogue. Long-time Lloyd Webber collaborator Nigel Wright has served as producer on most Really Useful Records albums.
Lee Mead
, who won the lead role in 2007's West End
revival of Lloyd Webber
and Tim Rice
's Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat by taking part in BBC One
's Any Dream Will Do!
recorded a single of the song "Any Dream Will Do
". The contest's third-placed Lewis Bradley
and second-placed Keith Jack
joined him on "Close Every Door To Me". Really Useful released the double-A side single
to raise funds for the BBC
's annual Children in Need
charity appeal.
Really Useful Group Theatres owns and manages seven West End
theatres.
Lloyd Webber purchased the Palace Theatre
in 1983, followed by the New London
and the Adelphi
. In 1999, Lloyd Webber and NatWest Equity Partners bought the Stoll Moss group, owners of 10 London theatres, including the London Palladium
and the Theatre Royal, Drury Lane
, for £85m from Australian businesswoman Janet Holmes à Court
, and formed Really Useful Theatres.
In 2004, operational control of the Queen's Theatre
reverted from Really Useful Theatres back to Cameron Mackintosh
's Delfont Mackintosh Theatres. The transfer of operational control of the adjoining Gielgud Theatre
from Really Useful Theatres to Delfont Mackintosh Theatres followed two years later.
On July 11, 2005, the company announced that it was selling four theatres (the Apollo
, the Duchess
, the Lyric
, and the Garrick
) to Nimax Theatres Ltd, a company owned by Broadway
producer
Max Weitzenhoffer, who previously had been a rival bidder for the Stoll Moss theatres) and Nica Burns, production director of Really Useful Theatres. Lloyd Webber invested £10m of the proceeds from the sales (which took effect on October 1, 2005) to buy out his ownership partners Bridgepoint
(formerly NatWest Equity Partners), and the group was renamed Really Useful Group Theatres.
The company owns and manages:
group Telewest
, which it combined with its own ticketing operation to form See Tickets
which was then the biggest UK-owned ticket company, selling tickets not only for West End musicals, but also for concerts, festivals, sporting fixtures and other events. On 16 October 2007 See was demerged from the Really Useful Group and a new company, See Group Limited was created to sit alongside the Really Useful Group in Andrew Lloyd Webber's portfolio. Webber sold See Group Limited to Joop van den Ende
's live entertainment group, Stage Entertainment
for an undisclosed sum in January 2008.
's Bombalurina ("Itsy Bitsy Teeny Weeny Yellow Polka Dot Bikini
") and Doctor Spin
('Tetris
'); and It Records
, home to My Life Story
in the late 1990s. The name Carpet Records was a play on the acronym RUG (or rug) (for Really Useful Group).
production of Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat to the BBC
’s Children in Need
charity appeal, which would benefit from ticket sales for 16 July’s booked-out preview and the sold-out 16 November performance, on the night of the annual Children in Need
telethon. Cast members, the group added, would not get the usual first night gifts on 17 July – the money would, instead, go to Children in Need
. Viewers of a BBC One
television show, Any Dream Will Do!
had voted 25-year-old West End
ensemble player and understudy Lee Mead
to take role of Joseph in the production. Children in Need had benefited by more than £500,000 in income from viewers' voting on premium-rate telephone lines, host Graham Norton
said during the contest's 9 June 2007 final.
Andrew Lloyd Webber
Andrew Lloyd Webber, Baron Lloyd-Webber is an English composer of musical theatre.Lloyd Webber has achieved great popular success in musical theatre. Several of his musicals have run for more than a decade both in the West End and on Broadway. He has composed 13 musicals, a song cycle, a set of...
. It is involved in theatre
Theatre
Theatre is a collaborative form of fine art that uses live performers to present the experience of a real or imagined event before a live audience in a specific place. The performers may communicate this experience to the audience through combinations of gesture, speech, song, music or dance...
, film
Film
A film, also called a movie or motion picture, is a series of still or moving images. It is produced by recording photographic images with cameras, or by creating images using animation techniques or visual effects...
, television
Television
Television is a telecommunication medium for transmitting and receiving moving images that can be monochrome or colored, with accompanying sound...
, video
Video
Video is the technology of electronically capturing, recording, processing, storing, transmitting, and reconstructing a sequence of still images representing scenes in motion.- History :...
and concert
Concert
A concert is a live performance before an audience. The performance may be by a single musician, sometimes then called a recital, or by a musical ensemble, such as an orchestra, a choir, or a musical band...
productions, merchandising
Merchandising
Merchandising is the methods, practices, and operations used to promote and sustain certain categories of commercial activity. In the broadest sense, merchandising is any practice which contributes to the sale of products to a retail consumer...
, magazine publishing
Publishing
Publishing is the process of production and dissemination of literature or information—the activity of making information available to the general public...
, records
Gramophone record
A gramophone record, commonly known as a phonograph record , vinyl record , or colloquially, a record, is an analog sound storage medium consisting of a flat disc with an inscribed, modulated spiral groove...
and music publishing. The name is inspired by a phrase from The Railway Series
The Railway Series
The Railway Series is a set of story books about a railway system located on the fictional Island of Sodor. There are 42 books in the series, the first being published in 1945. Twenty-six were written by the Rev. W. Awdry, up to 1972. A further 16 were written by his son, Christopher Awdry; 14...
of children's stories in which Thomas the Tank Engine
Thomas the Tank Engine
Thomas the Tank Engine is a fictional steam locomotive in The Railway Series books by the Reverend Wilbert Awdry and his son, Christopher. He became the most popular character in the series, and the accompanying television spin-off series, Thomas and Friends.Thomas is a tank engine, painted blue...
and other trains are referred to as "Really Useful Engines". André Ptaszynski
Andre Ptaszynski
André Ptaszynski is a British theatre producer. He studied English at Jesus College, Oxford.He was Chief Executive of the Really Useful Group from 2005 to 2011 and Chief Executive of Really Useful Theatres from 2000 to 2005...
, formerly chief executive of Really Useful Theatres, was appointed chief executive of the group in December 2005.
History
The company was set up in 1977, when Lloyd Webber, frustrated with the terms of his contract with the impresarioImpresario
An impresario is a person who organizes and often finances concerts, plays or operas; analogous to a film producer in filmmaking, television production and an angel investor in business...
Robert Stigwood
Robert Stigwood
Robert Stigwood is an impresario and entertainment entrepreneur who relocated to England in 1954...
, decided to take greater control over the management of his creative works. All Lloyd Webber compositions and productions created from that point have been owned by the company.
The Really Useful Group was floated on the stock market in 1986. Four years later, Lloyd Webber took it back into private ownership, selling 30% to film and music group PolyGram
PolyGram
PolyGram was the name of the major label recording company started by Philips from as a holding company for its music interests in 1945. In 1999 it was sold to Seagram and merged into Universal Music Group.-Hollandsche Decca Distributie , 1929-1950:...
to fund the cost of buying back shares. In 1995, PolyGram was bought by Canadian conglomerate Seagram
Seagram
The Seagram Company Ltd. was a large corporation headquartered in Montreal, Quebec, Canada that was the largest distiller of alcoholic beverages in the world. Toward the end of its independent existence it also controlled various entertainment and other business ventures...
, with the Really Useful stake being passed to its own film and music subsidiary, Universal
Universal Music Group
Universal Music Group is an American music group, the largest of the "big four" record companies by its commanding market share and its multitude of global operations...
. In 1999, Lloyd Webber paid $75m for Universal's 30% stake, giving the Really Useful Group 100% ownership of all the composer's works.
Really Useful Theatre Company
The Really Useful Theatre Company produces and manages plays and musicals, mainly, but not limited to those written by Andrew Lloyd Webber. It is also responsible for licensing its productions worldwide. In the 1990s, RUT mainly produced shows on its own, but more recently has again developed partnerships with other producers and production companies, notably Bill KenwrightBill Kenwright
Bill Kenwright CBE is a leading West End theatre producer and film producer.He is also the Chairman of Everton Football Club, an English professional football club from the city of Liverpool....
, to produce its works, as it had done in the 1980s with Cameron Mackintosh
Cameron Mackintosh
Sir Cameron Anthony Mackintosh is a British theatrical producer notable for his association with many commercially successful musicals. At the height of his success in 1990, he was described as being "the most successful, influential and powerful theatrical producer in the world" by the New York...
.
Among its productions and co-productions are:
- Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor DreamcoatJoseph and the Amazing Technicolor DreamcoatJoseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat is an Andrew Lloyd Webber musical with lyrics by Tim Rice. The story is based on the "coat of many colors" story of Joseph from the Hebrew Bible's Book of Genesis. This was the first Lloyd Webber and Rice musical to be performed publicly...
– Lloyd WebberAndrew Lloyd WebberAndrew Lloyd Webber, Baron Lloyd-Webber is an English composer of musical theatre.Lloyd Webber has achieved great popular success in musical theatre. Several of his musicals have run for more than a decade both in the West End and on Broadway. He has composed 13 musicals, a song cycle, a set of...
/RiceTim RiceSir Timothy Miles Bindon "Tim" Rice is an British lyricist and author.An Academy Award, Golden Globe Award, Tony Award and Grammy Award-winning lyricist, Rice is best known for his collaborations with Andrew Lloyd Webber, with whom he wrote Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat, Jesus...
– London, Broadway, Los Angeles, worldwide - Jesus Christ SuperstarJesus Christ SuperstarJesus Christ Superstar is a rock opera by Andrew Lloyd Webber, with lyrics by Tim Rice. The musical started off as a rock opera concept recording before its first staging on Broadway in 1971...
– Lloyd WebberAndrew Lloyd WebberAndrew Lloyd Webber, Baron Lloyd-Webber is an English composer of musical theatre.Lloyd Webber has achieved great popular success in musical theatre. Several of his musicals have run for more than a decade both in the West End and on Broadway. He has composed 13 musicals, a song cycle, a set of...
/RiceTim RiceSir Timothy Miles Bindon "Tim" Rice is an British lyricist and author.An Academy Award, Golden Globe Award, Tony Award and Grammy Award-winning lyricist, Rice is best known for his collaborations with Andrew Lloyd Webber, with whom he wrote Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat, Jesus...
– London, Broadway, worldwide - Evita – Lloyd WebberAndrew Lloyd WebberAndrew Lloyd Webber, Baron Lloyd-Webber is an English composer of musical theatre.Lloyd Webber has achieved great popular success in musical theatre. Several of his musicals have run for more than a decade both in the West End and on Broadway. He has composed 13 musicals, a song cycle, a set of...
/RiceTim RiceSir Timothy Miles Bindon "Tim" Rice is an British lyricist and author.An Academy Award, Golden Globe Award, Tony Award and Grammy Award-winning lyricist, Rice is best known for his collaborations with Andrew Lloyd Webber, with whom he wrote Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat, Jesus...
– London, Broadway, worldwide - Tell Me on a SundayTell Me On A SundayTell Me on a Sunday is a musical with music by Andrew Lloyd Webber and lyrics by Don Black. A one-act song cycle, it tells the story of an ordinary English girl from Muswell Hill, who journeys to the United States in search of love...
– Lloyd WebberAndrew Lloyd WebberAndrew Lloyd Webber, Baron Lloyd-Webber is an English composer of musical theatre.Lloyd Webber has achieved great popular success in musical theatre. Several of his musicals have run for more than a decade both in the West End and on Broadway. He has composed 13 musicals, a song cycle, a set of...
/Black – London, UK tour - CatsCats (musical)Cats is a musical composed by Andrew Lloyd Webber, based on Old Possum's Book of Practical Cats by T. S. Eliot...
– Lloyd WebberAndrew Lloyd WebberAndrew Lloyd Webber, Baron Lloyd-Webber is an English composer of musical theatre.Lloyd Webber has achieved great popular success in musical theatre. Several of his musicals have run for more than a decade both in the West End and on Broadway. He has composed 13 musicals, a song cycle, a set of...
/EliotT. S. EliotThomas Stearns "T. S." Eliot OM was a playwright, literary critic, and arguably the most important English-language poet of the 20th century. Although he was born an American he moved to the United Kingdom in 1914 and was naturalised as a British subject in 1927 at age 39.The poem that made his...
– London, Broadway, worldwide - Starlight ExpressStarlight ExpressStarlight Express is a rock musical by Andrew Lloyd Webber , Richard Stilgoe and Arlene Phillips , with later revisions by Don Black and David Yazbek . The story follows a child's dream in which his toy train set comes to life; famously the actors perform wearing roller skates...
– Lloyd WebberAndrew Lloyd WebberAndrew Lloyd Webber, Baron Lloyd-Webber is an English composer of musical theatre.Lloyd Webber has achieved great popular success in musical theatre. Several of his musicals have run for more than a decade both in the West End and on Broadway. He has composed 13 musicals, a song cycle, a set of...
/StilgoeRichard StilgoeRichard Henry Simpson Stilgoe OBE is a British songwriter, lyricist and musician. He is noted for clever wordplay as much as for his music....
– London, Broadway, worldwide - Song and DanceSong and DanceSong and Dance is a musical comprising two acts, one told entirely in "Song" and one entirely in "Dance", tied together by a love story.The first part is Tell Me On A Sunday, with lyrics by Don Black and music by Andrew Lloyd Webber, about a young British woman's romantic misadventures in New York...
– Lloyd WebberAndrew Lloyd WebberAndrew Lloyd Webber, Baron Lloyd-Webber is an English composer of musical theatre.Lloyd Webber has achieved great popular success in musical theatre. Several of his musicals have run for more than a decade both in the West End and on Broadway. He has composed 13 musicals, a song cycle, a set of...
/Black – London, Broadway - The Phantom of the OperaThe Phantom of the Opera (1986 musical)The Phantom of the Opera is a musical by Andrew Lloyd Webber, based on the French novel Le Fantôme de l'Opéra by Gaston Leroux.The music was composed by Lloyd Webber, and most lyrics were written by Charles Hart, with additional lyrics by Richard Stilgoe. Alan Jay Lerner was an early collaborator,...
– Lloyd WebberAndrew Lloyd WebberAndrew Lloyd Webber, Baron Lloyd-Webber is an English composer of musical theatre.Lloyd Webber has achieved great popular success in musical theatre. Several of his musicals have run for more than a decade both in the West End and on Broadway. He has composed 13 musicals, a song cycle, a set of...
/HartCharles Hart (lyricist)Charles Hart is a British lyricist, songwriter and musician. He is best known for re-writing the lyrics to, and contributing to the book of Andrew Lloyd Webber's stage musical The Phantom of the Opera. He also co-wrote the lyrics to Lloyd Webber's 1989 musical Aspects of Love...
/StilgoeRichard StilgoeRichard Henry Simpson Stilgoe OBE is a British songwriter, lyricist and musician. He is noted for clever wordplay as much as for his music....
– London, Broadway, worldwide - Aspects of LoveAspects of LoveAspects of Love is a musical/chamber opera with a book and music by Andrew Lloyd Webber and lyrics by Don Black and Charles Hart. It is famous for the song "Love Changes Everything."...
– Lloyd WebberAndrew Lloyd WebberAndrew Lloyd Webber, Baron Lloyd-Webber is an English composer of musical theatre.Lloyd Webber has achieved great popular success in musical theatre. Several of his musicals have run for more than a decade both in the West End and on Broadway. He has composed 13 musicals, a song cycle, a set of...
/Black & HartCharles Hart (lyricist)Charles Hart is a British lyricist, songwriter and musician. He is best known for re-writing the lyrics to, and contributing to the book of Andrew Lloyd Webber's stage musical The Phantom of the Opera. He also co-wrote the lyrics to Lloyd Webber's 1989 musical Aspects of Love...
– London, Broadway, 2007 UK tour - By JeevesBy JeevesBy Jeeves, originally Jeeves, is a 1975/1996 musical by Andrew Lloyd Webber and Alan Ayckbourn, based on the novels of P. G. Wodehouse....
– Lloyd WebberAndrew Lloyd WebberAndrew Lloyd Webber, Baron Lloyd-Webber is an English composer of musical theatre.Lloyd Webber has achieved great popular success in musical theatre. Several of his musicals have run for more than a decade both in the West End and on Broadway. He has composed 13 musicals, a song cycle, a set of...
/AyckbournAlan AyckbournSir Alan Ayckbourn CBE is a prolific English playwright. He has written and produced seventy-three full-length plays in Scarborough and London and was, between 1972 and 2009, the artistic director of the Stephen Joseph Theatre in Scarborough, where all but four of his plays have received their...
– London, Broadway - Whistle Down the WindWhistle Down the Wind (musical)Whistle Down the Wind is a musical based on the 1961 film Whistle Down the Wind with music by Andrew Lloyd Webber and lyrics by Jim Steinman, known for his work with Meat Loaf and Bonnie Tyler.-Stage Premiere:...
– Lloyd WebberAndrew Lloyd WebberAndrew Lloyd Webber, Baron Lloyd-Webber is an English composer of musical theatre.Lloyd Webber has achieved great popular success in musical theatre. Several of his musicals have run for more than a decade both in the West End and on Broadway. He has composed 13 musicals, a song cycle, a set of...
/SteinmanJim SteinmanJames Richard "Jim" Steinman is an American composer, lyricist, and Grammy Award-winning record producer responsible for several hit songs. He has also worked as an arranger, pianist, and singer...
– Washington, D.C., London, UK tours - The Beautiful GameThe Beautiful Game (musical)The Beautiful Game is a musical by Andrew Lloyd Webber and Ben Elton about a group of teenagers growing up amid religious intolerance in Belfast, Northern Ireland in 1969....
– Lloyd WebberAndrew Lloyd WebberAndrew Lloyd Webber, Baron Lloyd-Webber is an English composer of musical theatre.Lloyd Webber has achieved great popular success in musical theatre. Several of his musicals have run for more than a decade both in the West End and on Broadway. He has composed 13 musicals, a song cycle, a set of...
/EltonBen EltonBenjamin Charles "Ben" Elton is an English comedian, author, playwright and director. He was a leading figure in the British alternative comedy movement of the 1980s, as a writer on such cult series as The Young Ones and Blackadder, as well as also a successful stand-up comedian on stage and TV....
– London - The Woman in WhiteThe Woman in White (musical)The Woman in White is a musical by Andrew Lloyd Webber and David Zippel with a book by Charlotte Jones, based on the novel The Woman in White written by Wilkie Collins...
– Lloyd WebberAndrew Lloyd WebberAndrew Lloyd Webber, Baron Lloyd-Webber is an English composer of musical theatre.Lloyd Webber has achieved great popular success in musical theatre. Several of his musicals have run for more than a decade both in the West End and on Broadway. He has composed 13 musicals, a song cycle, a set of...
/ZippelDavid ZippelDavid Joel Zippel is an American musical theatre lyricist.-Biography:Zippel was born in Easton, Pennsylvania. He is a 1976 graduate of the University of Pennsylvania. While there, he wrote a "bizarre political musical" called Rotunda...
– London, Broadway - Bombay DreamsBombay DreamsBombay Dreams is a Bollywood-themed musical, with music by A. R. Rahman, lyrics by Don Black and the book by Meera Syal and Thomas Meehan,and produced by Andrew Lloyd Webber. The London production opened in 2002 and ran for two years...
– RahmanA. R. RahmanAllah Rakha Rahman is an Indian composer, singer-songwriter, record producer, musician, and philanthropist. Described as the world's most prominent and prolific film composer by Time, his works are notable for integrating eastern classical music with electronic music sounds, world music genres and...
/Black – London, Broadway - The Sound of MusicThe Sound of MusicThe Sound of Music is a musical by Richard Rodgers, lyrics by Oscar Hammerstein II and a book by Howard Lindsay and Russel Crouse. It is based on the memoir of Maria von Trapp, The Story of the Trapp Family Singers...
– RodgersRichard RodgersRichard Charles Rodgers was an American composer of music for more than 900 songs and for 43 Broadway musicals. He also composed music for films and television. He is best known for his songwriting partnerships with the lyricists Lorenz Hart and Oscar Hammerstein II...
/HammersteinOscar Hammerstein IIOscar Greeley Clendenning Hammerstein II was an American librettist, theatrical producer, and theatre director of musicals for almost forty years. Hammerstein won eight Tony Awards and was twice awarded an Academy Award for "Best Original Song". Many of his songs are standard repertoire for...
– 2006 London PalladiumLondon PalladiumThe London Palladium is a 2,286 seat West End theatre located off Oxford Street in the City of Westminster. From the roster of stars who have played there and many televised performances, it is arguably the most famous theatre in London and the United Kingdom, especially for musical variety...
production - Priscilla, Queen of the Desert - The MusicalPriscilla Queen of the Desert - the MusicalPriscilla, Queen of the Desert is a musical with a book by Australian film director-writer Stephan Elliott and Allan Scott, using well-known pop songs as its score...
; Various; London 2009 - Love Never Dies; Lloyd WebberAndrew Lloyd WebberAndrew Lloyd Webber, Baron Lloyd-Webber is an English composer of musical theatre.Lloyd Webber has achieved great popular success in musical theatre. Several of his musicals have run for more than a decade both in the West End and on Broadway. He has composed 13 musicals, a song cycle, a set of...
/EltonBen EltonBenjamin Charles "Ben" Elton is an English comedian, author, playwright and director. He was a leading figure in the British alternative comedy movement of the 1980s, as a writer on such cult series as The Young Ones and Blackadder, as well as also a successful stand-up comedian on stage and TV....
/SlaterGlenn SlaterGlenn Slater is an American lyricist who collabrates with Alan Menken and other musical theatre composers. He was nominated for the Tony Award, Best Original Score for The Little Mermaid and received his second Tony nomination for Sister Act.-Biography:Slater was born in Brooklyn, New York, but...
; London 2010 - The Wizard of OzThe Wizard of Oz (adaptations)The Wonderful Wizard of Oz is a 1900 novel by L. Frank Baum, which has been adapted into several different works, the most famous being the 1939 film The Wizard of Oz, starring Judy Garland...
; London 2010 - Daisy Pulls it Off – Denise Deegan – London
- The Hired ManThe Hired ManThe Hired Man is a novel by Melvyn Bragg, first published in 1969. It is the first part of Bragg's Cumbrian Trilogy.The story is set predominantly in the rural area around Thurston , from the 1890s to the 1920s, and follows the life of John Tallentire, a farm labourer and coal miner...
– GoodallHoward Goodall210px|thumb|Howard Goodall at St. John the Baptist Church in Devon, United Kingdom, May 2009Howard Lindsay Goodall CBE is a British composer of musicals, choral music and music for television...
/BraggMelvyn BraggMelvyn Bragg, Baron Bragg FRSL FRTS FBA, FRS FRSA is an English broadcaster and author best known for his work with the BBC and for presenting the The South Bank Show...
– London - Lend Me a TenorLend Me a TenorLend Me a Tenor is a comedy by Ken Ludwig. The play was produced on both the West End and Broadway . Although it received seven Tony Award nominations, it won only one, for Best Actor. A Broadway revival opened in 2010. Lend Me a Tenor has been translated into sixteen languages and produced in...
– LudwigKen LudwigKen Ludwig is an American playwright and theatre director.Born in York, Pennsylvania, Ludwig was educated at the York Suburban Senior High School, York PA Haverford College , Harvard Law School, and Trinity College at Cambridge University...
– London, Broadway - La BêteLa BêteLa Bête is a comedy by American playwright, David Hirson. Written in rhymed couplets of iambic pentameter, the Molière-inspired story, set in 17th century France, pits dignified, stuffy Elomire, the head of the royal court-sponsored theatre troupe, against the foppish, frivolous street entertainer...
– David Hirson – Broadway, London
Really Useful Films
Cats (musical)
Cats is a musical composed by Andrew Lloyd Webber, based on Old Possum's Book of Practical Cats by T. S. Eliot...
, Jesus Christ Superstar
Jesus Christ Superstar
Jesus Christ Superstar is a rock opera by Andrew Lloyd Webber, with lyrics by Tim Rice. The musical started off as a rock opera concept recording before its first staging on Broadway in 1971...
and Joseph
Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat
Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat is an Andrew Lloyd Webber musical with lyrics by Tim Rice. The story is based on the "coat of many colors" story of Joseph from the Hebrew Bible's Book of Genesis. This was the first Lloyd Webber and Rice musical to be performed publicly...
), but 2004 saw Really Useful Films complete the major motion picture The Phantom of the Opera
The Phantom of the Opera (2004 film)
The Phantom of the Opera is a 2004 film adaptation of Andrew Lloyd Webber's 1986 musical of the same name, which in turn was based on the French novel Le Fantôme de l'Opéra by Gaston Leroux....
, directed by Joel Schumacher
Joel Schumacher
Joel T. Schumacher is an American film director, screenwriter and producer.-Early life:Schumacher was born in New York City, the son of Marian and Francis Schumacher. His mother was a Swedish Jew, and his father was a Baptist from Knoxville, Tennessee, who died when Joel was four years old...
and starring Gerard Butler
Gerard Butler
Gerard James Butler is a Scottish actor who has appeared on film, stage, and television. A trained lawyer, Butler turned to acting in the mid-1990s with small roles in productions such as the James Bond film Tomorrow Never Dies , which he followed with steady work on television, most notably in...
and Emmy Rossum
Emmy Rossum
Emmanuelle Grey "Emmy" Rossum is an American actress and singer-songwriter. She first starred in a string of movies including Songcatcher , An American Rhapsody, and Passionada . However, it was her role in Mystic River that garnered her wider recognition...
, which was nominated for three Academy Awards and three Golden Globes. The film was the largest independent film ever made, and was a commercial success.
It has also released DVD and video versions of Andrew Lloyd Webber's 50th birthday concert at the Royal Albert Hall
Royal Albert Hall
The Royal Albert Hall is a concert hall situated on the northern edge of the South Kensington area, in the City of Westminster, London, England, best known for holding the annual summer Proms concerts since 1941....
, the 2001 Masterpiece - Andrew Lloyd Webber in China concert, and a musical version of the Gruffalo
The Gruffalo
The Gruffalo is a children's book by writer and playwright Julia Donaldson, illustrated by Axel Scheffler, that tells the story of a mouse's walk in the woods...
, with music and lyrics by Jon Fiber, Robin Price and Olivia Jacobs.
The film director Nick Morris
Nick Morris
Nick Morris is a film maker who began his career in the 1980s with music videos for "The Final Countdown" by Europe, "Kyrie" by Mr. Mister and "Every Time You Go Away" by Paul Young...
is regularly involved with the films division.
Really Useful Records
Really Useful Records produces cast albums of Andrew Lloyd Webber musicals. From 1986 until Lloyd Webber regained full control of the company in 1999, Really Useful Records had an exclusive deal with PolyGramPolyGram
PolyGram was the name of the major label recording company started by Philips from as a holding company for its music interests in 1945. In 1999 it was sold to Seagram and merged into Universal Music Group.-Hollandsche Decca Distributie , 1929-1950:...
to release albums through its Polydor
Polydor Records
Polydor is a record label owned by Universal Music Group, headquartered in the United Kingdom.-Beginnings:Polydor was originally an independent branch of the Deutsche Grammophon Gesellschaft. Its name was first used as an export label in 1924, the British and German branches of the Gramophone...
label. Really Useful continues to release its albums and DVDs through Universal, current owners of PolyGram. Outside of cast albums, Lloyd Webber has also produced albums for Marti Webb
Marti Webb
Marti Webb is a musical actress from England, who appeared on stage in Evita, before starring in Andrew Lloyd Webber's one woman show Tell Me on a Sunday in 1980...
, Sarah Brightman
Sarah Brightman
Sarah Brightman is an English classical crossover soprano, actress, songwriter and dancer. She is famous for possessing a vocal range of over 3 octaves and singing in the whistle register...
, Connie Fisher
Connie Fisher
Connie Fisher is a Welsh actress and singer, who won the BBC One talent contest, How Do You Solve a Problem Like Maria?...
, Andrea Ross
Andrea Ross
Andrea Christine Ross is an American singer and actress. She has been an award-winning lead actress on stage in her local area of Boston, Massachusetts since the age of eight years old...
and Michael Ball
Michael Ball (singer)
Michael Ashley Ball, born 27 June 1962) is a British actor, singer, and radio and TV presenter who is best known for the song "Love Changes Everything" and musical theatre roles such as Marius in Les Misérables, Alex in Aspects of Love, Caractacus Potts in Chitty Chitty Bang Bang and Edna Turnblad...
via the label. The Managing Director of the record division is Tris Penna, who has recently overseen the remastered and re-release of a significant portion of the back-catalogue. Long-time Lloyd Webber collaborator Nigel Wright has served as producer on most Really Useful Records albums.
Lee Mead
Lee Mead
Lee Stephen Mead is an English musical theatre actor, best known for winning the title role in the 2007 West End revival of Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat through the BBC reality TV casting show Any Dream Will Do...
, who won the lead role in 2007's West End
West End theatre
West End theatre is a popular term for mainstream professional theatre staged in the large theatres of London's 'Theatreland', the West End. Along with New York's Broadway theatre, West End theatre is usually considered to represent the highest level of commercial theatre in the English speaking...
revival of Lloyd Webber
Andrew Lloyd Webber
Andrew Lloyd Webber, Baron Lloyd-Webber is an English composer of musical theatre.Lloyd Webber has achieved great popular success in musical theatre. Several of his musicals have run for more than a decade both in the West End and on Broadway. He has composed 13 musicals, a song cycle, a set of...
and Tim Rice
Tim Rice
Sir Timothy Miles Bindon "Tim" Rice is an British lyricist and author.An Academy Award, Golden Globe Award, Tony Award and Grammy Award-winning lyricist, Rice is best known for his collaborations with Andrew Lloyd Webber, with whom he wrote Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat, Jesus...
's Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat by taking part in BBC One
BBC One
BBC One is the flagship television channel of the British Broadcasting Corporation in the United Kingdom. It was launched on 2 November 1936 as the BBC Television Service, and was the world's first regular television service with a high level of image resolution...
's Any Dream Will Do!
Any Dream Will Do (TV series)
Any Dream Will Do, often known as 'Joseph', was a 2007 talent show-themed television series produced by the BBC in the United Kingdom. It searched for a new, unknown lead to play Joseph in a West End revival of the Andrew Lloyd Webber musical Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat.The show...
recorded a single of the song "Any Dream Will Do
Any Dream Will Do (song)
"Any Dream Will Do" is a popular song written by Andrew Lloyd Webber and Tim Rice for the 1968 musical Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat...
". The contest's third-placed Lewis Bradley
Lewis Bradley
Lewis Bradley is a British musical theatre actor, who came third place in the BBC reality talent show Any Dream Will Do. He was later chosen by Andrew Lloyd Webber to understudy the winning role of Joseph....
and second-placed Keith Jack
Keith Jack
Keith Jack was the runner-up on the BBC reality talent show Any Dream Will Do, which offered the chance to be the next West End Joseph for the hit musical Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat by Andrew Lloyd Webber and Tim Rice...
joined him on "Close Every Door To Me". Really Useful released the double-A side single
to raise funds for the BBC
BBC
The British Broadcasting Corporation is a British public service broadcaster. Its headquarters is at Broadcasting House in the City of Westminster, London. It is the largest broadcaster in the world, with about 23,000 staff...
's annual Children in Need
Children in Need
Children in Need is an annual British charity appeal organised by the BBC. Since 1980 it has raised over £500 million. The highlight of the Children in Need appeal is an annual telethon, held in November. A teddy bear named "Pudsey Bear" fronts the campaign, while Terry Wogan is a long...
charity appeal.
Really Useful Group Theatres
West End theatre
West End theatre is a popular term for mainstream professional theatre staged in the large theatres of London's 'Theatreland', the West End. Along with New York's Broadway theatre, West End theatre is usually considered to represent the highest level of commercial theatre in the English speaking...
theatres.
Lloyd Webber purchased the Palace Theatre
Palace Theatre, London
The Palace Theatre is a West End theatre in the City of Westminster in London. It is an imposing red-brick building that dominates the west side of Cambridge Circus and is located near the intersection of Shaftesbury Avenue and Charing Cross Road...
in 1983, followed by the New London
New London Theatre
The New London Theatre is a West End theatre located on the corner of Drury Lane and Parker Street in Covent Garden, in the London Borough of Camden...
and the Adelphi
Adelphi Theatre
The Adelphi Theatre is a 1500-seat West End theatre, located on the Strand in the City of Westminster. The present building is the fourth on the site. The theatre has specialised in comedy and musical theatre, and today it is a receiving house for a variety of productions, including many musicals...
. In 1999, Lloyd Webber and NatWest Equity Partners bought the Stoll Moss group, owners of 10 London theatres, including the London Palladium
London Palladium
The London Palladium is a 2,286 seat West End theatre located off Oxford Street in the City of Westminster. From the roster of stars who have played there and many televised performances, it is arguably the most famous theatre in London and the United Kingdom, especially for musical variety...
and the Theatre Royal, Drury Lane
Theatre Royal, Drury Lane
The Theatre Royal, Drury Lane is a West End theatre in Covent Garden, in the City of Westminster, a borough of London. The building faces Catherine Street and backs onto Drury Lane. The building standing today is the most recent in a line of four theatres at the same location dating back to 1663,...
, for £85m from Australian businesswoman Janet Holmes à Court
Janet Holmes à Court
Janet Holmes à Court, AC, HFAIB is an Australian businesswoman, and one of Australia's wealthiest women. She is the Chairman of one of Australia's largest private companies, Heytesbury Pty Ltd, having turned around its fortunes after the death of her husband Robert Holmes à Court in 1990...
, and formed Really Useful Theatres.
In 2004, operational control of the Queen's Theatre
Queen's Theatre
The Queen's Theatre is a West End theatre located in Shaftesbury Avenue in the City of Westminster. It opened on 8 October 1907 as a twin to the neighbouring Gielgud Theatre which opened ten months earlier. Both theatres were designed by W.G.R...
reverted from Really Useful Theatres back to Cameron Mackintosh
Cameron Mackintosh
Sir Cameron Anthony Mackintosh is a British theatrical producer notable for his association with many commercially successful musicals. At the height of his success in 1990, he was described as being "the most successful, influential and powerful theatrical producer in the world" by the New York...
's Delfont Mackintosh Theatres. The transfer of operational control of the adjoining Gielgud Theatre
Gielgud Theatre
The Gielgud Theatre is a West End theatre, located on Shaftesbury Avenue in the City of Westminster, London, at the corner of Rupert Street. The house currently has 889 seats on three levels.-History:...
from Really Useful Theatres to Delfont Mackintosh Theatres followed two years later.
On July 11, 2005, the company announced that it was selling four theatres (the Apollo
Apollo Theatre
The Apollo Theatre is a Grade II listed West End theatre, on Shaftesbury Avenue in the City of Westminster. Designed by architect Lewin Sharp for owner Henry Lowenfield, and the fourth legitimate theatre to be constructed on the street, its doors opened on 21 February 1901 with the American...
, the Duchess
Duchess Theatre
The Duchess Theatre is a West End theatre in the City of Westminster, London, located in Catherine Street, near Aldwych.The theatre opened on 25 November 1929 and is one of the smallest 'proscenium arched' West End theatres. It has 479 seats on two levels....
, the Lyric
Lyric Theatre (London)
The Lyric Theatre is a West End theatre on Shaftesbury Avenue in the City of Westminster.Designed by architect C. J. Phipps, it was built by producer Henry Leslie with profits from the Alfred Cellier and B. C. Stephenson hit, Dorothy, which he transferred from the Prince of Wales Theatre to open...
, and the Garrick
Garrick Theatre
The Garrick Theatre is a West End theatre, located on Charing Cross Road, in the City of Westminster. It opened on 24 April 1889 with The Profligate, a play by Arthur Wing Pinero. In its early years, it appears to have specialised in the performance of melodrama, and today the theatre is a...
) to Nimax Theatres Ltd, a company owned by Broadway
Broadway theatre
Broadway theatre, commonly called simply Broadway, refers to theatrical performances presented in one of the 40 professional theatres with 500 or more seats located in the Theatre District centered along Broadway, and in Lincoln Center, in Manhattan in New York City...
producer
Theatrical producer
A theatrical producer is the person ultimately responsible for overseeing all aspects of mounting a theatre production. The independent producer will usually be the originator and finder of the script and starts the whole process...
Max Weitzenhoffer, who previously had been a rival bidder for the Stoll Moss theatres) and Nica Burns, production director of Really Useful Theatres. Lloyd Webber invested £10m of the proceeds from the sales (which took effect on October 1, 2005) to buy out his ownership partners Bridgepoint
Bridgepoint Capital
Bridgepoint is a UK-based private equity investor in companies valued up to €1 billion, including Pets at Home and Pret A Manger in the UK, Dorna in Spain, and Alain Afflelou in France.-History:...
(formerly NatWest Equity Partners), and the group was renamed Really Useful Group Theatres.
The company owns and manages:
- The Adelphi TheatreAdelphi TheatreThe Adelphi Theatre is a 1500-seat West End theatre, located on the Strand in the City of Westminster. The present building is the fourth on the site. The theatre has specialised in comedy and musical theatre, and today it is a receiving house for a variety of productions, including many musicals...
(in association with Nederlander InternationalNederlander OrganizationThe Nederlander Organization, founded in 1912 by David T. Nederlander and based in Detroit, Michigan, is one of the largest operators of legitimate theatres and music venuesin the United States. Its first acquisition was a lease on the Detroit Opera House in 1912. The building was demolished in...
) - home to Love Never Dies since February 2010 - The Cambridge TheatreCambridge TheatreThe Cambridge Theatre is a West End theatre, on a corner site in Earlham Street facing Seven Dials, in the London Borough of Camden, built in 1929-30. It was designed by Wimperis, Simpson and Guthrie; interior partly by Serge Chermayeff, with interior bronze friezes by sculptor Anthony Gibbons...
- home to ChicagoChicago (musical)Chicago is a musical set in Prohibition-era Chicago. The music is by John Kander with lyrics by Fred Ebb and a book by Ebb and Bob Fosse. The story is a satire on corruption in the administration of criminal justice and the concept of the "celebrity criminal"...
since April 2006 - The Theatre Royal, Drury LaneTheatre Royal, Drury LaneThe Theatre Royal, Drury Lane is a West End theatre in Covent Garden, in the City of Westminster, a borough of London. The building faces Catherine Street and backs onto Drury Lane. The building standing today is the most recent in a line of four theatres at the same location dating back to 1663,...
- home to Oliver!Oliver!Oliver! is a British musical, with script, music and lyrics by Lionel Bart. The musical is based upon the novel Oliver Twist by Charles Dickens....
since December 2008 - Her Majesty's TheatreHer Majesty's TheatreHer Majesty's Theatre is a West End theatre, in Haymarket, City of Westminster, London. The present building was designed by Charles J. Phipps and was constructed in 1897 for actor-manager Herbert Beerbohm Tree, who established the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art at the theatre...
- home to The Phantom of the OperaThe Phantom of the Opera (1986 musical)The Phantom of the Opera is a musical by Andrew Lloyd Webber, based on the French novel Le Fantôme de l'Opéra by Gaston Leroux.The music was composed by Lloyd Webber, and most lyrics were written by Charles Hart, with additional lyrics by Richard Stilgoe. Alan Jay Lerner was an early collaborator,...
since October 1986 - The London PalladiumLondon PalladiumThe London Palladium is a 2,286 seat West End theatre located off Oxford Street in the City of Westminster. From the roster of stars who have played there and many televised performances, it is arguably the most famous theatre in London and the United Kingdom, especially for musical variety...
- home to The Wizard of Oz since February 2011 - The New London TheatreNew London TheatreThe New London Theatre is a West End theatre located on the corner of Drury Lane and Parker Street in Covent Garden, in the London Borough of Camden...
- home to the National Theatre's production of War HorseWar Horse (play)War Horse is a play based on the book of the same name by acclaimed children's writer Michael Morpurgo, adapted for stage by Nick Stafford. Originally Morpurgo thought "they must be mad" to try to make a play from his best-selling 1982 novel. He was proved wrong by the play's instant success...
since March 2009 - The Palace TheatrePalace Theatre, LondonThe Palace Theatre is a West End theatre in the City of Westminster in London. It is an imposing red-brick building that dominates the west side of Cambridge Circus and is located near the intersection of Shaftesbury Avenue and Charing Cross Road...
- home to Priscilla Queen of the Desert - the MusicalPriscilla Queen of the Desert - the MusicalPriscilla, Queen of the Desert is a musical with a book by Australian film director-writer Stephan Elliott and Allan Scott, using well-known pop songs as its score...
since March 2009
See
In 2002, Really Useful Theatres bought a 75% stake in ticketing agency Way Ahead from ailing cable televisionCable television
Cable television is a system of providing television programs to consumers via radio frequency signals transmitted to televisions through coaxial cables or digital light pulses through fixed optical fibers located on the subscriber's property, much like the over-the-air method used in traditional...
group Telewest
Telewest
Telewest, formerly Telewest Broadband and Telewest Communications was a cable Internet, broadband internet, telephone supplier and cable television provider in the United Kingdom...
, which it combined with its own ticketing operation to form See Tickets
See Tickets
See Tickets is the trading name of a British ticketing services company owned by Vivendi. See was previously owned by Parcom Capital and before that was the ticketing division of Andrew Lloyd Webber's Really Useful Group and the largest UK owned ticketing company.Created from the merger of the...
which was then the biggest UK-owned ticket company, selling tickets not only for West End musicals, but also for concerts, festivals, sporting fixtures and other events. On 16 October 2007 See was demerged from the Really Useful Group and a new company, See Group Limited was created to sit alongside the Really Useful Group in Andrew Lloyd Webber's portfolio. Webber sold See Group Limited to Joop van den Ende
Joop van den Ende
Johannes "Joop" Adrianus van den Ende is a Dutch media tycoon, theatrical producer, co-founder of Endemol and founder/owner of Stage Entertainment....
's live entertainment group, Stage Entertainment
Stage Entertainment
The musical production company Stage Entertainment is based in Amsterdam, Netherlands. It has a very successful subsidiary in Germany based in Hamburg which almost has a monopoly in Germany.- History :...
for an undisclosed sum in January 2008.
Really Useful Magazines
Really Useful Magazines Ltd was formed in order to distribute Theatregoer Magazine, a monthly magazine edited and published on the Really Useful Group's behalf by the publishing agency Axon Publishing. Published between 2000 and 2004, the magazine was available in conjunction with the programmes in all Really Useful Theatres. Its Editor-in-Chief was Madeleine Lloyd-Webber.Other interests
The Really Useful Group has, in the past, also set up sub-labels to cater for pop and dance acts such as Carpet Records, featuring Timmy MallettTimmy Mallett
Timmy Mallett is a TV presenter and broadcaster in the UK. He achieved cult status on BBC Radio Oxford and Manchester's Piccadilly Radio and later on TV-am...
's Bombalurina ("Itsy Bitsy Teeny Weeny Yellow Polka Dot Bikini
Itsy Bitsy Teenie Weenie Yellow Polka Dot Bikini
"Itsy Bitsy Teeny Weeny Yellow Polka Dot Bikini" is a novelty song telling the story of a shy girl wearing a revealing polka dot bikini at the beach, who in the first verse is too afraid to leave the locker where she has changed into her bikini; in the second, she has made it to the beach but sits...
") and Doctor Spin
Doctor Spin
Doctor Spin was a pseudonym used by Andrew Lloyd Webber and record producer Nigel Wright for their 1992 hit single "Tetris". Their identities were not widely publicised at the time...
('Tetris
Tetris
Tetris is a puzzle video game originally designed and programmed by Alexey Pajitnov in the Soviet Union. It was released on June 6, 1984, while he was working for the Dorodnicyn Computing Centre of the Academy of Science of the USSR in Moscow, Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic...
'); and It Records
It Records
it Records was a pop record label of the late 1990s and early 2000s that was an offshoot of Andrew Lloyd Webber’s Really Useful Group. Acts included My Life Story, who released singles such as “It’s a Girl Thing” whilst being signed to the label, Icebreaker International and Birdie.-External links:**...
, home to My Life Story
My Life Story
My Life Story are a British indie pop group who peaked in the mid to late 1990s, when they were regarded as part of the Britpop movement. Fronted by singer/songwriter Jake Shillingford, the group was formed in London around 1991, and inherited their name from an earlier group in which Shillingford...
in the late 1990s. The name Carpet Records was a play on the acronym RUG (or rug) (for Really Useful Group).
Charitable donation
The group on 27 June 2007 announced that it would donate all receipts from two special performances of a revived West EndWest End theatre
West End theatre is a popular term for mainstream professional theatre staged in the large theatres of London's 'Theatreland', the West End. Along with New York's Broadway theatre, West End theatre is usually considered to represent the highest level of commercial theatre in the English speaking...
production of Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat to the BBC
BBC
The British Broadcasting Corporation is a British public service broadcaster. Its headquarters is at Broadcasting House in the City of Westminster, London. It is the largest broadcaster in the world, with about 23,000 staff...
’s Children in Need
Children in Need
Children in Need is an annual British charity appeal organised by the BBC. Since 1980 it has raised over £500 million. The highlight of the Children in Need appeal is an annual telethon, held in November. A teddy bear named "Pudsey Bear" fronts the campaign, while Terry Wogan is a long...
charity appeal, which would benefit from ticket sales for 16 July’s booked-out preview and the sold-out 16 November performance, on the night of the annual Children in Need
Children in Need
Children in Need is an annual British charity appeal organised by the BBC. Since 1980 it has raised over £500 million. The highlight of the Children in Need appeal is an annual telethon, held in November. A teddy bear named "Pudsey Bear" fronts the campaign, while Terry Wogan is a long...
telethon. Cast members, the group added, would not get the usual first night gifts on 17 July – the money would, instead, go to Children in Need
Children in Need
Children in Need is an annual British charity appeal organised by the BBC. Since 1980 it has raised over £500 million. The highlight of the Children in Need appeal is an annual telethon, held in November. A teddy bear named "Pudsey Bear" fronts the campaign, while Terry Wogan is a long...
. Viewers of a BBC One
BBC One
BBC One is the flagship television channel of the British Broadcasting Corporation in the United Kingdom. It was launched on 2 November 1936 as the BBC Television Service, and was the world's first regular television service with a high level of image resolution...
television show, Any Dream Will Do!
Any Dream Will Do (TV series)
Any Dream Will Do, often known as 'Joseph', was a 2007 talent show-themed television series produced by the BBC in the United Kingdom. It searched for a new, unknown lead to play Joseph in a West End revival of the Andrew Lloyd Webber musical Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat.The show...
had voted 25-year-old West End
West End theatre
West End theatre is a popular term for mainstream professional theatre staged in the large theatres of London's 'Theatreland', the West End. Along with New York's Broadway theatre, West End theatre is usually considered to represent the highest level of commercial theatre in the English speaking...
ensemble player and understudy Lee Mead
Lee Mead
Lee Stephen Mead is an English musical theatre actor, best known for winning the title role in the 2007 West End revival of Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat through the BBC reality TV casting show Any Dream Will Do...
to take role of Joseph in the production. Children in Need had benefited by more than £500,000 in income from viewers' voting on premium-rate telephone lines, host Graham Norton
Graham Norton
Graham William Walker, known by his stage name Graham Norton , is an Irish actor, comedian, television presenter and columnist...
said during the contest's 9 June 2007 final.