First published: 09 Mar 2008

Andrew Lloyd Webber has received the Society of London Theatre Special Award for his achievements in London's Theatreland and across the world.

Theatreland's premier Lord, who is the composer of several of the longest running musicals in West End history, collected his award following performances from three of his recent proteges: Lee Mead, who sang Close Every Door from the musical he is currently leading, Joseph And The Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat; former Maria, Connie Fisher, who sang Take That Look Off Your Face from Tell Me On A Sunday; and Evita star Elena Roger, who performed As If We Never Said Goodbye from Sunset Boulevard.

Speaking to Official London Theatre after collecting his award, Lord Lloyd Webber said: “It’s a fantastic, wonderful award to receive. I do find it very odd, as I still think I am working away – I’ve got a meeting about my new show at 09:00 tomorrow. I’m just going to get on with it, keep going.

“I’m so very lucky to be able to make a living doing what I love. And I’m going to keep on doing it whether I am successful or not – whether people come and see me or not! Sometimes they do, sometimes they don’t!”

Lord Lloyd Webber's most successful West End shows include: The Phantom Of The Opera, which celebrates its 22nd birthday in October 2008; Cats, which ran for 21 years; Starlight Express, which ran for 17 years; and Evita, which ran for 10 years.

More recently Lloyd Webber has been at the vanguard of attracting new audiences to the theatre and raising the profile of Theatreland. His reality television searches for new musical stars, How Do You Solve A Problem Like Maria? and Any Dream Will Do, caught the imaginations of a nation. He has recently taken this idea one step further, placing rising West End star Summer Strallen into teen soap Hollyoaks, raising her profile with a musical storyline before she replaced Connie Fisher as Maria in The Sound Of Music.

The son of a musician and a composer, Lloyd Webber was immersed in music from an early age and quickly displayed a precocious talent. He began composing his own music as a child and had his first suite of music published aged nine. Lloyd Webber’s successful collaboration with the lyricist Tim Rice began while he was still a teenager, and Joseph And The Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat was first performed in 1968. West End success followed with Jesus Christ Superstar in 1971 before the first of his super long-runners, Evita, opened in 1978.

The 1980s saw triumph after triumph for Lloyd Webber with Cats, Starlight Express and The Phantom Of The Opera all opening between 1981 and 1986. Lloyd Webber has composed several other musicals over the last 20 years, and recently seen successful revivals of both Evita and Joseph And The Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat.

Lloyd Webber is the founder of the Really Useful Theatre company, which currently owns seven West End venues: the Adelphi, the Cambridge, the Theatre Royal, Drury Lane, Her Majesty's, the London Palladium, the New London and the Palace.

He was knighted in 1992 and he was created a Life Peer in 1997 as Baron Lloyd-Webber.

TB