‘You possess the luck of Croesus on stilts (as my Auntie Vi could have said) if you have had the sort of career, ups and downs, warts and all that I’ve for the reason that wondrous little corner of show business called musical theatre.’

Probably one of the most successful and distinguished artists of our time, Andrew Lloyd Webber has reigned within the musical theatre world for pretty much five decades. The winner of numerous honours, including multiple Tonys and an Oscar, Lloyd Webber has enchanted millions world-wide with about Unmasked: A Memoir his music and many hit displays, including Jesus Christ Superstar, Evita, Pet cats, The Phantom from the Opera-Broadway’s longest operating show-and lately, School of Rock. In Unmasked, created in his personal inimitable, quirky voice, the revered, award-winning composer will take stock of his accomplishments, the twists of fate and situation which brought him both success and disappointment, and the passions that inspire and maintain him.

The son of the music professor and a piano teacher, Lloyd Webber reveals his artistic influences, from his idols Rodgers and Hammerstein and the perfection of South Pacific’s “Some Enchanted Evening,” to the pop and rock music of the 1960s and Puccini’s Tosca, to P. G. Wodehouse and T. S. Eliot. Lloyd Webber recalls his bohemian London youth, reminiscing about the happiest host to his youth, his homemade Harrington Pavilion-a make-believe world of musical theater in which he made his earliest entertainments.

A record of several exciting and turbulent decades of British and American musical theatre as well as the transformation of popular music itself, Unmasked is ultimately a chronicle of artistic creation. Lloyd Webber appears back on the advancement of some of his most well-known functions and illuminates his collaborations with luminaries such as Tim Grain, Robert Stigwood, Harold Prince, Cameron Mackintosh, and Trevor Nunn. Taking us behind the scenes of his productions, Lloyd Webber reveals fascinating details about each show, like the wealthy cast of individuals involved with making them, as well as the creative and logistical problems and artistic political fights that ensued.

Lloyd Webber stocks his recollections of the works that have become cultural touchstones for generations of fans: writings tunes to get a school production that would become his first hit, Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat; finding the coterie of performers for his traditional rock and roll opera Jesus Christ Superstar; developing his 1st megahit, Evita, which would win seven Tonys Awards, including Best Musical; staking his reputation and fortune in the groundbreaking Felines; and making history with the amazing The Phantom of the Opera.

Reflecting a life that included many passions (from architecture to Turkish Going swimming Cats), filled with witty and exposing anecdotes, and featuring commentary compiled by numerous celebrities-Elaine Paige, Sarah Brightman, David Frost, Julie Covington, Judi Dench, Richard Branson, A.R. Rahman, Mandy Patinkin, Patti LuPone, Richard Rodgers, Norman Jewison, Milos Forman, Plácido Domingo, Barbra Streisand, Michael Crawford, Gillian Lynne, Betty Buckley, and more-Unmasked at last reveals the real face of the incredible man beneath the storied legend.