About this Artist
Tim Rice has worked in music, theatre and films since 1965 when he met Andrew Lloyd Webber, a fellow struggling songwriter. Rather than pursue Tim’s ambitions to write rock or pop songs they turned their attention to Andrew’s obsession – musical theatre. Their first collaboration, The Likes Of Us, did not set the musicals world alight, but their next three works together did – Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat, Jesus Christ Superstar and Evita.
Tim has since worked with other distinguished composers such as Elton John (The Lion King, Aida), Alan Menken (Aladdin, King David, Beauty and the Beast), Bjorn Ulvaeus and Benny Andersson (Chess), and Stuart Brayson (From Here To Eternity). He has also written with Freddie Mercury, Burt Bacharach, Graham Gouldman, Gary Barlow and Rick Wakeman among others. Many of his musicals continue to play around the world in a huge variety of productions, big and small.
In 2024 Tim toured England (22 towns/cities) to present an evening of his songs, mercifully performed by top singers and musicians rather than by him, to which he added reminiscence and comment, recalling their creation, success (or rejection) and the joy (usually) of working with great composers. The show, entitled My Life In Musicals, did so well that it is to be repeated in 2025, this time taking in Wales, Scotland and Ireland too.
Sir Tim’s interests beyond music, film and theatre include cricket and he founded his own team in 1973. Heartaches CC has now played over 750 matches and been on playing tours to the USA, Russia, France, Estonia, Hungary, Germany and South Africa. He was President of the world’s most famous cricket club, MCC, in 2002.
He has recently recorded a series of talks for BBC Maestro on Writing and Performing in Musical Theatre. He writes and presents a podcast (entitled Get Onto My Cloud) about his sixty-year career– playing hits and flops, out-takes and number ones.
He dedicates considerable time to several British educational institutions and charities, many connected with sport for disadvantaged children. He is a patron of the Bob Willis Fund (along with Bob Dylan!), an enterprise inspired by the late great English cricketer, dedicated to raise prostate cancer awareness.
He crops up here and there in all branches of the media drawing on his extensive knowledge of the history of popular music. He has won several awards, mainly for the wrong thing or for simply turning up, but since you ask: 1 Emmy, 5 Grammys, 3 Tonys and 3 Oscars, making him an EGOT. His shows have spent more weeks on Broadway than those of any other British lyricist. He was knighted by Her Late Majesty the Queen in 1994. Despite hints, he is not retiring just yet.