Biografia

He considers the crashing of the chandelier in "The Phantom of the Opera" to be the most theatrical moment he's ever conceived.

He was so nervous about the premiere of "The Phantom of the Opera" that he didn't attend the show. Producer Cameron Mackintosh had to find him and bring him back to the theater for the curtain calls.

Shares a birthday with legendary composer Stephen Sondheim.

Between 1980 and 1995, four of his musicals - "Evita", "Cats", "The Phantom of the Opera" and "Sunset Boulevard" - won the Tony Award for Best Musical.

Has written the music for the two longest running Broadway shows in history, "Cats" and "The Phantom of the Opera".

There is a recommendation that schools spend a certain amount of time teaching music but it really depends on whether the teachers believe in it. In some primary and secondary schools there is no musical provision at all but other well-resourced schools have plenty.

[on singer/actress Emmy Rossum] She is a wonderfully pure soprano, with an exceptional range. But more than this she also brings real character into the voice - so rare for her age.

If you're a composer you do want to know how people are reacting to it but at the same time, of course, the performer is the most important thing.

I'm a composer and therefore I know when I've written a good tune. When you've written a good song is when you know that the lyric is completely coalesced with the song. Sometimes I think I've written melodies that may have got a bit buried because maybe the lyric hasn't worked with the song. Sometimes, actually, it's the other way around. When you're writing for musical theatre the story comes first. If the story's right then the songs will probably come right.

You're the luckiest person in the entire world if you know what you really want to do, which I was lucky enough to know when I was very young. And you're the luckiest person in the world if you can then make a living out of it.