Andrew Lloyd Webber's unexpected Emmy

11 September 2018

Lord Andrew Lloyd Webber "never thought" he'd win an award for 'Jesus Christ Superstar Live in Concert'.

Andrew Lloyd Webber

The 70-year-old composer achieved EGOT status - a person who has won Academy, Emmy, Grammy and Tony Awards - along with his co-producers John Legend and Sir Tim Rice when the NBC TV show won the Outstanding Variety Special (Live) prize at the Creative Emmy Awards on Sunday (09.09.18), and admitted it was a surreal moment for him and the team as when the original 1970 opera was staged he wasn't as well known.

He told the New York Post newspaper: "I never thought we'd get this award. Something I never expected. When we did the show originally, I wasn't well known. None of us were. Not producer Craig Zadan, whom we just lost, and whose dream it was, or lyricist Tim Rice who also got an Emmy."

Webber also admitted that he "hated" the Broadway version.

He added: "I loved this TV version. Thrilled NBC did it the way we wished it had been done 45 years ago. It was live and felt live - but I thought the Broadway production was loud and vulgar. What happened was the recordings became a hit in America before the show was really ready, and I hated it."

The 'Phantom of the Opera' composer says he plans on continuing his success with a live version of 'Cinderella' in the works, among other projects in the pipeline.

Asked how he can continue his greatness, he said: "Do something else I'm working on. Like a new version of Cinderella. I have projects on the shelf at home. And my movie of 'Cats' starts in a month."

'All of Me' hitmaker John too said he "never dreamed" he would join the elite group of stars to have won at all four major awards ceremonies.

On adding to his 10 Grammies, 2015 Oscar win for Best Original Song and the Tony he picked up in 2017 for co-producing 'Jitney', he said: "It's kind of surreal. It's something I never even thought about when I started my career. I probably wanted to win some GRAMMYs and sell a lot of records, and all that started happening pretty quickly, but I never dreamed that I would be here, winning an Emmy, and being in that rare group of people that have won all four of these major [awards]."