Andrew Lloyd Webber Discusses STEPHEN WARD History & Inspiration

Internationally celebrated composer Andrew Lloyd Webber discusses the impetus behind his new musical endeavor STEPHEN WARD and explains how the history of the period-set piece aligned with his own life as part of a new chat in honor of the premiere of a handful of songs from the score at a UK press launch earlier today.

Lloyd Webber says of the actual event as it happened in the late 1960s, "I was very young at the time. I remember the whole so-called Profumo Affair."

"I suppose I must have been suggested the idea as an idea for a musical many, many times, but I never thought it was a good one," Lloyd Webber asserts.

Continuing, Lloyd Webber says, "I thought I would research it a bit, and I looked into the story... I found it extraordinary, really."

As for the dramatic pull of the project: "A very odd, odd story in that: how could this man end up in the chamber of horrors at Madame Tussaud's?"

"It was sort of, in a way, the last gasp of the old establishment... to suppress something that they didn't want and to find a scapegoat, and that's what this show is really about," Lloyd Webber opines.

Concluding, Lloyd Webber reveals a spoiler of sorts: "We present it as it happened, if history somehow relays or feels the verdict was unsound or whatever, we end with Ward's suicide, so we probably say all that we need to say."

For a first listen to "Human Sacrifice" from STEPHEN WARD, just released, check out our coverage here.

STEPHEN WARD features music by Andrew Lloyd Webber, with book and lyrics by Don Black and Christopher Hampton as well as direction by Richard Eyre. The musical begins previews in the West End on December 3. For more information, check out a previous article on STEPHEN WARD here.

View the video of Andrew Lloyd Webber discussing STEPHEN WARD below.