Photo Flash: Glenn Close Chats with Andrew Lloyd Webber About His New Memoir, UNMASKED

Just last night, Andrew Lloyd Webber introduced his new memoir, Unmasked, in an exclusive literary event at The Town Hall. This program, the only one of its kind in the U.S., featured Lloyd Webber in conversation with the award-winning actress Glenn Close, who served as a special guest host for the evening.

This once-in-a-lifetime event celebrated the publication of Andrew Lloyd Webber's long-awaited autobiography, UNMASKED by HarperCollins, coinciding with the legendary composer's 70th birthday.

Written entirely in his own words, the internationally-acclaimed composer recounts his fascinating life and remarkable career in UNMASKED, pulling back the curtain on his groundbreaking musicals including Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat, Jesus Christ Superstar (making its network television debut on EasterSunday, April 1 on NBC and featuring John Legend, Sarah Bareilles and Alice Cooper), Evita, Cats, Phantom of the Opera, Sunset Boulevard and School of Rock.

With his signature humor and self-deprecating tone, Lloyd Webber shares the details of his early personal and professional years, including his early artistic influences. In UNMASKED, Lloyd Webber takes stock of his achievements, the twists of fate and circumstance which brought him both success and disappointment, and opens up about his personal demons and the passions that sustain him.

A six-time Academy Award nominee, Close won a TONY award for her portrayal of Norma Desmond in Webber's Sunset Boulevard, and won a London Evening Standard award for the London Coliseum production of the show in Spring 2016. She reprised the role this year at the Palace Theatre in New York.

A record of several exciting and turbulent decades of British and American musical theater and the transformation of popular music itself, UNMASKED is ultimately a chronicle of artistic creation. Lloyd Webber looks back at his early influences -- Rodgers and Hammerstein, the pop and rock music of the 1960s, Puccini's Tosca and the poetry of T.S. Eliot, among others - and takes us behind the scenes in the development of some of his most famous works. He details his collaborations with luminaries such as Tim Rice, Robert Stigwood, Harold Prince, Cameron Mackintosh, and Trevor Nunn, revealing fascinating details about each show and the creative, logistical and political battles involved in presenting them.

Photo Credit: Sachyn Mital