Lloyd Webber to get ‘lifetime’ Tony

Andrew Lloyd Webber is to receive a lifetime achievement award at the 2018 Tony Awards.

The British composer said: “I am completely overwhelmed to be honoured by the Broadway community at the Tonys, particularly at the time when musicals are flying higher in their spiritual home New York than they have for two generations.”

Lord Lloyd-webber, 70, has previously won seven Tony Awards, which honour theatre professionals for distinguished achievements on Broadway.

His award haul also includes seven Oliviers, a Golden Globe, an Oscar and a Grammy Award.

He is the only composer to have equalled Rodgers and Hammerstein’s 1953 record of having four shows running concurrently on Broadway.

In February 2017, his shows Sunset Boulevard, School of Rock – The Musical, Cats and Phantom Of The Opera all ran at the same time.

The other recipient of the 2018 lifetime achievement award will be actress Chita Rivera.

Rivera, 85, has won two Tony Awards as Best Leading Actress in a Musical, and has been nominated on eight other occasions.

She rose to fame as Anita in the original Broadway premiere of West Side Story and she featured in the original casts of Guys And Dolls, Cancan and Seventh Heaven.