TIM RICE
Lyricist
Tim Rice (Lyrics) was born in 1944. He began song writing in 1965 in which year the first song he wrote ‘That’s My Story’ (tune as well as words) was recorded by a rock group called the Nightshift whose career never recovered. That same year he met fellow budding songwriter Andrew Lloyd Webber whose musical ambitions were in theatre rather than rock or pop. They teamed up and wrote four musicals together from 1965 – 1978. The first, The Likes of Us (1965-6) was performed for the first time in 2005 and became available on CD a mere 40 years after its creation. The other three, Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat (1968), Jesus Christ Superstar (1969-71) and Evita (1976-78) were more immediate successes. Feeling certain that they could never top this lot, the pair went their separate ways in the early eighties, whereupon ALW immediately topped that lot with Cats. Tim Rice then wrote Blondel (1983), a mediaeval romp, with Stephen Oliver, which ran for a year in London but not for long anywhere else. This was followed in 1986 by Chess, in collaboration with ABBA’s Bjorn Ulvaeus and Benny Andersson. Chess had a healthy run in the West End but flopped on Broadway in 1988, the New York Times bloke being particularly forceful in his disapproval. In 1989 Tim translated the famous French musical Starmania (by Michel Berger and Luc Plamondon) into English, which resulted in a number one album – in France. In the nineties he worked primarily and happily with the Disney empire, contributing lyrics to the movies Aladdin (music Alan Menken) and The Lion King, (music Elton John and Hans Zimmer) and to the stage shows Beauty and the Beast (Alan Menken), The Lion King and Aida (both Sir Elton). Between Disney commitments he wrote the words for Cliff Richard’s theatrical blockbuster Heathcliff (music John Farrar), which toured the UK in 1995-96. He is currently reworking an operatic musical he has written with Alan Menken (King David), and on new treatments, for both stage and screen, of Chess, the New York Times bloke having been replaced. In 2007 he wrote the lyrics for 8 songs with music by Tchaikovsky, for the film Nutcracker - The Untold Story, to be released towards the end of 2008. He has just completed a new stage work about the life of Machiavelli. Since 1991 he has been the Chairman of the Foundation for Sport and the Arts which has distributed over £100 million to sporting and artistic causes. He has won a variety of awards, mainly for the wrong things, or for simply turning up. He lives in London, Cornwall and on the motorway between the two, has three children, his own cricket team and a knighthood.