My musical life, which came as surprise to me

LYRICIST Sir Tim Rice has written the words of some of the best-known musical hits of the last few decades.

The 80-year-old Hambleden resident and long-time musical partner to Andrew Lloyd Webber will be talking about some of these tunes and regaling the audience with behind-the-scenes stories when his bestselling show, “Tim Rice – My Life In Musicals: I Know Him So Well” goes on tour, starting next Friday at the Hexagon in Reading.

The show includes songs such as Don’t Cry For Me Argentina from Evita, Any Dream Will Do from Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat, I Don’t Know How to Love Him from Jesus Christ Superstar, A Whole New World from Aladdin, Can You Feel The Love Tonight from The Lion King, I Know Him So Well from Chess and many more.

One of Sir Tim’s famous musicals, Evita, even featured a future sports star. “There was a lot of children who sang a song called Santa Evita, it’s a hymn when Evita’s following was almost becoming religious in some areas,” he says. “So, on stage we had children back in the Seventies and one of the children singing was Lawrence Dallaglio, would you believe, the rugby player, who was in a children’s choir when he was very young.

“I met him many years later and he said ‘Oh, I was in Evita’ and I thought, really, were you playing Che Guevara? Anyway – lovely guy, great rugby player and obviously a brilliant singer.”

Sir Tim is looking forward to touring, along with the Duncan Waugh Band and singers from the West End, including Shona Daly.

“I played Reading and indeed High Wycombe last year and I’m glad to say the locals turned out.

“It’s really me chatting about the songs that I’ve been lucky enough to do, to have worked with people over the years or written.

“There’s quite a bit about the composers I’ve worked with, Andrew and Elton and Alan Menken and Björn and Benny in particular.

“It’s a ramble through 50, 60 years of getting caught up in a musical swirl, which I never thought I would get caught up in until I’d been in it about 15 years, and I thought ‘Hang on, this is my job. What am I doing here, when will it all end?’”

Having started his working life as a lawyer, Sir Tim always knew that music was his first love. “I did go briefly to a university in Paris on a course and then went into law, which was a complete disaster, for me and also for the company I worked for. Eventually it dawned on me after two years of getting nowhere that I really should be in the music business.

“By then I had met Andrew and was writing stuff with him, but I never thought that was going to be particularly successful. I thought Andrew was very good but I couldn’t really see why we should have hits rather than anybody else.

“In the end, that worked out and so that became my career.”

Together, the duo created musicals including Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat, Jesus Christ Superstar and Evita. Sir Tim worked with Benny Andersson and Björn Ulvaeus of ABBA on the musical Chess.

“Chess is a strange one,” he says. “It’s done very well on record and it did well in the London production.

“It’s never been a hit show in America, other than productions in Moose Droppings, Arkansas and obscure places, but we are bringing it back to Broadway this November, so there’s a chance we might get a Broadway hit.

“It’s quite interesting, many actors and actresses come up to me and say very nice things like ‘I love your work’ and all that, which may or may not be true, but a lot of them say ‘My favourite work of yours is Chess’. I think, well, they must be a sort of fan because Chess is not an obvious one to have as your favourite. Perhaps it’s a generational thing. I think the score, talking about the music, is phenomenal, there’s not really a bad tune in it.

“One Night in Bangkok was a huge hit in America on record, it got to number 3 in the singles charts. When it was on American radio quite a lot, you’d hear it occasionally and the DJ would always say ‘Well, I love that record but I don’t know what it’s all about’. It’s about one night in Bangkok!”

Sir Tim also collaborated with Sir Elton John on the score for the 1994 film The Lion King. “Elton was great, I never had any tantrums or tiaras with him. I didn’t see an awful lot of him because he was on the road all the time and he doesn’t ever write a tune unless he’s got some words. So I would write the words for The Lion King to begin with and my lyrics had to fit the script, which was also being created. Once everybody agreed that my words were okay, I would then send them off to Elton, who might be in Colombia, or Timbuktu or whatever, and pretty quickly, I would get a tune back, in those days it was usually on cassette, then he would send it on CDs and towards the end of our working partnership – which may not have ended, I don’t know – it was obviously emails and everything.

“I didn’t therefore spend much time with him in a room writing a song, although I did witness Circle of Life being written in a studio. He was very cooperative and very gifted, obviously.”

Sir Tim loves living in the Hambleden area. “I get the Henley Standard regularly and I get tiny little publications which are great, like the Hambleden one.

“It’s a great part of the world to live in and there’s a lot of showbiz people in this part of the world. The film director Sam Mendes lives up the road.

“It’s a very pretty village and it’s often featured in films and things like Father Brown or an Agatha Christie thing or in the olden days Midsomer Murders.

“Somebody who is really observant would think, well, hang on, this Midsomer murder is taking place exactly where Morse did something, or whatever, or Father Brown. Disney once took over the whole village, all the houses were turned into magic shops and things.”

Sir Tim was a special guest at Mike Hurst’s show in September, raising funds for Parkinson’s research. “Last year, we had Cat Stevens, Shakin’ Stevens – who are not related, as far as I know – and Mike d’Abo who is a very old friend of mine and the Manfred Mann man and he was brilliant, and Colin Blunstone of the Zombies.

“These are all people that Mike has produced over the years. He was also a great singer with Dusty Springfield in The Springfields. It’s a great show for people who like Boom Radio and the oldies and all that. It’s coming back on September 6th and 7th.”

Preparing for the musical tour, Sir Tim has been pleasantly surprised revisiting his back catalogue.

“Before the first show of the tour, I thought, well, I don’t really want to hear Don’t Cry for Me Argentina again because I’ve heard it a lot.

“To hear it while sitting at the back of the stage, while Shona Daly, who’s a wonderful singer, sang it live, I actually thought I’m really enjoying this song for the first time for years, so that brought me back to liking Don’t Cry for Me Argentina.

“I always liked it but it was nice to hear it interpreted so well. Obviously the original by Julie Covington and then Elaine Page, the first person to do it live, they were great performers and it’s a great honour for me and indeed for Andrew that these people sing the song.”

There will be some ad-libbing as well as polished performances. “I introduce each song in turn and I never quite know what I’m going to say.

“I talk about the composer, how the song was written, maybe I talk about some bad versions of the song that didn’t make it. “I don’t have a script, I don’t read from a teleprompter. I think the disadvantage is that I sometimes forget what I’m going to say or I ramble off in a different direction but the singers love it, they say ‘It’s great because we actually listen to what you’re going to say because we don’t know what you’re going to say’.”

Tim Rice – My Life In Musicals: I Know Him So Well Tour is at the Hexagon in Queen Street, Reading, on Friday, April 11 at 7.30pm (tickets cost £40.50), at the New Theatre Oxford on Thursday, May 15 at 7.30pm (tickets cost from £29.50) and at the Wycombe Swan in St Mary Street, High Wycombe, on Saturday, May 24 at 7.30pm (tickets cost £40.50).

For more information, visit whatsonreading.com/timrice2025, www.atgtickets.com or trafalgartickets.com