Days after Andrew Lloyd Webber announced he would miss Bad Cinderella‘s Broadway opening, the composer shared the news that his eldest son Nicholas Lloyd Webber died. He was 43.
Nicholas, who was also a composer, died Saturday at Basingstoke hospital in Hampshire, England after an 18-month battle with gastric cancer.
“I am shattered to have to announce that my beloved elder son Nick died a few hours ago in Basingstoke Hospital,” Andrew wrote on Twitter. “His whole family is gathered together and we are all totally bereft.”
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Nicholas was born in July 1979 to Andrew and his ex-wife Sarah Hugill. Andrew’s eldest son followed in his footsteps, though he was a bit self-conscious at first.
“For a long time, I dropped the Lloyd bit to see what the reaction would be,” Nicholas told The Telegraph in November 2011.
After he found some success, Nicholas realized he had it in him to become a composer and producer just like his father.
“Then I thought, ‘Hang on, if other people are prepared to work with me without the surname, then maybe I should just get on with it.’ “
Not only did he score BBC One’s Love, Lies and Records, a theatrical version of “The Little Prince”, but he worked alongside his father on “Andrew Lloyd Webber’s Cinderella,” which earned the two a Grammy nomination in 2022.
News of Nicholas’ death came days after Andrew shared with fans that his son “been moved into a hospice.”
“He’s battling away. I think he’s over the worst of this first bout of pneumonia he’s got as a result of his cancer, which is just ghastly,” the Broadway legend shared. “But we’re all here, and the family here has gathered around. It was the right place for us all to be.”
He expressed his sorrow for not being with the cast of Bad Cinderella on their opening night, “but my place is really here in England at the moment.”
My heart goes out to the family at this extremely difficult time. Words will not bring Nicholas back, but I hope they are comforted in knowing so many people are praying for them.
