Andrew Lloyd Webber has announced the death of his eldest son Nicholas Lloyd Webber from gastric cancer.
“I am shattered to have to announce that my beloved elder son Nick died a few hours ago in Basingstoke Hospital. His whole family is gathered together and we are all totally bereft. Thank you for all your thoughts during this difficult time.”
The son’s illness was disclosed earlier this week by Lloyd Webber when the composer announced that he would miss the Broadway opening of his latest musical Bad Cinderella in order to remain by a hospitalized Nicholas. Andrew Lloyd Webber turned 75 on the night of the March 22 opening.
Nicholas Lloyd Webber was 43 and had recently been moved from hospital to hospice care.
In the earlier message, Andrew Lloyd Webber wrote, “I want to thank you for the outpouring of messages of support for my son, Nick. He’s now been moved into a hospice and he’s battling away,” he said in the video. “I think he’s over the worst of this first bout of pneumonia that he’s got as a result of his cancer, which is just ghastly. We’re all here and the family here has gathered around, and it was the right place for us all to be I think. I’m going to go see Nick in a minute and I’m going to pass on all of the fantastic wishes that I’ve had for him from everywhere all around the world.”
Nicholas, the son of Lloyd Webber and first wife Sarah Hugill, was a Grammy-nominated composer, scoring and co-producing the original London Cinderella cast album in 2021. Nicholas also scored the film The Last Bus (2021), directed by Gillies McKinnon and starring Timothy Spall and Phyllis Logan.
Nicholas also scored the BBC 1 drama Love, Lies and Records, among other projects. (Deadline)