I talked to Sir Tim Rice about working with Elton John, Andrew Lloyd Webber and Benny and Bjorn

Now he is entertaining audiences across the country with stories of how some of our favourite songs from the musicals came about and his collaborations with some of the world’s top composers including Sir Andrew Lloyd Webber, Sir Elton John, Alan Menken, Björn Ulvaeus and Benny Andersson.

“Over the years I had done quite a few shows like this, mainly for charity, and also on cruise liners,” explains Sir Tim. "The show features songs with my lyrics, most of which, I’m very happy to say, are quite well known. I would tell what I hoped were amusing and/or entertaining stories about how each song happened – and tales about the great composers with whom I wrote the songs – Andrew Lloyd Webber, Elton John, Alan Menken, Bjorn and Benny and one or two others. I was supported by a live band and four top class singers - two guys, two girls chosen by the Lion King musical director Duncan Waugh. It was tremendous fun. People just loved hearing about the songs they know and what the composers are like.” It was such a success that they decided to try it out “on the road”.

“We did a trial run of four dates in England in 2023 and they went pretty well. So, then last year we went for a proper tour and that went really well and now we are doing it again. I am doing 38 dates across England, Wales, Scotland, Northern Ireland and Ireland until 31 May.” My Life in Musicals – I Know Him So Well is at the Leeds Grand on May 18.

Songs from all of Sir Tom’s popular musicals are featured. So how did he choose from his massive song book which to include?

"The songs kind of choose themselves,” he admits. “If you are doing a greatest hits tour you’ve got to do the songs that people know. So there are around 20 songs that I think people will know. There a few lesser known ones. We do a song that Andrew and I wrote for Elvis Presley, and one I have just done with Gary Barlow but by and large you will get the hits and they all have a story behind them going right back to the first things I wrote with Andrew.

The hit duo met in 1965 when Tim was 19 and a ‘failing law student’.

“I was trying to be a pop singer on the side. No luck there. One of my tapes got picked up by a music publisher who loved the songs but didn’t like the singer which was a bit disappointing. But one of the songs got recorded and so that made me think that if I had any ability it was in writing songs rather than performing them. The through a strange strong of event I met Andrew who was doing a similar thing but he was doing it for musical theatre which really wasn’t my scene – I was trying to be Mick Jagger and hew as trying to be Rogers and Hammerstein – but the combination worked. We did have similar tastes but I never thought I would end up in musicals and I don’t think Andrew ever thought he’d bein the pop charts.”

He recalls that no producer wanted to stage their first musical, Jesus Christ Superstar, party because it was “too rocky and mainly because it was about Jesus and they thought that was appalling.”

"They weren’t offended but they thought a lot of people would be. We kept saying that it wasn’t really about Jesus it was about Judas and people’s reactions to Jesus, but we couldn’t get a staging of it,” says Sir Tim. “Thank goodness we didn’t because what we did get was a record and the record in America was a massive hit which then spawned the Broadway show and then that in turn lead to shows around the world. Also by 1970 audience in the theatre had adjusted to rock.”

So which comes first the lyrics or the tune?

“Most composers like to get the tune first and the lyrics usually follow – Andrew is like that. Whereas Elton likes the lyrics first and then composes the tune. But more important than either of those is the story,” says Sir Tim.

“"The best musicals have the best stories. That’s the key, everything hangs on that. There are exceptions such as Cats, but they are rare. Look at Oliver! It's an immortal story, and Lionel Bart was thus inspired to write wonderful songs. If you tell a good tale it makes it easier to write words, I’ve never been good at writing one-off pop songs because I like to have a character in a certain situation. All of the songs that have gone on to become hits were pop hits second and part of a musical first.

"Elton is the only composer at that level when I had to do the words first my words for the Lion King movie had to be part of the storyline but the key thing was we had a great story – Hamlet with fur. It was such a strong story that it inspired my lyrics and that in turn inspired Elton.”

However, it meant that Tim often came up with a very different tune to Elton.

"I had to make sure that the lyric would actually sing and so when I wrote say, Can You Feel the Love Tonight. I thought I’d try it out first. I can play three or four chords on the piano. I’d play a tune which I’d made up and I sent it off to Elton as I knew the words were singable. Then a tune would come back which more no resemblance to my efforts.

"I remember getting Can You Feel The Love Tonight and I thought after two bars well I’m not sure my little tune wasn’t better, after about four bars I thought his tune is a lot better than mine and then after eight bars I thought his tune is better than nearly every other tune I’ve ever worked with and it turned out to be a massive hit."

He says the longevity of the musical genre is partly down to its predictability.

"People know what they are going to get. They want to hear songs they grew up with or songs that mean something personal to them and musicals can do that but you have to have a good story. Mama Mia worked because the songs were brilliant but you could find a song to fit most situations – the story was written around the songs and it worked.”

As well as his tour, he has jst finished writing some more songs with Andrew Lloyd Webber for a comedy - Sherlock Holmes and the 12 days of Christmas. “ It’s a very funny play featuring Holmes and Watson on the trail of a serial killer who is knocking people off in Victorian London theatreland inspired by the well-known Christmas song, The 12 days of Christmas. It’s not actually a musical, but a play with a few songs. I’m also working on a book of my collected lyrics. It’ll be nice to get it out for Christmas 2025 but it clashes with the ashes in Australia.

Tickets for Sir Tim Rice’s show, My Life in Musicals – I Know Him So Well are on sale now and can be purchased from www.sirtimricelive.com