Andrew Lloyd Webber loses £20m due to coronavirus closures

Andrew Lloyd Webber is expected to take a £20 million hit to his fortune as a result of the coronavirus crisis, according to the Sunday Times Rich List.

The 72-year-old composer stands to lose millions of pounds due to the closure of his theatres in the West End and on Broadway, the compilers of the list have calculated.

He has also had to delay the London opening of his musical Cinderella, scripted by Killing Eve’s Emerald Fennell, as a result of the pandemic.

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However, he still tops the list of wealthiest musicians along with Sir Paul McCartney, 77, with a calculated wealth of £800m. Lord Lloyd-Webber’s LW Theatres showed assets of £63m in 2018/19, with the separate Really Useful Group Investments making profits of £7m on turnover of £61.4m.

Andrew Lloyd Webber poses during a photocall for Cats at London Palladium. Picture: Photo by Anthony Harvey/Getty ImagesAndrew Lloyd Webber poses during a photocall for Cats at London Palladium. Picture: Photo by Anthony Harvey/Getty Images
Andrew Lloyd Webber poses during a photocall for Cats at London Palladium. Picture: Photo by Anthony Harvey/Getty Images

He topped the list alone last year, with a fortune of £820m.

The Beatle’s wealth has increased year on year, up from £750m last year, aided by 29 concerts, which took more than $100m (£92.4m) at the box office.

Sir Paul also released a chart-topping album Egypt Station and his first children’s book Hey Grandude!, which topped the New York Times bestsellers chart in 2019.

Barbadian singer Rihanna has joined the ranks of Britain’s super-rich as a new entry on the list in third place.

Now based in London, the 32-year-old she has amassed a fortune of £468m thanks to the success of her cosmetics and fashion brand Fenty, for which she has partnered with luxury goods powerhouse LWMH, and other commercial interests.

The cosmetics brand, launched in 2017, generated $570m (£527m) in its first 15 months and is valued at €3 billion (£2.8bn), making Rihanna’s reported 15% per cent stake worth £352m.

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She has parachuted into the list ahead of Sir Elton John, whose farewell tour has seen his wealth boosted by £40m in a year to £360m, putting him fourth on the list.

Robert Watts, who compiles the list, said: “Rihanna typifies the seismic change we’ve seen in the Rich List in recent years.

“Once dominated by inherited wealth, the bulk of our 1,000 entries are now self-made people with modest and even troubled starts in life who are driven to work exceptionally hard.

“Still only 32, if Rihanna remains based in the UK she could well pip Sir Paul McCartney and Lord Lloyd-Webber to be the Sunday Times Rich List’s first billionaire musician.

“Touring remains the big earner for many of the stadium-filling acts on our musicians’ list. But the Covid outbreak has wrecked concert plans and so we expect the wealth of many of these musicians will flatline over the coming year. Rolling Stone Sir Mick Jagger is in fifth place on the list with £285m.

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