Celebrity Interview – Sir Tim Rice
By Steve Orme
‘Think of the greatest songwriting duos of all time and you’ll probably come up with Gilbert and Sullivan, Rodgers and Hammerstein, Lennon and McCartney, and maybe even Burt Bacharach and Hal David. Among that list must surely come Tim Rice and Andrew Lloyd Webber.’
Sir Tim Rice has had a stellar career, collaborating also with the likes of ABBA’s Benny Andersson and Björn Ulvaeus, Elton John and Alan Menken as well as writing the lyrics for several pop songs.
Now Tim is on the road with his show My Life In Musicals – I Know Him So Well which will stop off in both Buxton and Nottingham. So what’s it about?
“It’s basically me telling the story of various shows and songs I’ve been involved with over the years. They’re sung beautifully and dynamically by a team of singers with a very nice band.
“It’s all the hits and a few flops. So you’ve got everything from Don’t Cry For Me Argentina to songs from Chess, Jesus Christ Superstar and a lot of Walt Disney stuff including The Lion King.
“I think most people who come will know most of the songs. I do fling in one or two that people might not know but only one or two because in all honesty people come to hear the songs they know and love.”
Tim started doing the show for charities. In the first instance it was 45 minutes long. Then an independent production company approached Tim and suggested he should do a commercial tour.
“I used to joke that it saves you going to see the shows – you can just hear the best bits and see six or seven shows at once. People love hearing the stories behind the songs, how Don’t Cry For Me Argentina was written and what the original version of one or two of the hits was.
“The show is light-hearted and you do get some very good performances of the songs.”
It may surprise you to know that Tim does a little bit of singing himself.
“I illustrate one rather bad version of a well-known hit song before it had the lyrics that made it a hit. I sing the original version which is really quite funny. It wasn’t meant to be funny at the time but in retrospect it certainly is. And I join in the odd thing occasionally but the audience don’t really want to hear me sing too much.”
The show ends with a song from Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat, the catchy Any Dream Will Do, which gets the audience singing along.
“I’m flattered that they all know the song. The audience tend to do the “ah, ah-ah” which is the only bit that I didn’t write!” he laughs. “It’s a singalong and everybody has a good time.”
The tour of My Life In Musicals – I Know Him So Well goes on until the end of this month. Tim’s family – he has four children and seven grandchildren – weren’t pleased with such a punishing schedule – 38 dates in seven weeks. But the 80-year-old is relishing being on the road.
“I know I’m a bit insane actually. I should have sat down with the producers and said I don’t think I really want to do Scotland the day after Cornwall. If I’m in a fairly comfy car being driven or even going by aeroplane, it’s not too bad. I’ll get through it.
“But I think if I do another tour after this one, I would probably say it’s going to be fewer dates and the venues will be geographically planned.”
Timothy Miles Bindon Rice was born on 10 November 1944 in Amersham in Buckinghamshire. He was educated at three independent schools, leaving Lancing College with A-levels in history and French. He began working as a trainee solicitor for a law firm in London before joining EMI Records.
Tim had an idea for a book on the history of the pop charts and took it to a literary agent. The agent suggested Tim, then aged 20, should meet a 17-year-old who wanted to write for the theatre and needed someone to come up with lyrics for his tunes. That young man was Andrew Lloyd Webber.
Their first joint effort wasn’t a success but then Lloyd Webber received a commission from a London school to write a Bible story set to pop music. The pair agreed to give it a shot and produced a 20-minute version of Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat.
Among the parents in the audience was Derek Jewell from the Sunday Times who praised the performance as “irresistible”. Then Decca Records came knocking with an offer to turn the piece into an album.
Joseph was the first of Tim and Andrew’s collaborations that started life as a concept album before becoming a commercial theatre piece. In 1972 a director took it to the Edinburgh Festival and it became a big hit with an adult audience.
“That gradually led to it becoming the huge commercial behemoth it is today. It just goes on and on. I feel this is very important: because the lyrics are quite sophisticated, adults like it as well. That I think is the secret of Joseph: it appeals to different generations, so parents don’t mind taking their kids to it three times.”
Tim and Andrew followed Joseph with Jesus Christ Superstar – again it started as a concept album – which ran in the West End for eight years.
Its success was due to their blending symphony orchestra, soul, gospel, rock and blues.
“Andrew was more theatre, I was more rock ‘n’ roll,” says Tim. “I think the combination and the respect we had for the other one’s taste worked for Superstar.”
Evita followed before the duo began to work on separate projects. Tim met Benny and Björn from ABBA which led to the show Chess and its most well-known songs I Know Him So Well and One Night In Bangkok. Then the Disney organisation signed Tim as a lyricist for a project that turned into The Lion King. His collaborator on that musical: Elton John. Working with him was “great”, says Tim.
“When we were actually writing, I hardly saw him because he was on the road and I was sending him stuff in the post or whatever it was in those days. Two or three days later he would send back a demo of him singing the song. The process was very straightforward and that was terrific.”
Disney also asked Tim to work with Alan Menken on the animated film Aladdin. Their song A Whole New World won an Oscar in 1992.
Tim says he enjoys working with collaborators who all bring their own style to a project: “I’ve had the good fortune to work with some of the greatest composers of our time. I’ve got a soft spot for Andrew because that’s how we got going. Working with Elton was fantastic. I’ve done the odd song here and there with Mike Batt (A Winter’s Tale sung by David Essex), Burt Bacharach and one or two others. It’s been a great pleasure working with them.
“I think the key is you’ve got to be a fan. You can’t write with somebody who you think isn’t a good tunesmith. And I’m sure the reverse is true – they wouldn’t want to write with somebody thinking their beautiful tune was going to be slaughtered by some rotten lyrics.”
Tim has contributed to soundtracks including All Time High for the Bond film Octopussy and has written the lyrics for songs performed by artists including Sarah Brightman, Michael Crawford, Freddie Mercury, Elvis Presley and the group 10cc.
Tim and Andrew have teamed up again to write the songs for a new play, Sherlock Holmes And The Twelve Days Of Christmas which will have its premiere in November at Birmingham Rep.
“It’s not a musical as such – it’s a comedy and we’re supplying a few songs. It works as a play. It doesn’t necessarily need the songs because it’s very funny. It’s a light-hearted piece so the songs are quite jolly.”
Tim thinks the key thing for any musical is to be a good story. So what does he want to achieve when he’s writing a new song? “I just want it to be good. You just want it to strike a chord with the potential audience, that’s all. In my case, it’s primarily to entertain.”
When the tour of My Life In Musicals – I Know Him So Well ends, Tim says he thinks he’ll have a good kip!
He’ll also renew his passion for cricket. He founded his own team, Heartaches, in south Oxfordshire in 1973. But he rarely plays these days. He also tries to go from his home near Henley-on-Thames to Lord’s two or three times a year to see top-class cricket.
In August he’ll be going to Los Angeles to see British actress and singer Cynthia Erivo in a controversial production of Jesus Christ Superstar in which she will take the lead role.
Tim was knighted by Queen Elizabeth II in 1994, was inducted into the Songwriters’ Hall of Fame five years later and in 2008 his star was placed on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. He is one of only 21 people – the list also includes Andrew Lloyd Webber, Elton John and Alan Menken – to become EGOTs: winners of the four major awards in North America, Emmy, Grammy, Oscar and Tony.
Despite that he remains charming, engaging and approachable as well as hugely talented. Even though I spoke to him for only a short time, I really feel as though I know him so well.
My Life In Musicals – I Know Him So Well will be at Buxton Opera House on Tuesday 6 May and the Theatre Royal, Nottingham on Wednesday 7 May.
Steve Orme
