Andrew Lloyd Webber and Tim Rice, who previously collaborated on musicals such as Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat and Jesus Christ Superstar, are reuniting to write new songs for Lloyd Webber's upcoming stage adaptation of The Wizard of Oz. They will be adding songs for characters like the witches who previously did not have songs. The musical is scheduled to open in February 2011 at the London Palladium.

1. London | Andrew Lloyd Webber & Tim Rice Reunite to Pen New Songs for The Wizard of Oz 2/21/12 12:27 PM
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Andrew Lloyd Webber & Tim Rice Reunite to Pen New
Songs for The Wizard of Oz
LONDON BUZZ By Broadway.com Staff July 21, 2010 - 10:15AM Tweet 0
After a 34-year “break,” celebrated musical
collaborators Andrew Lloyd Webber and Tim
Rice are reuniting to write new songs for Lloyd
Webber’s planned stage adaptation of The
Wizard of Oz. In an interview published in
London’s Mail, Lloyd Webber revealed the
forthcoming collaboration, asserting, “We’ve
always been close over the years; it’s just that
we’ve never found anything that we wanted to
do.”
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Lloyd Webber wrote the music and Rice the WIZARD OF OZ
lyrics for the hit musicals Joseph and the Overview
Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat, Jesus Christ Cast & Creative
Andrew Lloyd Webber Superstar and Evita. They split before Lloyd
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ABOUT THE SHOW Webber tackled the megahit musical Cats (with
lyrics from T.S. Eliot poems) and Rice joined ABBA’s Benny Andersson
Overview
Cast & Creative and Bjorn Ulvaeus to write lyrics for Chess. In recent years, Rice has
contributed lyrics to Disney musicals such as The Lion King and Aida,
which earned a dismissive comment from Lloyd Webber in the
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interview: “I don’t think I could write songs for…cartoons.”
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“The fact is that The Wizard of Oz has never really worked in the Musical Superstar Michael Crawford
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nothing for either of the two witches to sing. Tim and I are doing London Cast Recording of The Wizard Of Oz,
quite a specific thing, because we know what’s missing.” Starring Michael Crawford, Gets June Release
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Displaying his ever-present dry humor, Lloyd Webber expressed a Hannah Waddingham, Wicked Witch of
serenity about sitting down at the piano again with the man who London's Oz, on Not Playing Elphaba and More
helped him get his start in the theater. "Will it work? We’ll see. Will
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2. London | Andrew Lloyd Webber & Tim Rice Reunite to Pen New Songs for The Wizard of Oz 2/21/12 12:27 PM
we shout at each other? I don’t think we’ll do that.”
SEE ALSO: London Buzz | Wizard of Oz
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