Lord Andrew Lloyd Webber has opened up on his final moments with his son Nick in an emotional essay for the The New York Times penned just days after his death from gastric cancer aged 43.
The revered musical composer, 75, began by referencing the day before his record producer son passed away, writing: “’An apple a day, if well aimed, keeps the doctor away.’ I was speaking in P.G. Wodehouse quotes with my eldest son, Nick, who was in hospice, where he was being treated for cancer just days ago.’
He continued: ‘”Here’s one for you,” said Nick, laughing. He had surmised that, after bulletins from New York, his father, as Wodehouse might have put it, was less than gruntled.
“’Has anybody ever seen a dramatic critic in the daytime? Of course not. They come out after dark, up to no good.’ We hugged and said our goodbyes.
“The next day, my son died. Nothing’s worse for a parent than the death of a child.”
Professionally, it was the end of an era on Sunday when his hit musical Phantom of the Opera closed after 35 years on Broadway. He dedicated the final performance to his son.
Lloyd Webber – whose catalogue of shows also includes Cats, Joseph and the Amazing Techni Colour Dream Coat, Jesus Christ Superstar and latest offering Bad Cinderella – went on to say that it felt “wrong in his bones” to write about Broadway just days after the death of his son, but reasoned that he owed “everything” to his love of the theatre.
The dad-of-five concluded his piece by noting “this has been a season of goodbyes, personal and public.”
