Andrew Lloyd Webber Wanted to Collaborate with This Songwriter on ‘The Phantom of the Opera’

Composer Andrew Lloyd Webber is known for his decades of work in musical theater, including beloved musicals from Jesus Christ Superstar to Cats. But one of his most famous works could’ve been completely different, lyrically speaking.

In the late 1970s, songwriter Jim Steinman was best known for his bombastic work with rock singer Meat Loaf, particularly the album Bat Out of Hell. After the album’s success, Steinman began working with other artists in the 1980s, most notably singer Bonnie Tyler. He worked as producer on her 1983 album Faster Than the Speed of Night, which spawned a huge hit with “Total Eclipse Of The Heart,” also written by Steinman. He also wrote, composed, and produced Barry Manilow’s 1983 hit “Read ‘Em and Weep.”

Steinman’s work caught the attention of Webber, who asked him to write the lyrics for the project he was working on at the time—The Phantom of the Opera. Webber liked Steinman’s “dark obsessive side” and felt it would suit the musical. But Steinman declined, as he had committed to once again work with Tyler at the time. Her album Secret Dreams and Forbidden Fire was released in 1986.

Steinman was a good choice of collaborator for Webber—his early work was in theater, and his music often had a theatrical feel.

“I spent the first seven years out of school doing nothing but theater,” he wrote on his website. “That’s what I was trained to do at school and that’s what I loved doing. All of the rock ‘n’ roll and pop music I’ve done since then has been very theatrical.”

Ultimately, Webber worked with Charles Hart and Richard Stilgoe on the lyrics for The Phantom of the Opera. It premiered in London’s West End and went on to become one of Webber’s biggest successes.

Steinman and Webber eventually did collaborate on the 1996 musical Whistle Down the Wind, based on the novel of the same name by Mary Hayley Bell and its 1961 film adaptation. It opened in Washington, D.C. in December 1996, and although it wasn’t a hit in the US, it enjoyed a successful run at the Aldwych theatre in London’s West End. A concept album was released in 1998, leading the song “No Matter What” to become a huge hit for Irish boyband Boyzone. The musical was later reworked as a new production called The Boys in the Photograph.

It wasn’t the only time Steinman’s lyrics would be featured in a musical, however—Bat Out of Hell was turned into a stage production in 2017.