'Dear Andrew, I'm told you're looking for a with it writer of lyrics for your songs.'
That letter, from a young, aspiring lyric writer called Tim Rice to an even younger and more ambitious composer called Andrew Lloyd Webber, sparked a musical relationship that would take London's West End and New York's Broadway by storm.
At nineteen, Andrew Lloyd Webber, with Rice providing the words, created Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat, a short musical that had such strong songs it could still become a smash hit at the London Palladium twenty years later.
Even when the two split up as a team, the Andrew Lloyd Webber musical machine continued to deliver the goods.
How has he been able to sustain this track record of success, which has earned him a fortune and a knighthood? In The Musicals of Andrew Lloyd Webber, Keith Richmond tells the story of his life and his works, which give clues to the man, this obsessive perfectionist whose first stage productions were for a toy theatre in his parent's home.
Illustrated with images from the shows on and offstage, shots of the stars who performed them and photographs from Andrew Lloyd Webber's career, this is a book for every fan who has applauded his skill and cheered the curtain calls for one or all of his musicals.