Andrew Lloyd Webber has written candidly about his final moments with his late son, Nicholas, who died earlier this year.
The musical theatre composer announced in March that his son, a fellow musician, had died at the age of 43, having been diagnosed with gastric cancer 18 months earlier.
In a piece for the New York Times, the Phantom Of The Opera creator recalled his final moments with his son, when he paid Nicholas a visit in the hospice where he was being cared for.
He wrote: “‘Here’s one for you,’ said Nick, laughing. He had surmised that, after bulletins from New York, his father, as [20th century humourist P.G.] 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,” he added. “My son died. Nothing’s worse for a parent than the death of a child.”
Over the course of his career, Nick Lloyd Webber provided the score for a stage adaptation of The Little Prince, as well as the 2021 film The Last Bus, starring Phyllis Logan and Timothy Spall.
He also penned the songs in the stage musical version of Kay Mellor’s hit drama Fat Friends, and last year landed a Grammy nomination for his production work on the soundtrack album to the 2021 musical Cinderella.
A revised version of Cinderella opened its doors on Broadway, under the new name Bad Cinderella, last month.