Andrew Lloyd Webber has donated a rare handwritten musical score from his acclaimed musical Sunset Boulevard to help raise money for victims of the Los Angeles wildfires.
The manuscript is a unique memento of the musical he composed based on the Oscar-winning 1950s film, directed by Billy Wilder, that follows Norma Desmond (Gloria Swanson), a faded star of the silent screen era living in her decaying mansion in Los Angeles.
Lloyd Webber’s donation is part of an Art Relief Los Angeles fundraiser for those who lost their homes in the fatal wildfires that broke out in January. An estimated 10,000 homes were destroyed and thousands of residents were displaced.
A friend of the Tony Award-winning star told The Independent: “Andrew was incredibly moved by the terrible tragedy of so many people losing their homes and so was delighted to make a contribution to help them”.
The score, which is expected to fetch more than $2,500 (£1,970) at auction, features the opening verse of the musical’s title song, which goes: “Sure I came out here to make my name / Wanted my pool, my dose of fame.”
Below the composition is Lloyd Webber’s hand-signed signature.
Lloyd Webber’s decorated musical Sunset Boulevard premiered in 1993 and has since become one of Lloyd Webber’s most celebrated works, having won seven Tony Awards and seven Olivier Awards. The music has become known for capturing the allure and disillusionment of the Hollywood entertainment industry, with the musical’s oeuvre known for its dramatic intensity and signature title song.
Glenn Close played the lead role in the Broadway cast of the smash hit stage show, and won a Tony Award for her performance. She reprised the role in a Broadway revival over 20 years later. Most recently, Nicole Scherzinger starred in a West End production.
Gilbert and George, the award-winning London art duo, and Jonathan Yeo, whose portrait of King Charles reinvented royal portraiture with a butterfly and a dramatic red background, have also contributed art to the sale that opened its online bidding last week and will close on 6 March.
More than 40 artworks in total have been donated for sale by leading artists including Australian sculptor Jake Clark, British mixed-media artist and rug maker Teddy Hansen, Greek painter Stella Kapezanou, Vienna-based painter Kottie Paloma and London-based visual artist Adam Dix, with participating galleries including Clearing Gallery, Obsolete Inc and Fernberger.
Art Relief LA was organised by Sympact, a British social and environmental impact consultancy, and the online art auctioneer Artsy. The total 100 hammer price will be received by benefiting charities Grief and Hope and the Centre for Disaster Philanthropy.
Sympact’s Chief Business Officer, Serafina Kerr-Parkinson, said: “The generosity of artists brilliantly helps connect much needed funds to relief for those in need after this awful natural tragedy in California. We created Art Relief to give artists a way of contributing directly to disaster relief through the work they imagine and make.”
Art Relief is an ongoing initiative by Sympact to provide disaster relief, having previously raised over $250,000 in support of the National Academy of Arts of Ukraine in 2023. The LA relief sale is also estimated to realise a six-figure sum.
You can find more information about Art Relief Los Angeles here.
