Oh, What a Circus: The Autobiography

by Tim Rice

With wit and candour, Tim Rice describes the gilded path that took him from cricket and comic-obsessed schoolboy to one of the world's best-known lyricists. Along the way he worked as a petrol pump attendant and articled clerk before becoming a management trainee at EMI. But it was his fateful meeting with Andrew Lloyd Webber in 1965 which was to be the turning-point in Tim's career. Immediate fortune didn't follow and it took the album of Jesus Christ Superstar to reach no.1 in the States before they were taken seriously. Covering every aspect of his life until his marriage to Jane McIntosh and the opening of the stage production of Evita, this is an engaging and fascinating autobiography.

Genres: Nonfiction, Biography

456 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1998

About the author

Sir Timothy Miles Bindon "Tim" Rice, KBE, is an English lyricist, and author.

An Academy Award, Golden Globe Award, Tony Award and Grammy Award-winning lyricist, Rice is best known for his collaborations with Andrew Lloyd Webber, with whom he wrote Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat, Jesus Christ Superstar and Evita, and his work for The Walt Disney Company with Alan Menken (Aladdin), Elton John (The Lion King and Aida).

Reviews

[Meg]

It was interesting to see how some of the best musicals ever written came to life. But WOW the man just loves to tell you how much harder writing lyrics is than writing music. No one likes a Bitter Betty, Tim.

Come for the fun facts about Evita. Skip the occasional borderline creepy comments that wouldn’t make the edit 25 years on.

[alan clark]

But what about Chess?

I really did enjoy this book, but wanted to read about Chess which I have always preferred to these shows.

[Chris Gidney]

Interesting, funny and warm.

[John Read]

I'm a big fan of Andrew Lloyd Webber & Tim Rice. I think there is a lot of snobbery about their musicals. Success always attracts critics. Usually people who can only 'talk the talk.'
I think Tim Rice is a an excellent lyricist. Not just in his collaboration with Webber but on many hit pop songs too. But for anyone interested in Musical Theatre or just the amazing story of Webber & Rice, this book does not disappoint. I never realised that their first major hit, Joseph and The Amazing Technicolour Dreamcoat, started out as a school musical. (They started very young.)
Tim is a librarian of facts, figures & dates that add to the fascination of the early years and later success. He started working life as an Articled Clerk before moving to EMI and working with Norrie Paramour, Cliff Richard, The Beatles and even singing on The Scaffold hit; Lily The Pink.
Besides taking us through the fascinating conception and birth of the famous musicals, Rice is also quite candid about his much publicised 'messy' personal life. His other love - cricket - also gets a good mention. He alludes to a second installment autobiography to bring things bang up to date. I will definately be getting that. The first one is a cracker.