Andrew Lloyd Webber is expected to take a £20 million hit to his fortune as a result of the coronavirus crisis, according to the Sunday Times Rich List.
The 72-year-old composer stands to lose millions of pounds due to the closure of his theatres in the West End, the compilers of the list have calculated.
He has also had to delay the London opening of his musical Cinderella, scripted by Killing Eve’s Emerald Fennell, as a result of the pandemic.
However, he still tops the list of wealthiest musicians along with Sir Paul McCartney, 77, with a calculated wealth of £800 million.
Lord Lloyd-Webber’s LW Theatres showed assets of £63 million in 2018-19, with the separate Really Useful Group Investments making profits of £7 million on turnover of £61.4 million.
He topped the list alone in 2019, with a fortune of £820 million.
Since the coronavirus crisis began, recordings of his previous West End shows have been streamed online for free every Friday night, with Cats the latest upcoming broadcast.
Rihanna is a new entry to the list in third place. Now based in London, the 32-year-old she has amassed a fortune of £468 million thanks to the success of her cosmetics and fashion brand Fenty, for which she has partnered with luxury goods powerhouse LWMH, and other commercial interests.
At 29, Sheeran is the youngest person on the list and he tops a separate list of the richest young musicians.
– The Sunday Times Rich List will be published on May 17; the full list is online
Additional reporting by Press Association
