Andrew Lloyd Webber says his son has stomach cancer

Andrew Lloyd Webber will miss the opening night of his new Broadway musical to care for his eldest son, seriously ill with stomach cancer.

The British composer and theater impresario made the announcement in a statement sent Saturday to HuffPost and other outlets.

“I am absolutely devastated to say that my eldest son Nick is seriously ill,” he explained. “As my friends and family know, he has been battling gastric cancer for 18 months and Nick is now in hospital.”

Due to his son’s hospitalization, Lloyd Webber says he was unable to attend premieres of “Bad Cinderella,” the musical he wrote with lyricist David Zippel. He will not be present at the Imperial Theater in New York for the official opening night of the show, scheduled for this Thursday.

“We are all praying that Nick will turn the corner,” he wrote. “He fights bravely with his indomitable humor, but right now my place is with him and his family.”

Nicholas Lloyd Webber, 43, followed his famous father into a music career. The Grammy nominee wrote the scores for the British series “Love, Lies and Records”, as well as the 2021 film “The Last Bus”, starring Phyllis Logan and Timothy Spall.

In addition to Nicholas, Lloyd Webber also shares daughter Imogen, 46, with ex-wife Sarah Hugill. He and his current wife, Madeleine Gurdon, are parents to sons Alastair, 30, and William, 29, as well as daughter Isabella, 26.

Beloved across generations of Broadway fans for musicals like ‘Evita’ and ‘Phantom of the Opera’, Lloyd Webber was knighted by Queen Elizabeth II in 1992 for his contribution to the theater and made Lord about four years later. He joined the ranks of EGOT winners in 2018 when he received an Emmy for producing NBC’s “Jesus Christ Superstar Live In Concert.”

“Bad Cinderella” is Lloyd Webber’s first new musical to hit Broadway since the stage adaptation of “School of Rock” in 2015. It’s billed as a contemporary musical take on the classic fairy tale and features the actor and singer Linedy Genao as a maverick heroine who rebels against traditional standards of beauty and behavior.