The Really Useful Group announces a new company name as it unveils ambitious plans across the entertainment industry.
LW Entertainment will continue to manage Andrew Lloyd Webber’s body of work, expanding across multiple entertainment formats. This includes developing brand and franchise strategies for some of the world’s most celebrated titles, such as The Phantom of the Opera, Cats, Jesus Christ Superstar, Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat, Evita, Sunset Boulevard and Starlight Express.
The business is led by CEO, James McKnight, former Chief Creative Officer of the Harry Potter franchise. McKnight is supported by Louise Hughes, Chief Operating Officer and General Counsel, Lawrence Chapman, Group Chief Financial Officer, and Libby Grant, Chief Commercial Officer. Andrew Lloyd Webber’s personal focus remains on musical composition.
James McKnight, CEO of LW Entertainment, said:
“It is a privilege to be part of the next chapter of the Lloyd Webber family business. For nearly 50 years, this company has worked with the best in the industry to deliver transformational entertainment. LW Entertainment is about doing more of the same. We want to spread our impact across the world, taking the magic of Andrew’s work into more formats. I firmly believe that great business strategy is led by creativity, passion and partnership. Looking around us, I am not sure we could ask for much more.”
Madeleine Lloyd Webber, Group President of LW Entertainment and LW Theatres, said:
“‘The heart and soul of the company is creativity and innovation’ - a quote from Bob Iger which perfectly reflects LW Entertainment. This is a very exciting new chapter for our family business, while respecting and building upon RUG’s extraordinary legacy. The Lloyd Webber family are aligned and share the vision of LW Entertainment: to create, entertain, excite, challenge, disrupt, and inspire audiences across many art forms for generations to come. The brilliant team led by James McKnight, ably supported by our chairman David Chance and the rest of our Board, have already delivered innovation, and I’m excited and optimistic about the ambitious plans they have for the future.”
Andrew Lloyd Webber said:
“I am thrilled that the final piece of the reorganisation of the Lloyd Webber companies is complete. Our CEO James McKnight, together with Madeleine Lloyd Webber and our chairman, David Chance, has restructured the entire senior management team to reflect the business’ commitment to exploiting its copyrights in the most innovative way.
To mark this sea change in The Really Useful Group’s story, the company is to be renamed LW Entertainment to represent the broadening of its work across different entertainment fields, whilst bringing it into line with LW Theatres which has just completed its most successful trading year ever. As usual, every penny of LW Theatres’ profit will be ploughed back into the buildings.
LW Entertainment will focus solely on copyright exploitation, with theatrical production handled by Michael Harrison for Lloyd Webber Harrison Musicals, building on the success of the acclaimed productions of Starlight Express, Sunset Boulevard and now Evita at The London Palladium. The next major productions will be the Broadway transfer of Cats: The Jellicle Ball and my new musical, The Illusionist.
In addition, LW Entertainment has licensed the immersive production Masquerade, based on The Phantom of the Opera, currently in early previews in New York. This is part of significant, global plans for The Phantom of the Opera over the coming years across live theatre, film, publishing, music, and many other areas.
LW Entertainment is a family company, and I am blessed that all four of my children are major contributors to the board. My wife, Madeleine Lloyd Webber, is Group President of LW Entertainment and LW Theatres. The recorded music exploitation, guided by Alastair and Billy Lloyd Webber, has already resulted in successful albums for Starlight Express and Sunset Boulevard, the latter reaching number 1. With the strongest team I could possibly hope for in place, I will focus on what I have always loved most – music.”
LW Entertainment launches with a backdrop of award-winning work taking place across the world.
Established in 2023, the producing partnership between Andrew Lloyd Webber and Michael Harrison has gone from strength to strength. To date, Lloyd Webber Harrison Musicals (LWHM) has produced:
LWHM will produce Andrew Lloyd Webber’s new musical, The Illusionist, and the multi-award-winning Cats: The Jellicle Ball will open on Broadway in Spring 2026.
With rave reviews across the board, Jesus Christ Superstar has just played a sell-out, three-night concert for over 50,000 people at the Hollywood Bowl, starring Cynthia Erivo, the first female Jesus, and Adam Lambert as Judas. Described by Playbill as “as close to a religious experience as a musical theatre performance can get”, this production is prompting calls for an arena tour.
Andrew Lloyd Webber’s Phantom of the Opera has played to over 160 million people in more than 200 cities, 58 territories and 21 languages since it opened in 1986.
The original London production, produced by Cameron Mackintosh and The Really Useful Theatre Company (now LW Entertainment), continues to break its own records at His Majesty’s Theatre, Haymarket. In November 2025, Cameron Mackintosh’s new revitalised production, based on the brilliant original, will begin a multi-city tour of the US, co-presented with The Really Useful Group / LW Entertainment.
Inspired by The Phantom of the Opera, the entirely new immersive experience, Masquerade, produced by Randy Weiner and directed by Diane Paulus, is now previewing to huge acclaim in New York on 57th Street.
During 2025, Phantom debuted in new markets, including India and Singapore, and resumed its International Tour through Asia. A reimagined production, directed by Federico Bellone, also played a major season in Spain, as part of “Amigos Para Siempre”, LW Entertainment’s joint venture with Antonio Banderas. In 2026, Phantom will be live in more than 40 cities across the world, including a return of the spectacular open air Sydney Harbour production from 27 March.
