TIM RICE - RICE: 'NEW COLLABORATION WITH LLOYD WEBBER IS UNLIKELY'

RICE: 'NEW COLLABORATION WITH LLOYD WEBBER IS UNLIKELY'

Lyricist SIR TIM RICE has ruled out a future collaboration with composer SIR ANDREW LLOYD WEBBER - because no new score will be able to match the high standard of their previous efforts. The pair, whose successful musicals include Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat and Jesus Christ Superstar, ended their professional relationship following a bitter split after writing Evita in the 1970s. But despite reconcilling their friendship, Rice insists they have no plans to resume writing for musical theatre. He says, "It's quite difficult to come back to a partnership. It's like trying to get married again. "Now I think maybe it's best for both of us, and we're obviously going to be friends until one of us kicks the bucket (dies). I'm not sure we could have kept it up. The problem is if we did something that wasn't as good, and it almost certainly wouldn't be, people would say, 'Ah well, we always knew they were never any good.'"