Эндрю Ллойд Уэббердің «Really Useful Group» компаниясы

English media company

The Really Useful Group Ltd. (RUG) is an international company set up in 1977 by Andrew Lloyd Webber. It is involved in theatre, film, television, video and concert productions, merchandising, magazine publishing, records and music publishing. The name is inspired by a phrase from the children's book series The Railway Series (which also inspired Webber to create Starlight Express) in which Thomas the Tank Engine and the other locomotives are referred to as "Really Useful Engines".

The company was set up in 1977 when Lloyd Webber, frustrated with the terms of his contract with the impresario Robert Stigwood, decided to take greater control over the management of his creative works. All Lloyd Webber compositions and productions created from that point have been owned by the company. The Really Useful Group was floated on the stock market in 1986. Four years later, Lloyd Webber took it back into private ownership, selling 30% to film and music group PolyGram to fund the cost of buying back shares. In 1995, PolyGram was bought by Canadian conglomerate Seagram, with the Really Useful stake being passed to its own film and music subsidiary, Universal. In 1999, Lloyd Webber paid $75m for Universal's 30% stake, giving the composer 100% ownership of the group.

Really Useful Films is responsible for the production of film versions of Lloyd Webber's catalogue. Initially, these had consisted of lower budget straight to video versions of the shows (Cats, Joseph, Jesus Christ Superstar, and By Jeeves), but in 2004 the Really Useful Films completed the film The Phantom of the Opera, directed by Joel Schumacher and starring Gerard Butler and Emmy Rossum, which was nominated for three Academy Awards and three Golden Globes. It has also released DVD and video versions of Lloyd Webber's 50th birthday concert at the Royal Albert Hall, the 2001 Masterpiece – Andrew Lloyd Webber in China concert and a musical version of The Gruffalo. The film director Nick Morris is regularly involved with the films division.

Really Useful Records produces cast albums of Lloyd Webber musicals. From 1986 until Lloyd Webber regained full control of the company in 1999, Really Useful Records had an exclusive deal with PolyGram to release albums through its Polydor label. Really Useful continues to release its albums and DVDs through Universal, current owners of PolyGram. Aside from cast albums, Lloyd Webber has also produced albums for Marti Webb, Sarah Brightman, Connie Fisher, Andrea Ross and Michael Ball via the label. Lee Mead, who won the lead role in 2007's West End revival of Lloyd Webber and Tim Rice's Joseph and the Amazing Technicolour Dreamcoat by taking part in BBC One's Any Dream Will Do! recorded a single of the song "Any Dream Will Do". The contest's third placed Lewis Bradley and second placed Keith Jack joined him on "Close Every Door To Me". Really Useful Records released the double A side single to raise funds for the BBC's annual Children in Need charity appeal.

The company formed Really Useful Magazines Ltd to distribute Theatregoer magazine, a monthly magazine edited and published on the Really Useful Group's behalf by the publishing agency Axon Publishing. Published beginning in 2000, the magazine was available in conjunction with the programmes in all Really Useful Theatres. Really Useful sold Theatregoer magazine to Bandwidth Communications, the publisher of Whatsonstage. com, in April 2005.

The Really Useful Group has, in the past, set up sub labels to cater for pop and dance acts, such as Carpet Records, featuring Timmy Mallett's Bombalurina ("Itsy Bitsy Teeny Weeny Yellow Polka Dot Bikini") and Doctor Spin ("Tetris"); and ‘’It Records’’, home to My Life Story in the late 1990s. The name Carpet Records was a play on the acronym RUG, of the Really Useful Group.

The group on 27 June 2007 announced that it would donate all receipts from two special performances of a revived West End production of Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat to the BBC's Children in Need charity appeal, which would benefit from ticket sales for 16 July's preview and performance of 16 November, on the night of the annual Children in Need telethon. Viewers of a BBC One television show, Any Dream Will Do! had voted 25 year old West End ensemble player and understudy Lee Mead to take role of Joseph in the production. During the contest's 9 June 2007 final, host Graham Norton said that Children in Need had benefited by more than £500,000 in income from viewer voting on premium rate telephone lines.