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English singer

Marti Webb (born 1944) is an English actress and singer, who appeared on stage in Evita, before starring in Andrew Lloyd Webber's one woman show Tell Me on a Sunday in 1980. This included her biggest hit single, "Take That Look Off Your Face", a UK top three hit, with the parent album also reaching the top three.

Marti Webb was born in Cricklewood in 1944. Her parents took her to variety shows and pantomimes as a child. Her father played the violin and her mother sang and played the piano. She attended dance lessons from the age of 3 and first performed in public at the age of 7, at the Scala Theatre, London, initially hoping to be a ballerina. Her mother had to take an additional job to order to pay for the school fees. While training, she appeared in BBC Schools programmes. Webb later commented that, having come from a normal school, she found it a shock to be asked to perform in front of her classmates. The first musical she saw was Lionel Bart's Fings Ain't Wot They Used T'Be as some of her fellow students were performing in it. She first discovered her belt voice while rehearsing for the show. The playwright Beverley Cross's father George was the company manager on the production of Stop the World, I Want to Get Off and recommended his son audition Webb for the role. On the production's transfer to the West End in April 1967, Barry Humphries played Fagin. During the 1970s, Webb carved out a career as a respected, though not yet famous, West End actress and singer. In 1971, she was one of the original company of the London production of Godspell, the musical based on the Gospel of Matthew, opposite David Essex, Julie Covington and Jeremy Irons. She later played Nellie Cotterill in the 1973 original London production of The Card, a musical written by Tony Hatch and Jackie Trent which chronicled the rise of the title character from washerwoman's son to mayor of a Northern British town through initiative, guile, and luck. The production was short lived but was followed by the 1974 original London production of The Good Companions, alongside John Mills, Judi Dench and Christopher Gable in which she played Susie Dean, a member of a touring concert party. She was flown to Manchester to join the show during its tryout when the original actress Celia Bannerman, whose voice had proved unsuitable for the role, left the production.

After failing to land any stage roles as the decade wore on, by 1978 a somewhat dejected Webb was working in a travel agency and had stopped auditioning. In early 1979, Webb was flown to New York to audition for Harold Prince after Gary Bond, then playing Che in the show, suggested her to the producers of Evita as a successor to Elaine Paige who was, at the time, expected to transfer to the recreate the role on Broadway. Prince was impressed and persuaded her to cover while Paige holidayed and sign up as a regular alternate for the remainder of Paige's contract, performing two shows a week, in preparation for succeeding Paige as the star. At her original audition, show's composer Andrew Lloyd Webber had asked whether she would be interested if he wrote anything he thought appropriate for her voice. Assuming it was a kindly rejection, she was later surprised to be invited for a meal at Mr. Chow, a London restaurant, with Lloyd Webber and the lyricist Don Black to discuss the concept of a song cycle inspired by the story of a friend of the writers who had moved from London to the United States to begin a new life. A one off performance in January 1980 was recorded at the Royalty Theatre, London. It was a No. 2 hit in the UK Albums Chart, and saw Webb become a household name. The lead single, "Take That Look Off Your Face" was a similar success, reaching No. 3 in the UK Singles Chart. She has since regularly performed at his Sydmonton Festival. He produced her second solo album Won't Change Places (1981) which featured the lead single "Your Ears Should Be Burning Now". In January 2014, Webb again performed Tell Me on a Sunday initially for a week at the St. James Theatre, London, then for a fortnight at the Duchess Theatre. Contrary to the 2004 revival, the show featured largely the original 1979 album tracks, with a few lyric amendments, plus the song "The Last Man in My Life", written for the show's incarnation as Song and Dance in 1982. The production came about after Webb met a commissioning editor for BBC Radio 2 at a concert honouring Don Black in late 2013 at which she'd performed two songs from the piece. Asked whether she could still do the whole show, she suggested that, with a small band, it could be recorded for radio broadcast. The producer Robert Mackintosh then suggested a week's run prior to the recording, the popularity of which led to another three weeks at a second theatre. The recording was broadcast on BBC Radio 2, alongside an interview with Lloyd Webber and Black conducted by Anneka Rice. Webb later performed the show for two nights at the Kenton Theatre, Henley on Thames, in September 2015.

At the meal to discuss the Tell Me on a Sunday project, Lloyd Webber asked Don Black, who had maintained parallel careers as a lyricist and as the manager to Matt Monro, to become Webb's personal manager, a role he undertook from 1979 until the early 1990s, when he became too busy with work on Sunset Boulevard. Andrew Lloyd Webber saw the show and suggested the idea of a charity recording to Black, who mentioned that Webb was recording an album at the time. The single reached No. 5 in the UK Singles Chart and was included on her 1985 album, Encore. It became a UK top 20 hit, and inspired an album of the same name in which she covered other television themes. The album, which peaked at No. 65 in the UK Albums Chart, was later released on compact disc entitled Marti Webb Sings Small Screen Themes.

In 1982 Tell Me on a Sunday was combined with Lloyd Webber's other successful album Variations, which had featured his brother, cellist Julian Lloyd Webber, to create the show Song and Dance. In the mid 1980s, she again succeeded Elaine Paige, as Grizabella in the musical Cats both in the West End production at the New London Theatre and subsequently on a UK tour. A commemorative roll of honour, marking a century of the Blackpool Opera House, lists significant performers at the theatre between 1889 and 1989, beginning with Wilson Barnett and ending with Webb, due to her time with the show there. In 1983, alongside Sarah Brightman and Gary Bond, Webb appeared in an early workshop version of Lloyd Webber's musical Aspects of Love at his Sydmonton Festival. In 1995, at the age of 50, Webb reprised her leading role in a UK tour of Evita, opposite Chris Corcoran as Che and Duncan Smith as Peron. Despite some criticism over her age, the popularity of the tour, produced by Robert Stigwood and David Land with the orchestrations, stage design and direction of the original 1978 London production, led to it being extended throughout 1996. The cast also included her former husband Tim Flavin. In 2003, she joined the UK touring production of The King and I, taking over from Stefanie Powers in the role of Anna Leonowens opposite Ronobir Lahiri as The King. Elaine Paige, Webb's predecessor in Evita and Cats had appeared in the London version of the production three years earlier. Later in 2003, she appeared in the original London stage production of Thoroughly Modern Millie uniquely alternating the role of Mrs Meers with Maureen Lipman, to allow Lipman to care for her terminally ill husband, the English playwright Jack Rosenthal. At the beginning of the following year, she again reprised her role in Tell Me on a Sunday, first for a limited run before the closure of the show in the West End and subsequently on tour. The show had been substantially rewritten for a production starring Denise Van Outen, but a combination of the new and original scores was created specifically for Webb. In 2007, Webb performed alongside Sheila Ferguson and Rula Lenska in a UK touring production of Hot Flush, a new musical about the menopause. She played Helen, a middle aged widow whose daughter had recently left home. She also appeared on Elaine Paige on Sunday, a show on BBC Radio 2, during which she selected a number of 'Essential Musicals'. From September to December 2008, she appeared as Mrs Johnstone in the long running UK tour of Willy Russell's musical Blood Brothers, succeeding Linda Nolan who left due to illness. The producer of the show, Bill Kenwright had been trying to persuade Webb to play the role for around 20 years and she was only free by chance. Webb starred as Aunt Eller in Oklahoma!, touring the UK throughout 2011. Mark Evans, who had previously appeared in the BBC show Your Country Needs You, played Curly. Throughout 2012 Webb appeared as Dorothy Brock, a past her prime Prima Donna in a UK tour of 42nd Street. Dave Willetts and Bruce Montague also toured with the cast.

In 2017, she played Jacqueline in the first UK tour of the musical La Cage Aux Folles opposite John Partridge and Adrian Zmed, produced by Bill Kenwright. In July and August 2018, Webb appeared opposite Tommy Steele in The Glenn Miller Story at the London Coliseum. From January until August 2020, Webb was to have toured with the play The Cat and the Canary. It was curtailed by the industry wide shutdown of performances as a result of the Covid 19 pandemic and relaunched in 2021. In March 2022, she performed in The Unexpected Guest, as part of the Theatre Royal, Windsor's On Air season, which featured semi staged productions of radio plays. In 2023, she appeared in A Murder Has Been Arranged and Blithe Spirit, as part of the same series. From August to December 2023, she appeared as Celia in a UK tour of Calendar Girls the Musical. The production featured a revised score and book, and was one of the last shows to be produced by Bill Kenwright.

Webb has spent many Christmas seasons in pantomime in venues throughout the UK. She was the Principal Boy, Robin Hood, in the 1987 London Palladium pantomime, Babes in the Wood, alongside Cannon and Ball, John Inman and Barbara Windsor. During her later career, she has played the Fairy Godmother or Wicked Queen characters. In 1997, she was a late replacement for Linda Robson in Cinderella in Croydon, when Robson became ill. She appeared in productions of Cinderella in Bath in 2000, and Malvern in 2001. 2006 where she played the Fairy Godmother in Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs at Theatre Royal, Windsor. In 2018, Webb joined the cast of Dick Whittington at the Theatre Royal, Windsor, to play Fairy Bowbells, for the early part of the show's run. Anita Harris, who had originally been cast in the role, covered for Anne Hegerty's Queen Rat while the latter took part in I'm a Celebrity Get Me Out of Here! Upon Hegerty's return to the UK, Harris resumed the role of the fairy. She returned to the Theatre Royal, Windsor, from November 2019 until January 2020, to perform in the pantomime Aladdin, alongside Paul Nicholas.

After completing her run in the London production of Evita, Webb and Gary Bond played a series of concerts featuring Lloyd Webber's music. She has since regularly performed in concert alongside her appearances in musicals. She also performed a solo concert at the Warrington Festival in 1985. In 1993, she appeared opposite Michael Barrymore in a summer season at Blackpool Opera House. Webb co devised and starred in The Magic of the Musicals, a UK concert tour featuring songs from musical theatre, opposite Opportunity Knocks winner Mark Rattray. The show toured twice in 1991, before two follow up tours in 1992. The gold selling album of the show was co produced by Webb's former husband, sound engineer, Tom Button and her outfits designed by Bruce Oldfield. A performance at the Bristol Hippodrome was also filmed and broadcast on BBC Television. In 1999 Dave Willetts was the co star, followed by Robert Meadmore in 2002. Webb and Meadmore were joined by Wayne Sleep in 2006. A live recording of her season of cabaret performances with broadcaster David Jacobs at London's Café Royal was released in 1998 as Marti Webb Sings Gershwin: The Love Songs. Featuring material from her earlier Gershwin recording, the album was co produced by Webb and West End sound designer Mick Potter. She also performed at These Are a Few of My Favourite Songs: with Don Black at the Royal Albert Hall. From 2016 onwards, Webb has performed a number of cabaret concerts at The Pheasantry, London, including Dreams Lost, Dreams Found, a show in which she performed a mixture of the songs with which she is closely associated and those from shows that she did not have the opportunity to appear in. In January 2021, she performed the concerts in Malvern.

Particularly since coming to fame through Tell Me on a Sunday, Webb has regularly performed on British television. In the 70s and 80s she appeared on the BBC TV show, The Good Old Days, on one occasion performing the song "Sing Us One of the Old Songs, George", a piece which became her own for the show. Prior to her performance in Evita, though, she appeared in the television series The Songwriters, about songwriting partnerships. The final episode of the series featured Andrew Lloyd Webber and Tim Rice and she first met the pair, briefly, while recording the programme. In 1982, Webb recorded a second television special, Marti Webb: Together Again, which was broadcast on BBC Two. It also featured David Essex, Christopher Gable and Angela Richards.

Webb is often thought to have been a one hit wonder as the success of "Take That Look Off Your Face" has been much more widespread than much of her other work, however, after Tell Me on a Sunday, she recorded a number of solo albums, including some live work, and most recently Limelight featuring a mix of her best known material and then latest productions. In summer 1987, she released Gershwin on BBC Records, to coincide with the fiftieth anniversary of George Gershwin's death. She also performed background vocals on the album's closing number, There But for the Grace of God Go I.

TitleYearLabelRoleNotesStop the World – I Want to Get Off: The Original Cast Recording1961DeccaHalf a Sixpence: An Original Cast Recording1963DeccaAnn PornickRe released by That's Entertainment in 1983. Half a Sixpence: A New Recording1967Marble Arch RecordsAnn PornickLead vocal on "I Know What I Am"; Duet with Roy Sone on "Half a Sixpence"Half a Sixpence: Original Sound Track Recording from the Paramount Picture1967RCA VictorVoice of Ann Pornick; dubbed for Julia FosterLead vocal on "I Don't Believe a Word", "I'm Not Talking to You" and "I Know What I Am"; Duet with Tommy on Steele "Half a Sixpence"Stars of the London Production Sing Songs from Fiddler on the Roof1968Hallmark RecordsVocals on "Matchmaker, Matchmaker"Godspell: Original London Cast Recording1971Bell RecordsLead vocal on "Bless the Lord"The Card: Original Cast Recording1973Pye RecordsNellie CotterillLead vocal on "That Once a Year Feeling" and "I Could Be the One"; Duet with Jim Dale on "Opposite Your Smile"The Good Companions: Original Cast Recording1974EMISusie DeanLead vocal on "Stagestruck" and "Stage Door John"Der Führer – Rock Opera1977HarvestEva BraunSong and Dance: Original Cast Recording1982PolydorLead vocals on first disc; Duet with Wayne Sleep on "When You Want to Fall in Love"Freudiana1990EMILead vocal on "No One Can Love You Better Than Me" and "Don't Let the Moment Pass"Divorce Me, Darling: Original Cast Recording1997Digital TERHannah Van HusenLead vocal on "Here Am I, But Where's the Guy? "'; Duet on "You're Absolutely Me"

TitleB SideYearUK Single Chart Peak PositionLabelParent AlbumNotesD DarlingAn extract from the theme 'Gone Fishing'1973OrangeWith Michael Goodall"Take That Look Off Your Face""Tell Me on a Sunday""I Won't Change Places"1980Really Useful Records/PolydorWon't Change Places"Unexpected Song""Angry and Sore"1981PolydorA duet with Justin Hayward"All I Am""I Won't Change Places"1981PolydorWon't Change PlacesDouble A side"Don't Cry for Me Argentina""I've Been in Love Too Long"1981PolydorDouble A side"The Last Man in My Life""Come Back with the Same Look in Your Eyes"1982Really Useful Records/PolydorSong & Dance: Original Cast RecordingRecorded live at the premiere of the London production Song & Dance"Getting It Right""For the Touch of Your Love"1982PolydorI'm Not That Kind of Girl"I'm Not That Kind of Girl""One Afternoon"1982PolydorI'm Not That Kind of Girl"Didn't Mean to Fall in Love""Seven Outside Mr Chows"1983PolydorI'm Not That Kind of Girl"For the Touch of Your Love""Didn't Mean to Fall in Love"1983PolydorRecorded during I'm Not That Kind of Girl sessions but not included on album"Ben""If You Leave Me Now"1985StarblendEncore"Always There""It's Still the Same Dream"1986BBC Records and TapesAlways ThereA side also features Paul Jones"Someday Soon (Theme from 'The Onedin Line')""Moonlighting (Theme from 'Moonlighting')"1987BBC Records and TapesAlways There"I Can't Let Go – Theme from 'Dreams Lost Dreams Found'""Tell Me on a Sunday"1989First Night RecordsPerformanceRecorded with The Philharmonia Orchestra. "Tell Me on a Sunday" is a new recording. "Don't Let the Moment Pass""Freudiana (Instrumental)"1990EMIFreudiana