Nigel Wright is a five-time Grammy nominee 3-time Emmy winner and has produced more than fifty top twenty chart hits, including 10 number one hit singles in both the US and the UK. Wright began his career as a musician, being a founding member of the band “Shakatak” during the early 1980’s. He quickly moved on to being the producer for the band and produced the multi-Platinum selling album “Night Birds”.
Since then, his pop producing career includes working with artists such as Barbra Streisand, Madonna, Boyzone, Take That, Gloria Estefan. Jose Carreras a 30-year relationship with Simon Cowell producing pop hits for Sinitta/Sonia, Robson and Jerome and an endless stable of pop creations from the Cowell era at BMG/RCA.
In 1990 Wright began a hugely successful partnership with Andrew Lloyd Webber and has produced the music for each of the London and Broadway albums of shows such as “Joseph And The Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat”, “Sunset Boulevard”, “Starlight Express”, “Jesus Christ Superstar”, “Whistle Down The Wind”, “The Beautiful Game”, “Tell Me on a Sunday”, “The Woman in White”, “Evita”, and now the phenomenally successful Lloyd Webber production of “Sound of Music” in London’s West End. In 2010 Lloyd Webber and Wright Produced the full soundtrack to ALWs long awaited follow up to phantom “Love Never Dies” Also during this period Nigel travelled to Los Angeles to producer for ALW 2 tracks for Barbra Streisand’s album “Back to Broadway.”
He has also worked alongside Lloyd Webber on live performances at the Opening Ceremony of the 1992 Barcelona Olympics, President Bush’s Inauguration, and the ‘Ground Zero’ Memorial Service. Other musical theatre work includes orchestrating, and producing the music and cast albums, for both “Saturday Night Fever” and “Grease”.
As well as producing albums for Lloyd Webber, Wright has also produced the music for all the film and television versions of the composer’s work beginning with the Alan Parker directed “Evita”, starring Madonna, which won the Golden Globe for Best Musical or Comedy, and won an Oscar for Best Original Song, as well as two further nominations including one for Best Sound Mixing.
Wright has also produced the music for the television versions of “Cats”, “Joseph and The Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat” (Silver Rose of Montreux Winner), “Jesus Christ Superstar” (International Emmy Winner), and “By Jeeves”, as well as the televised concerts “Celebration” and “Masterpiece – Live in Beijing”.
In 2004, Wright produced the music for Joel Schumacher’s film version of Lloyd Webber’s “The Phantom of the Opera”, which received Golden Globe and Oscar nominations, including one for Best Original Song.
Wright’s career has expanded into television. He was the musical director and producer for two seasons of Fox’s phenomenally successful American Idol, including producing hit singles for artists such as Fantasia Barrino and Clay Aitken. He was the musical director for Simon Cowell’s X-Factor for 8 years, America’s got talent (5years) and Britain’s got talent (6 years), as well as the hit BBC show “How Do You Solve a Problem Like Maria” “I’d do anything” and BBC’s “Any dream will do” and “Over the rainbow”.
In 2011 /2012 Nigel produced film and DVD versions of “Phantom 25th anniversary at the Albert Hall and Andrew Lloyd Webbers” Love never dies”. Also, he composed and produced the music for a 3-part TV film starring Robson and Jerome who were at the height of their popularity.
2012 saw Nigel producing the TV show that cast Jesus for Andrew Lloyd Webbers rock arena tour of Jesus Christ superstar followed by producing the full-scale arena tour with 50 cast and rock band plus orchestra. This production toured the UK and Australia in 2013 followed by the USA and Canada in 2013/2014 with Nigel as music supervisor.
In June 2013 Nigel started work on Broadway 4D. a 60-million-dollar 4d film with major film and Broadway stars to run on Broadway at the 42nd street theatre from June 2018. The lease is 49 years, and it is intended to regularly freshen the movie with a new segment every 2 years. It is also heading for Vegas and 15 other us cities as well as Europe. Stars include (Hugh Jackman, Christina Aguilera, Glen Close, Jennifer Hudson, etc.) Also Nigel will continue his working relationship with Andrew Lloyd Webber on his TV show 40 musical years and two new musicals “Stephen Ward” the Profumo scandal and “School of Rock” There is also an NBC TV show “The Winner is” lined up for 2013/2014.
2014/15 brought cast albums of Phantom in Moscow and a PBS special in Northern Ireland for Eammon McCrystal with double album and DVD recording. Also, the recording of “Memory” as a single release for Nicole Scherzinger and music supervision of a celebrity concert in Vienna featuring Andrew Lloyd Webber, Nicole Scherzinger and Katherine Jenkins. Nigel then returns to MD sky TVs new music quiz show “Bring the noise” with a 10-piece live studio band.
2016. Started with an album of “Sound of music” for the current touring production. Followed swiftly by a trip to Miami to showcase “Love never Dies” for Andrew Lloyd Webber and on to Los Angeles to reopen negotiations for the completion of Broadway 4D. 2 Emmy awards followed in this one year for composition/arrangements for “the Music of Northern Ireland” and “the Texas Tenors” both PBS specials for the American market. Shortly after this the new studio was christened with a tv show called “Tin Pan Alley” with new and old songwriters alike having their songs produced by Nigel in his studio.
The next task was for Lloyd Webber and that was to update the original Phantom theme. May saw the start of a 3.5-year project for Rocket Pictures. An animated version of “Joseph and his Technicolor Dreamcoat.” In June, Nigel took an orchestra from London to Vienna and conducted a concert at a corporate event for Lloyd Webber. January 2017 Nigel Became music director for the BBC series “Let it Shine” born out of a long-term friendship and working relationship with Gary Barlow of Take That.
Nigel was off again to Japan to record and supervise a new version of “Phantom of the opera for “The Shikki company. Next came work on a cast recording of 42nd street plus Music for a new Peter Kaye tour. Easter 2018 saw Nigel supervise and conduct the N.B.C live special of Jesus Christ Superstar starring John Legend and Sarah Bareilles the following two years Nigel had the honor of producing 3 Stephen Sondheim albums. Sweeney Todd/ Follies and Company. After an enforced break of 2 years due the pandemic Nigel went on to produce in early 22 Tim Rice’s “from here to Eternity” and an album for soprano extraordinaire “Carly Paoli.”
A new relationship with compose Frank Wildhorn led to album production in 2023 of “Death note “followed swiftly in early 2024 of “Your Lie In April” March 2024 finally saw the restart of “On Broadway” with an entirely new creative team and filming is due to start in mid 2025 and an opening at the Liberty Theatre on 42nd street in Mid 2026.
January 2025 sees Nigel take on a project at Abbey Road, recording the full score for the new musical Jo a story Based on Little Women.
