Webber was born in Cheshire and educated at The Manchester Grammar School and the University of Kent at Canterbury. Starting his professional career with theatre directing work, for companies such as Orpheus Opera (of which he was Artistic Director 1980-87), Kent Opera, the new D'Oyly Carte Opera Company in Britain and the USA, and various other English companies, he soon broadened his portfolio to include musical journalism, as Opera and Classical Music Editor for Richard Branson's Event Magazine, as well as Music and Musicians Magazine.
As a writer, his early work included Bluff Your Way at the Races (Ravette) as well as many opera translations into English. Play commissions soon followed, beginning with a new English version of Sophocles's Philoctetes written for Offstage Downstairs. Later successes include Tatyana commissioned by Nottingham Playhouse, with Josie Lawrence in the title role, and Beverly Klein as her sister Olga; Dr Sullivan and Mr Gilbert (Mull Theatre, revived at Glasgow Citizens' Theatre and on tour throughout Scotland); and Green Tea, shortlisted for a Guinness Prize.
He is an authority on the Spanish zarzuela, and his book The Zarzuela Companion (Scarecrow Press 2002, Foreword by Plácido Domingo) is a standard English work on the subject. He has also written on Hispanic and Portuguese Music for The Oxford Companion to Music, Opera Magazine, Royal Opera Covent Garden and many other publications, and been Visiting Lecturer on the subject at various academic institutions, including the University of Tübingen and University of Valencia. He is also a contributor to the Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, including the entry on Joyce Hatto; and has since been featured on British TV's Channel 4 and BBC Radio 4, in documentaries about Hatto, "the fraudster pianist".
As an actor he has worked successfully in England's West End and Repertory Theatre, creating the role of Owl in the first stage version of Winnie-the-Pooh (London Royalty Theatre and national tour) and taking part in world and/or international premieres of plays by Alan Ayckbourn and Alan Bennett amongst many others. He has also been a leading exponent in the field of corporate and medical professional actor-based roleplaying, especially noted for his work on development of feedback techniques, including his formulation of Advocate Feedback.
