What better way to celebrate the resurrection of Jesus Christ than with a song, NBC wants to know. They’ve just announced Andrew Lloyd Webber’s Jesus Christ Superstar will be their next live musical and will be available to watch on broadcast next Easter.
“As we continue to expand the profile of our live musicals, we are thrilled to be partnering with Andrew Lloyd Webber and Tim Rice to bring a new live staging of the iconic ‘Jesus Christ Superstar’ to NBC,” said Robert Greenblatt, chairman of NBC Entertainment.
Jesus Christ Superstar will follow the network’s previous productions of The Sound of Music, Peter Pan, The Wiz, Hairspray and this year’s scheduled live production of Bye Bye Birdie, starring Jennifer Lopez.
Jesus Christ Superstar, which is based on the final week of Jesus’ life, opened at the Mark Hellinger Theatre (Broadway) in 1971 and has since been performed in around 20 countries and was translated into 18 different languages. A film followed the success of the musical in 1973 and starred Ted Neeley, Carl Anderson, Yvonne Elliman and Barry Dennen.
Andrew Lloyd Webber and Tim Rice, who wrote the music of the classic rock opera, will serve as executive producers on the project alongside Marc Platt, Craig Zadan and Neil Meron.
On the current status of the production, Greenblatt shared, “Casting has just begun, but we want to fill out this classic show with as many recording artists as possible to give proper voice to what is the original rock opera score.”
#Peace.Love.JesusChristSuperstar
