NORTH AMERICAN TOUR ANNOUNCED FOR “JESUS CHRIST SUPERSTAR”
NORTH AMERICAN TOUR ANNOUNCED
FOR OLIVIER AWARD®-WINNING PRODUCTION OF
“JESUS CHRIST SUPERSTAR”
New York, NY (April 5, 2018) – Stephen Gabriel announced today that Tim Rice and Andrew Lloyd Webber’s iconic musical Jesus Christ Superstar will launch a North American Tour in fall 2019. Helmed by the acclaimed director Timothy Sheader and cutting-edge choreographer Drew McOnie, the Regent’s Park Open Air Theatre production won the 2017 Olivier Award for Best Musical Revival, selling out two consecutive engagements in 2016 and 2017.
“Superstar speaks to both theater audiences and concert music fans. This production pays tribute to the historic 1971 Billboard Album of the Year while creating a modern, theatrical world that is uniquely fresh and inspiring,” said Stephen Gabriel, President of Work Light Productions.
Jesus Christ Superstar is a proven musical phenomenon with a world-wide fan base. As demonstrated by NBC’s Jesus Christ Superstar Live in Concert, this epic work attracted over 9.6 million viewers, earned the highest ratings in its time period, and received the highest critical ranking of any live musical event on network TV. Now, almost 10 years after the last major tour in the US, this award-winning Regent’s Park production will play over 50 markets throughout North America.
Jesus Christ Superstar is set against the backdrop of an extraordinary series of events during the final weeks in the life of Jesus Christ, as seen through the eyes of Judas. Reflecting the rock roots that defined a generation, the legendary score includes ‘I Don’t Know How to Love Him’, ‘Gethsemane’ and ‘Superstar’.
Additional creative team includes set and costume design by 2016 Tony AwardÒ nominee, Tom Scutt, lighting design by Lee Curran, and music supervision by Tom Deering.
Full creative team, casting, and cities to be announced at a later date.
For additional information, please visit JesusChristSuperstar.com.
Facebook & Instagram: @JesusChristSuperstar | Twitter: @JCSTheMusical
Acclaim for Regent’s Park Open Air Theatre production of
Jesus Christ Superstar
“A gorgeous, thrilling, heavenly musical.”
The Guardian
“Hallelujah! An almighty revelation.”
The Daily Telegraph
“An adrenaline-pumping production.”
The New York Times
BIOGRAPHIES
Andrew Lloyd Webber (Music) is the composer of some of the world’s best-known musicals including Cats, Evita, Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat, Jesus Christ Superstar, The Phantom of the Opera (which celebrates its 30th anniversary on Broadway this year) and Sunset Boulevard.
When Sunset Boulevard joined School of Rock – The Musical, Cats and Phantom on Broadway in February 2017 he became the only person to equal the record set in 1953 by Rodgers and Hammerstein with four shows running concurrently.
As well as The Phantom Of The Opera and Cats his productions include the groundbreaking Bombay Dreams which introduced the double Oscar winning Bollywood composer AR Rahman to the Western stage.
His awards, both as composer and producer, include seven Tonys, seven Oliviers, a Golden Globe, an Oscar, the Praemium Imperiale, the Richard Rodgers Award for Excellence in Musical Theatre, a BASCA Fellowship, the Kennedy Center Honor and a Grammy for Best Contemporary Classical Composition for Requiem, his setting of the Latin Requiem mass which contains one of his best-known compositions, Pie Jesu. He owns seven London theatres including the Theatre Royal, Drury Lane and the London Palladium.
He was knighted by Her Majesty The Queen in 1992 and created a life peer in 1997.
He is passionate about the importance of music in education and the Andrew Lloyd Webber Foundation has become one of Britain’s leading charities supporting the arts and music. In 2016 the Foundation funded a major new national initiative which endowed the American Theatre Wing with a $1.3 million, three-year grant to support theatre education opportunities for underserved young people and public schools across the U.S.
To mark his 70th birthday his autobiography Unmasked was published by HarperCollins in March.
Tim Rice (Lyricist) has worked in music, theatre and films since 1965 when he met Andrew Lloyd Webber, a fellow struggling songwriter. Rather than pursue Tim’s ambitions to write rock or pop songs they turned their attention to Andrew’s obsession – musical theatre. Their first collaboration (lyrics by Tim, music by Andrew) was an unsuccessful show based on the life of Dr. Barnardo, the Victorian philanthropist, The Likes Of Us. Their next three works together were much more successful – Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat, Jesus Christ Superstar and Evita.
Tim has since worked with other distinguished popular composers such as Elton John (The Lion King, Aida), Alan Menken (Aladdin, King David, Beauty and the Beast), Bjorn Ulvaeus and Benny Andersson (Chess) and most recently, Stuart Brayson (From Here To Eternity).
A new production of From Here To Eternity made its début at the Finger Lakes Musical Theatre, New York, in June 2016, and played in the Fall of 2017 at the Ogunquit Playhouse in Maine. In December 2016 selections from the score were performed at three official events to commemorate the 75th anniversary of the attack on Pearl Harbor. Further US productions are in the works.
In March 2017, two films with new Tim Rice material were released. Disney’s fresh interpretation of Beauty and the Beast, directed by Bill Condon, features three new songs written with Alan Menken, and the latest Roger Goldby film, Time of Their Lives, starring Joan Collins and Pauline Collins, features Morty and Me, a song written with Pete Hobbs, sung by Sophie Ellis-Bextor. Tim is also an executive producer of the latter movie.
He formed his own cricket team in 1973 and was President of MCC in 2002. He is a regular broadcaster/presenter on BBC Radio 2, drawing on his extensive knowledge of the history of popular music since Elvis was a lad. He has won several awards*, mainly for the wrong thing or for simply turning up.
*3 Oscars, 3 Tonys, 3 Golden Globes, 5 Grammys, 13 Ivor Novello Awards, Hollywood Walk of Fame etc.
Timothy Sheader (Director) has been Artistic Director and Joint Chief Executive of Regent’s Park Open Air Theatre since 2007. For Regent’s Park, productions include: A Tale of Two Cities, Jesus Christ Superstar (Evening Standard Award winner, Best Musical; Olivier Award winner, Best Musical Revival); Running Wild (also UK Tour); Peter Pan (Olivier Award nominated, Best Family and Entertainment); To Kill a Mockingbird (WhatsOnStage Award Best Play Revival / UK Tour and Barbican); The Gershwins’ Porgy and Bess (Olivier Award nominated, Best Musical Revival); Crazy for You (Olivier Award winner, Best Musical Revival; also at the Novello); Hello, Dolly! (Olivier Award winner, Best Musical Revival; Evening Standard Award winner, Best Musical); Into the Woods (Olivier Award winner, Best Musical Revival/ available on Digital Theatre; also at Public Theater New York, Central Park). Other theatre includes: The Magistrate (National Theatre); Barnum (Chichester Festival); Imagine This (New London); Hobson’s Choice, The Clandestine Marriage, Love in a Maze (Watermill); Rodgers and Hammerstein’s Cinderella, The Three Musketeers (Bristol Old Vic); The Star Throwers, Unless (Stephen Joseph Theatre, Scarborough); Misconceptions (Derby Playhouse); Streetcar to Tennessee (Young Vic); Achilles (Edinburgh Fringe First); Wild, Wild Women (Orange Tree); Arms and the Man (National Tour); Piaf, Sweet Charity (Sheffield Crucible; TMA Best Musical Award); My Fair Lady (Aarhus Teater, Denmark).
Drew McOnie (Choreographer) is Artistic Director of The McOnie Company and an Associate Artist at The Old Vic Theatre. For the McOnie Company: Jekyll & Hyde – BroadwayWorld Award for Outstanding Achievement in Dance (The Old Vic); Drunk! (Leicester Curve/Bridewell). Director/ Choreographer credits: Currently in London’s West End; Strictly Ballroom (Piccadilly Theatre), and on Broadway; King Kong (Broadway Theatre). Also; On the Town (Regent’s Park) and The Wild Party (The Other Palace). Choreographer credits: Jesus Christ Superstar – Olivier nomination for Best Theatre Choreography (Regent’s Park); Bugsy Malone (Lyric Hammersmith); In the Heights – Olivier Award for Best Theatre Choreography (Southwark Playhouse/King’s Cross Theatre); Hairspray − BroadwayWorld Award for Best Choreography (U.K. tour); Oklahoma! (National Tour).
The Really Useful Group (Producer) is Andrew Lloyd Webber’s theatre producing and rights licensing company and controls the theatrical rights for all of Andrew’s works, including The Phantom of the Opera, Cats, Jesus Christ Superstar, Evita, Sunset Boulevard and School of Rock – The Musical. The Really Useful Group reached over 20 million people across the globe last year from live theatre and concert audiences, cinema goers, television viewers and music fans, to social media and art lovers. This year The Really Useful Group continues to work across film, television and theatre as it produces and develops new projects and partnerships worldwide alongside its ongoing work in education, amateur licensing and music publishing.
Work Light Productions (Producer). Dedicated to creating and producing live entertainment. Current productions: Motown, Something Rotten!, Rent 20th anniversary tour, R+H Cinderella, White Christmas. Developing Clue, a new stage play based on the Paramount movie. Produced Julie Andrews, The Gift of Music at The Hollywood Bowl and London’s O2 Arena. Other recent touring productions include the Tony Award-winners American Idiot, In the Heights, Avenue Q, and Mamma Mia!. WLP is led by founding partner and President Stephen Gabriel and Vice President Nancy Gabriel. www.worklightproductions.com
Regent’s Park Theatre, LTD (Original Producer). Established in 1932, the award-winning Regent’s Park Open Air Theatre is one of the largest theatres in London. Situated in the beautiful surroundings of a Royal Park, both its stage and auditorium are entirely un`covered. The theatre is celebrated for its bold and dynamic productions with audiences of over 140,000 each year during its 18-week season.
Timothy Sheader and William Village were appointed Joint Chief Executives in 2007. During their tenure, the theatre’s productions of To Kill a Mockingbird and The Sound of Music won the WhatsOnStage Best Play Revival and Best Musical Revival Awards respectively, Into the Woods won the Olivier Award for Best Musical Revival and transferred to the Delacorte Theatre, Central Park, New York in 2012, and Hello, Dolly! won the Evening Standard Award for Best Musical alongside a further three Laurence Olivier Awards. 2011’s record-breaking production of Crazy for You transferred directly to London’s West End, winning the Olivier Award for Best Musical Revival and Best Costume Design. The 2016 sell-out production of Jesus Christ Superstar won the Olivier Award for Best Musical Revival and Evening Standard Award for Best Musical, and the production returned to the Open Air Theatre for an extended run in 2017 ahead of a run the Lyric Opera of Chicago in Spring 2018.
For more information visit www.openairtheatre.com.
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