Broadway In Austin To Present JESUS CHRIST SUPERSTAR

Producer Stephen Gabriel/Work Light Productions released today a music video in anticipation of the 50th Anniversary North American tour of Tim Rice and Andrew Lloyd Webber's iconic musical Jesus Christ Superstar. The Olivier Award-winning production first premiered in 2016 at Regent's Park Open Air Theatre in London. The North American tour launches in Austin, TX in the fall of 2019 and celebrates fifty epic years since the original rock opera concept album release that began this musical theatre phenomenon.

Jesus Christ Superstar will officially open at Austin's Bass Concert Hall in October before the award-winning production plays over 70 markets throughout North America. Additional cities and casting for the tour to be announced during the coming months.

"Dropping the needle on that iconic brown album was a defining moment for me as a kid growing up in the 70's," remarked producer Stephen Gabriel. "This production of Superstar embodies all of the power and excitement captured in that music."

"Theater fans across the world have been listening to Tim Rice and Andrew Lloyd Webber's iconic music for 50 years and this spectacular new production is the perfect way to celebrate this milestone" said Lauren Reid, COO of The John Gore Organization. "Broadway Across America, along with our partners at Texas Performing Arts, are proud to launch this tour at Bass Concert Hall, giving Austin audiences the first chance to experience this classic music live on stage."

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. Additional creative team includes set and costume design by 2016 Tony Award nominee, Tom Scutt, lighting design by Lee Curran, and music supervision by Tom Deering.

This music video releases on the heels of NBC's Jesus Christ Superstar Live in Concert Grammy Award nomination for Best Musical Theater album. The NBC special starred John Legend, Sara Bareilles, Alice Cooper and Brandon Victor Dixon. It recently won 5 Emmy Awards including Outstanding Live Variety Special.

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'.

Full creative team and casting to be announced at a later date.

For additional information, please visit JesusChristSuperstar.com.

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).

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