Des McAnuff News

The Broadway production of JERSEY BOYS, the Tony, Olivier and Grammy Award-winning Best Musical, will offer audiences a "Winter Weather Guarantee." Tickets for performances January 3 through March 25, 2012 can be exchanged for any other performance currently on sale.

Joseph Calleja, the 33-year-old Maltese tenor who finished 2011 with a top-ranked solo album (The Maltese Tenor) and a Grammy nomination for his recording of La traviata with Renee Fleming, will ring in 2012 with a return to the Metropolitan Opera in the title role in Gounod's Faust, opening January 5.

JERSEY BOYS is the winner of the 2006 Best Musical Tony Award®, the 2006 Grammy Award® for Best Musical Show Album, the 2009 Olivier Award for Best New Musical and the 2010 Helpmann Award for Best Musical (Australia).

Hugh Jackman will return to Broadway during the 2013/2014 season starring as America's greatest showman in HOUDINI, an original musical. Making his Broadway debut as librettist, Academy Award and six-time Emmy Award winner Aaron Sorkin will collaborate with three-time Academy Award and four-time Grammy Award winner Stephen Schwartz. Directed by three-time Tony Award winner Jack O'Brien, HOUDINI is presented by film and theatre producer Scott Sanders and David Rockwell. Mr. Rockwell will also design the sets for HOUDINI. Additional HOUDINI casting, creative team and design team to be announced at a later date.

Casting has been announced for the Dayton engagement of JERSEY BOYS, the story of Frankie Valli and The Four Seasons, playing the Benjamin & Marian Schuster Performing Arts Center, January 17 through February 5, 2012 as part of the 2011-2012 Miami Valley & Good Samaritan Hospitals Broadway Series.

Upcoming MTI Shows - 1/01 for Toronto

2012 is just around the corner, and there are a plethora of shows in store for this new Broadway season. From brand new musicals to vintage plays and West End transfers to American classics, 2012's upcoming shows should surely lead to a stellar awards season this spring. Check out a preview of all 21 announced productions below!

TheatreWorks, the nationally acclaimed theatre of Silicon Valley, will present the Tony Award-winning musical adaptation of THE SECRET GARDEN.

The Stratford Shakespeare Festival's hit production of Andrew Lloyd Webber and Tim Rice's JESUS CHRIST SUPERSTAR, directed by the Stratford Shakespeare Festival's Artistic Director Des McAnuff which will open on Broadway on March 22, 2012 (previews begin March 1) at the Neil Simon Theatre (250 West 52nd Street). The cast will feature Paul Nolan as Jesus Christ, Josh Young as Judas Iscariot, Chilina Kennedy as Mary Magdalene, Tom Hewitt as Pontius Pilate, Bruce Dow as King Herod, Marcus Nance as Caiaphas and Aaron Walpole as Annas. Check out a first look at the production below!

Whatsonstage.com reports today that Andrew Lloyd Webber's next project may involve searching for a new Jesus. The maestro is reportedly in talks for a new reality talent show that would focus on finding the next 'Jesus' for a stadium tour of Jesus Christ Superstar in 2012. The tour could kick off in the US before heading to London't O2 Arena.

Upcoming MTI Shows - 12/25 for Toronto

Cast members from the Broadway company of the Tony, Grammy and Olivier Award-winning hit musical JERSEY BOYS will perform a selection of songs from the new Rhino CD, Seasons Greetings: A JERSEY BOYS Christmas on NBC's "The Today Show" this Friday, December 23rd from 8:30 a.m. to 10:00 a.m. Check local listings for times outside the New York metro area.

JERSEY BOYS, the Tony, Olivier and Grammy Award-winning Best Musical, celebrates Christmas by surpassing Avenue Q with 2,535 performances, becoming the 21st longest-running show in Broadway history, following the performance on Monday, December 26.

The Metropolitan Opera premiere of Donizetti's Anna Bolena, starring soprano Anna Netrebko in her highly anticipated first North American performances of the tour-de-force title role, will be the 2012 season opener of THIRTEEN's Great Performances at the Met Friday, January 20 at 9 p.m. ET on PBS (check local listings).

The full Broadway cast has been announced for The Stratford Shakespeare Festival's hit production of Andrew Lloyd Webber and Tim Rice's JESUS CHRIST SUPERSTAR, directed by the Stratford Shakespeare Festival's Artistic Director Des McAnuff which will open March 22, 2012 (previews begin March 1) at the Neil Simon Theatre (250 West 52nd Street).

Today in 1970, JESUS CHRIST SUERSTAR creators Andrew Lloyd Webber and Time Rice received gold records for the original cast album of the show. The musical started off as a rock opera concept recording before its first staging on Broadway in 1971. The musical is based very loosely on the Gospels' account of the last week of Jesus' life, beginning with the preparation for the arrival of Jesus and his disciples in Jerusalem, and ending with the crucifixion. It highlights political and interpersonal struggles between Judas Iscariot and Jesus, struggles that are not in the Bible. The resurrection is not included. It therefore largely follows the form of a traditional passion play.

Faust will be shown at Middlebury's Town Hall Theater on Sunday, January 8, at 1 pm

The New York Times reports today that a FINDING NEVERLAND musical has been greenlighted by The Weinstein Company for further development following successful readings in London last week. The project was last workshopped in New York this past spring and was scheduled to premiere at the La Jolla playhouse this fall. The Weinstein's pulled the project at the last minute (which was replaced at La Jolla by the Startford Festival's Jesus Christ Superstar, currently running) to develop further. Tony Award winner Rob Ashford helms the project, which has Broadway apsirations. The project marks the first musical on which the Weinstein company is lead producer.

Jersey Boys just concuded its run in Sydney on December 8, and you can go inside the final performance in the video below! JERSEY BOYS is written by Marshall Brickman & Rick Elice, with music by Bob Gaudio, lyrics by Bob Crewe, and is directed by two-time Tony Award-winner Des McAnuff and choreographed by Sergio Trujillo.

Cast members from the Broadway company of the Tony, Grammy and Olivier Award-winning hit musical JERSEY BOYS will perform a selection of songs from the new Rhino CD, Seasons Greetings: A JERSEY BOYS Christmas on NBC's "The Today Show" this Friday, December 23rd from 8:30 a.m. to 10:00 a.m. Check local listings for times outside the New York metro area.