“Jesus Christ Superstar” is slated to be NBC’s next live musical scheduled for an airdate of Easter next year on Sunday, April 1, 2018.
Dateline reports the 1971 rock opera will be reimagined for the small screen with its original creators Andrew Lloyd Webber and Tim Rice on board as executive producers. Marc Platt, Craig Zadan and Neil Meron, who have worked on other network television musicals, will also be producers.
“Jesus Christ Superstar” follows Jesus during the last week of his life with other main characters including Judas Iscariot, Mary Magdalene and Pontius Pilate. The original Broadway musical earned four Tony award nominations in 1972. A film version was released in 1973 followed by revival Broadway shows in 2000 and 2012.
“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,” Robert Greenblatt, chairman of NBC Entertainment, said in a statement. “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.
NBC first embarked in television musicals with “The Sound of Music Live!” starring Carrie Underwood in 2013. The network continued pushing out musicals annually with “Peter Pan Live!” in 2014, “The Wiz Live!” in 2015 and “Hairspray Live!” in 2016.
This year “Bye Bye Birdie” will air in December starring Jennifer Lopez.
