Already a mega-hit in New York, Andrew Lloyd Webber's screen-to-stage adaptation of SCHOOL OF ROCK will receive its West End premiere in November at the New London Theatre, following the early closure of Show Boat. The search is already underway for three sets of teenagers to play the rock students. But who will be their rebel leader, played by Jack Black in the film? It's a rock'n' roll fantasy for one of your #StageFaves...
"The School of Rock. And we shall teach rock ‘n’ roll to the world."
Public booking will open on 25 May 2016 for Andrew Lloyd Webber’s West End production of School of Rock – The Musical. Previewing at the New London Theatre from 24 October 2016 with opening night on 14 November 2016, School of Rock – The Musical is initially booking to 12 February 2017.
Based on the smash hit 2003 film of the same title, School of Rock features music from the movie, as well as new music written by Andrew Lloyd Webber and lyricist Glenn Slater and a book by Julian Fellowes. School of Rock – The Musical is directed by Laurence Connor with choreography by JoAnn M. Hunter, set and costume designs by Anna Louizos, lighting design by Natasha Katz, sound design by Mick Potter and music supervision by John Rigby.
The nationwide search is underway to find the three teams of thirteen young performers who will join the cast to rock out live on stage each night.
Down-on-his-luck wannabe rock star Dewey Finn poses as a substitute teacher at a prestigious prep school to make ends meet. When he discovers his students’ musical talents, he enlists his fifth-graders to form a rock group and conquer the Battle of the Bands.
School of Rock –The Musical received its world premiere at the Winter Garden Theatre in November last year and has subsequently garnered 20 Broadway Theatre Awards nominations including four Tony nominations – Best Musical, Best Book of a Musical, Best Original Score and Best Performance by a Leading Actor in a Musical. At the Broadway opening guests included Mick Fleetwood and Stevie Nicks, Helen Mirren, Sting as well as the complete “kids” cast from the original School of Rock film. Earlier this month Jack Black who played the role of Dewey in the original film School of Rock, met with the US cast and declared the show “a Broadway masterpiece.” In October last year School of Rock – The Musical released a 360° music video, shot in a real NYC classroom and featuring the song You’re in the Band, that generated over 1 million views in three days on YouTube and Facebook combined, the fastest Broadway video ever to reach 1 million views. Over the 2015 holiday period School of Rock – The Musical twice broke the house record at the Winter Garden Theatre, previously home to Cats and Mamma Mia! In April Grammy Award-winning Fleetwood Mac singer Stevie Nicks made her Broadway debut at School of Rock – The Musical when she surprised the audience by taking to the stage and singing Rhiannon with the musical’s kid band. School of Rock – The Musical was the first original British musical ever to premiere on Broadway.
The Broadway opening was accompanied by another US first, when Andrew Lloyd Webber also launched a nationwide release of the rights for schools and youth groups to create their own productions of School of Rock – The Musical using the exact same score as the Broadway show. Here in the UK, plans are well advanced to replicate that success ensuring that schools, colleges and youth groups can look forward to being able to license School of Rock – The Musical very soon.
Produced by Paramount Pictures, the 2003 hit film School of Rock was directed by Richard Linklater and starred Jack Black in a career-defining performance.
The Broadway production of School of Rock – The Musical continues at the Winter Garden Theatre, currently booking to 5 February 2017 and a national Company will launch a US Tour in the Autumn of 2017, playing coast-to-coast engagements across America.
School of Rock — The Musical is produced in the West End by Andrew Lloyd Webber for The Really Useful Group and Warner Music Group & Access Industries with Madeleine Lloyd Webber as Executive Producer.
Bios
Andrew Lloyd Webber 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 and Sunset Boulevard. School of Rock, a stage version of the movie, is his latest musical. 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, the New London Theatre and the London Palladium. He was knighted by Her Majesty The Queen in 1992 and created an honorary member of the House of Lords 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.
Glenn Slater co-created Disney’s 2010 worldwide smash Tangled (2011 Grammy Winner, 2010 Oscar and Golden Globe nominee), as well as the Broadway and international hit musicals Sister Act (2011 Tony nominee – Best Score) and The Little Mermaid (2008 Tony nominee – Best Score, Grammy nominee – Best Cast Album). With longtime collaborator Alan Menken he has also written songs for the Disney animated film Home On The Range (2004) and Broadway musical Leap of Faith (Tony nominee – Best Musical, 2012), as well as acting as both songwriters and executive producers of the medieval musical comedy television series Galavant premiering January 2015 on ABC-TV. In the West End, Slater provided both book and lyrics for Andrew Lloyd Webber’s Love Never Dies (2010 Olivier nominee – Best Musical), the sequel to Phantom of the Opera. His other work includes an Emmy-nominated song for the ABC-TV comedy The Neighbors (2013) and the stage revue Newyorkers at The Manhattan Theatre Club (Lucille Lortel, Drama Desk, Outer Critics Circle nominations). Slater is the recipient of the prestigious Kleban Award for Lyrics, the ASCAP/Richard Rogers New Horizons Award and the Jonathan Larson Award. He is an alumnus of the BMI Musical Theatre Workshop and a member of both ASCAP and the Dramatists’ Guild.
Actor, writer, director and producer Julian Fellowes is best known for the internationally award-wining ITV television series Downton Abbey which premiered in 2010 as well as the BBC series Aristocrats and for his portrayal of Lord Kilwillie in the BBC’s popular series Monarch of the Glen. His film acting credits include Shadowlands, Damage, Place Vendôme, Fellow Traveller and Tomorrow Never Dies. As a writer for television, he produced the scripts of Emmy award-winning Little Lord Fauntleroy and BAFTA nominated The Prince and the Pauper, which he also produced. His first screenplay was Gosford Park, directed by Robert Altman, which won him several awards, including the Oscar for Best Original Screenplay. He wrote the book of the stage musical of Mary Poppins for Cameron Mackintosh and Disney. His award-winning debut as a film director, Separate Lies, which he adapted himself from Nigel Balchin’s novel, received critical acclaim in both the US and the UK. His second feature, From Time to Time, adapted by him from the novel by L. M. Boston, premiered in 2009 and went on to win multiple awards internationally. Fellowes wrote the screenplay of The Young Victoria, released in 2009 and was a writer on The Tourist, starring Johnny Depp and Angelina Jolie. He is working on a stage version of The Wind in the Willows, as well as a three part mini-series of his own book, Snobs. He has also written an adaptation of The Chaperone. His novel, Snobs, 2004, has been an international best seller. His second novel, Past Imperfect, a Sunday Times bestseller, was published in 2008. Also in 2008, he was appointed a Deputy Lieutenant of Dorset. In January 2011, he was awarded a peerage and became Lord Fellowes of West Stafford.
Laurence Connor’s directorial credits include Les Miserables (Broadway), Miss Saigon (London), Jesus Christ Superstar (UK and Australian Arena Tour and released for DVD), the entirely new stage production of The Phantom of the Opera (US and UK), Oliver! (UK Tour) and the critically acclaimed Miss Saigon (UK Tour and Worldwide) for which Connor was the recipient of multiple awards. Connor is also the Co-Director of the new version of Les Miserables which has enjoyed worldwide success including Broadway, on tour in the UK and US also wining him many theatre awards. He directed the 25th anniversary concert of The Phantom of the Opera at the Royal Albert Hall and the 25th Anniversary concert of Les Miserables at the O2 in London both of which were simultaneously broadcast in cinemas worldwide and subsequently released on DVD. Connor has also been associated with the London productions of The Phantom of the Opera (Her Majesty’s Theatre), Oliver! (Drury Lane), The King and I (London Palladium) and A Slice of Saturday Night (Liverpool Empire). His film and television credits include Jesus Christ Superstar, Phantom of the Opera and Les Miserables at the O2 London.
The Really Useful Group 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 and Sunset Boulevard. 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. 2016 will see The Really Useful Group continue 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.
