Andrew Lloyd Webber Is A Rebel Once More With SCHOOL OF ROCK

If you weren't there in the early 1970s, when Andrew Lloyd Webber and Tim Rice sent JESUS CHRIST SUPERSTAR out into the world - first as a concept album and then as Broadway and West End productions - it may be difficult to imagine how infuriated a good many people were by their new show.

The title alone angered many, even if they weren't aware that the libretto looked at the son of God from political and marketing angles. Then there was the audacity to call their work a rock opera; an indication that this still fairly new music genre would be invading more sacred halls.

But controversy brings publicity and Andrew Lloyd Webber was the world's newest bad boy rock star. Or was he?

As a theatre composer, content dictates musical style and while his music for offerings like EVITA, CATS and THE PHANTOM OF THE OPERA were certainly more contemporary than traditional Broadway fare, the rebellious hard rock of JESUS CHRIST SUPERSTAR hasn't been replicated in any of his subsequent scores.

A New York Times feature paints his participation with SCHOOL OF ROCK, now previewing on Broadway, as a softer, goofier return to his controversial rock star past, with its plot, based on the 2003 film about a down and out guitarist who cons his way into a substitute teacher gig at a prestigious prep school and then forms a hard rock band out of a group of previously clean-cut fourth graders.

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Based on the smash hit 2003 film of the same title, School of Rock - THE MUSICAL will feature music from the movie, as well as an original score by Andrew Lloyd Webber and lyricist Glenn Slater, with a book by Julian Fellowes and direction by Laurence Connor (currently represented on Broadway by Les Miserables).

SCHOOL OF ROCK - THE MUSICAL follows Dewey Finn, a failed wannabe rock star who decides to earn a few extra bucks by posing as a substitute teacher at a prestigious prep school. Completely disinterested in academic work, Dewey decides to create his own curriculum, turning his class into a guitar-shredding, bass-slapping, mind-blowing rock band.

Warner Bros. Records will release the Original Broadway Cast Recording for SCHOOL OF ROCK - THE MUSICAL on Friday, December 4, 2015, on the eve of opening night. The new album will feature a new score by Andrew Lloyd Webber and lyricist Glenn Slater, along with three songs from the immensely popular 2003 film. Three-time Grammy Award-winner Rob Cavallo, who has worked with Green Day, My Chemical Romance, Paramore, Goo Goo Dolls, Phil Collins, and Gary Clark Jr., produced the album along with Lloyd Webber.

Photo by Dan Wooller