Andrew Lloyd Webber to Grant SCHOOL OF ROCK Rights for Youth Performances Prior to Broadway Opening

Andrew Lloyd Webber and R&H Theatricals, a division of Rodgers & Hammerstein, an Imagem Company, announced today that high schools and youth performance groups in the USA and Canada will soon be able to perform School of Rock - THE MUSICAL.

In an unprecedented move, Lloyd Webber has teamed with R&H Theatricals to grant youth performance rights before opening night on Broadway. School of Rock - The Musical will begin preview performances on Monday, November 9, 2015, with an opening set for Sunday, December 6, 2015. Applications for School of Rock - The Musical will be accepted immediately. Performance and Perusal Materials will ship to interested performance groups shortly after opening night, in January 2016.

"This musical is entirely about empowering kids to rock out, so what better way to herald its arrival and celebrate its themes than to allow youth performances from coast-to-coast," Lloyd Webber said about the announcement. "This will allow young fans to engage with the material in a much deeper way, and we think will only heighten enthusiasm for our Broadway premiere."

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 byJulian Fellowes and direction by Laurence Connor (currently represented on Broadway by Les Miserables).

Produced by Paramount Pictures, the 2003 film was directed by Richard Linklater and starred Jack Black in a career-defining performance. The film received universal critical acclaim and was hailed by The New York Times as an "irresistible comic postscript to the rock revolution." The film went on to gross more than $130 million worldwide.

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.

Tickets for School of Rock - The Musical are available by visiting the Winter Garden Theatre box officeMonday - Saturdays between 10:00 am - 8:00 pm, online at Telecharge.com, or by calling 800-447-7400.

R&H Theatricals is excited to partner with Andrew Lloyd Webber and The Really Useful Group to offer teens and educators the chance to see the musical unfold on stage before mounting the show on their own. To purchase group tickets for the Broadway production, please call 1-800-432-7780

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.

School of Rock - The Musical is produced on Broadway by Andrew Lloyd Webber for The Really Useful Group, Warner Music Group & Access Industries, The Shubert Organization, and The Nederlander Organization. Nina Lannan and Madeleine Lloyd Webber serve as Executive Producers.

R&H Theatricals has been representing North American performance rights to Lloyd Webber's musicals since 2001, with The Phantom of the Opera, Sunset Boulevard, Cats, Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat, Jesus Christ Superstar, Evita, Aspects of Love, By Jeeves, Song & Dance, A Beautiful Game - and now, School of Rock - The Musical.

R&H Theatricals, with offices in New York City and London, represent the stage performance rights to over 135 musicals by more than 200 writers. In addition to the Andrew Lloyd Webber musicals, these include works by Rodgers & Hammerstein (including Oklahoma!, South Pacific and The Sound of Music), Rodgers & Hart (Pal Joey, Babes in Arms), and Kern & Hammerstein (Showboat), as well as musicals by Irving Berlin (Annie Get Your Gun, White Christmas), Adam Guettel (The Light in the Piazza, Floyd Collins), recent works from Broadway (In the Heights, [title of show], First Date) and Off-Broadway (Carrie, Ordinary Days, Altar Boyz), perennials such as Once Upon A Mattress, Cinderella and Footloose, and the longest-running revues in the history of Broadway - Smokey Joe's Café - and Off-Broadway - I Love You, You're Perfect, Now Change. R&H Theatricals is an Imagem company: www.rnh.com.