Breaking News: THE REALLY USEFUL GROUP Filing Suit Against Michael Cohl for SUPERSTAR Tour Cancellation

The Really Useful Group (RUG) confirmed it is taking legal action against Michael Cohl's Options Clause Entertainment following his cancellation of the 2014 North American Tour of Jesus Christ Superstar. In a statement this morning, The Really Useful Group states that it "has no option but to proceed with legal action to recover its costs associated with the project and in turn, satisfy outstanding payments to suppliers and contractors."

The release goes on to read that "Michael Cohl through, Options Clause Entertainment LLC, had agreed to be the promoter of this tour and under the terms of the agreement was responsible for all of the costs associated with the US dates. Since Mr Cohl's unilateral decision to cancel the tour, The Really Useful Group has been tirelessly working to find an out of court settlement of the costs incurred by cancellation at such a late stage."

In earlier press reports about the tour's cancellation, Cohl previously stated "it was a disaster, ticket sales were terrible."

Barney Wragg CEO of RUG said "The Really Useful Group is hugely disappointed to be let down in this way particularly taking into account the impact (both personal and financial) that it has had on the many people who have put so much hard work into this project. We had a sell-out UK Arena tour of Jesus Christ Superstar in 2012 and, in 2013, the same production toured Australia also playing to capacity audiences with unprecedented success."

Jesus Christ Superstar is the story of the last seven days of Christ leading up to his crucifixion, and featuring hit songs such as Superstar, I Don't Know How To Love Him, Heaven On Their Minds and Hosanna now known to millions. After beginning life as an album in 1970 and topping the Billboard charts, in 1971 the first productions of Jesus Christ Superstar where two simultaneous North American arena tours. A year later the production opened at London's Palace Theatre where it ran for eight years and over 3,000 performances, smashing all box office records. Since then Jesus Christ Superstar has constantly been performed with professional productions in 42 countries across the world and around 300 amateur productions officially licensed each year. To date, over 40 different cast recordings have been released in 19 different languages. The original multi-million sellingJesus Christ Superstar double-album became a number 1 hit in the US charts and in 2012, to coincide with the sell-out UK arena tour, the album was re-mastered. A year later the arena production toured Australia, also playing to capacity audiences with unprecedented success.

The Really Useful Group is Andrew Lloyd Webber's theatre producing and rights licensing company and controls the theatrical rights for all of his works, includingThe 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. 2014 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.