MTV Greenlights 8-Part Documentary 'Show Choir'

"MTV Show Choir"--produced by Hairspray and The Boy from Oz star John Hill--has been greenlighted by the popular cable network.

The documentary show, which follows a real life choir from a West Virginia school, will air in spring 2007.  The show was the brainchild of Hill, who developed it with World of Wonder before bringing it to MTV.

"'MTV Show Choir,' according to MTV press notes, "follows the Morgantown, West Virginia Show Choir, who perform songs in four part harmony, complete with elaborate costumes and choreography, throughout one competitive season. The choir is the pride of the town and has won local raves for their performances of Broadway show tunes. Unfortunately, when it comes to competition against other schools, they seem to always come in second. So this year, they've decided to switch things up a bit and perform modernized versions of current pop hits, something other show choirs have already been doing, complete with new hip choreography."

"During the eight episodes of this half-hour series, the cameras follow the choir through this transformation and watch as they struggle to balance schoolwork, relationships and competition to hopefully become Show Choir champions."

Dave Sirulnick, Amy Bailey and Lauren Lazin; and for World of Wonder, Fenton Baiely and Randy Barbato are the executive producers of "MTV Show Choir."  Todd Radnitz serves as co-executive producer.

Hill played Fender in Hairspray and Mark Herron in The Boy from Oz; he also understudied lead roles in those shows.  The actor, who also appeared Off-Broadway in Bare, recently scored hits with his one-man shows "Whiskers on Kittens" and "Skinny Corpse." He has performed at The Encore, Joe's Pub, Makor, The Laugh Factory, the Lucille Lortel Theatre with Jackie Hoffman and Caroline's. He has collaborated with Katherine Leonard and Lucian Piane on the internet music/comedy experiment, "JohnnyAndKooks."

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