JESUS CHRIST SUPERSTAR LIVE Wins Emmy for Outstanding Live Variety Special!

NBC's Jesus Christ Superstar Live In Concert has won an Emmy for Outstanding Variety Special (Live) during the 2018 Creative Arts Emmy Awards.

With this win, producer Marc Platt is the only lead producer to win multiple Emmys for televised musical broadcasts. His collaborators Alex Rudzinski and Tommy Kail have also earned two Emmys for their work with Platt on Grease LIVE for directing and as co-executive producers.

Jesus Christ Superstar Live, which aired this April on NBC, starred Oscar, Golden Globe, Tony and 10-time Grammy Award winner John Legend has been cast as Jesus Christ, rock legend Alice Cooper as the flamboyant King Herod and acclaimed recording artist, songwriter and Broadway star Sara Bareilles as Mary Magdalene. The cast also features Norm Lewis as Caiaphas, Jin Ha as Annas, and Jason Tam as Peter.

This NBC event was a one-of-a kind live staging of the iconic 1971 Broadway rock opera with music by Andrew Lloyd Webberand lyrics by Tim Rice. The event was executive produced by Andrew Lloyd Webber, Tim Rice, Marc Platt, Craig Zadan and Neil Meron.

"Jesus Christ Superstar" was originally conceived as a concept album that hit #1 on the Billboard charts, and eventually made its way to the stage in 1971. It is based on the final week of Jesus' life. The 1971 musical opened at the Mark Hellinger Theatre on Broadway and starred Jeff Fenholt as Jesus and Ben Vereen as Judas. It was nominated for five Tony Awards, including Best Performance by a Featured Actor in a Musical for Vereen. Lloyd Webber won a Drama Desk Award for Most Promising Composer.

The 2018 Creative Arts Emmy Awards are held over two consecutive nights, September 8 and 9 and it honors outstanding artistic and technical achievement in a variety of categories of television program genres. FXX will broadcast the awards on Saturday, September 15, at 8 PM ET/PT.

Photo Credit: Paul Lee/NBC

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