Andrew Lloyd Webber and Tim Rice’s 1971 musical Jesus Christ Superstar is set for a new production by acclaimed Belgium director Ivo van Hove.
The show will be produced in the Netherlands by former Stage Entertainment producer Albert Verlinde, who now has his own production company.
The pair worked with each other on Bowie musical Lazarus, and according to the de Volkskrant newspaper, Verlinde asked van Hove what his dream musical would be to direct. “Without thinking, he said Jesus Christ Superstar, and I’ve always remembered that”.
Van Hove is no stranger to musicals, having directed Lazarus, Rent, and an acclaimed production of West Side Story on Broadway.
For this new production of Jesus Christ Superstar, van Hove will work with regular collaborators Jan Versweyveld, who is his partner, for set design, and An d’Huys for costume design.
Van Hove said about Jesus Christ Superstar that he is especially interested in directing a through-sung musical with no dialogue: “So that will be a new challenge for me.”
Auditions are taking place in November 2022, and they plan to cast from the worlds of theatre, musicals and pop music. The premiere will be in January 2024 at the DeLaMar Theater in Amsterdam.
Other forthcoming Ivo van Hove projects on the cards include a stage adaptation of Stephen King’s The Shining starring Ben Stiller. He recently revived his production of A Little Life , which he adapted from Hanya Yanagihara’s novel at the Edinburgh International Festival.
