4 Broadway Hits Coming Live to TV

With live TV musicals being all the rage, Broadway fans can rejoice! Three more musicals and a play are in the works and will be broadcast live on NBC and FOX starting this holiday season and running through January 2019.

NBC, which originated the TV musical trend when it broadcast The Sound of Music Live! starring Carrie Underwood in December 2013, is now working on its fifth live musical. Jesus Christ Superstar will be performed live on NBC on Easter Sunday, April 1, 2018.

The musical will be the first to be broadcast by NBC outside of the winter holiday season. In addition to The Sound of Music, the network has previously entertained theatre fans and TV viewers with December airings of Peter Pan Live! (2014, Allison Williams and Christopher Walken), The Wiz Live! (2015, Mary J. Blige and Ne-Yo) and Hairspray Live! (2016, Ariana Grande and Kristen Chenoweth).

Also on the Broadway live bandwagon is FOX, which saw success with Grease: Live in January 2016. Coming up on FOX on Dec. 17, 2017, is the three-hour telecast of A Christmas Story Live! Matthew Broderick and Maya Rudolph have been cast in the musical, which features new songs by composers Benj Pasek and Justin Paul who took home the 2017 Tony Award for Best Original Score for Dear Evan Hansen (that show also won the 2017 Tony for Best Musical).

Then, on the docket for FOX in January 2019 is a live broadcast of RENT, the ground-breaking rock drama from Jonathan Larson that won the Best Musical Tony in 1996.

And, finally, TV viewers can add a live Broadway play to their watch lists because A Few Good Men starring Alec Baldwin as Colonel Jessep is scheduled to air live on NBC in second-quarter 2018. When it does, it will mark the first live production of a Broadway drama on TV in 50 years.