Andrew Lloyd Webber kicks out the jams with School of Rock musical

His usual metier may be schmaltzy ballads and epic orchestral songcraft, but Andrew Lloyd Webber is to strap on a Strat and unfurl his devil horns for his next project: a Broadway production of School of Rock.

The hit film starred Jack Black as Dewey Finn, a luckless musician who impersonates his more responsible roommate to bag a job as a substitute teacher – and co-opts his young charges into becoming a band, training them up for a talent contest.

Lloyd Webber will write new music for the production as well as incorporating songs from the movie, which included the likes of Led Zeppelin’s Immigrant Song and Edge of Seventeen by Stevie Nicks. Julian Fellowes will similarly depart his comfort zone of Downton Abbey and Gosford Park to write the script, with Tangled songwriter Glenn Slater penning the lyrics.

Bringing some rock credentials to the creative team is producer Rob Cavallo, who manned the boards for bombastic records like Green Day’s American Idiot and My Chemical Romance’s The Black Parade.

Lloyd Webber said: “It is a joy for me to return to my Jesus Christ Superstar roots. When Deep Purple’s Ian Gillan was recording Jesus for Tim Rice and me at London’s Olympic Studios, Led Zeppelin was recording next door and a glimpse of a Stone or two was routine! School of Rock is hugely about how music can empower kids.”

Lloyd Webber is arguably in need of a hit, after the failures of his new works Love Never Dies and Stephen Ward, each of which underperformed in the West End. He’s found more success with his remake of The Wizard of Oz, and with his reality-TV-assisted arena tour of Jesus Christ Superstar, though an anticipated US run of the latter starring John Lydon and Destiny’s Child’s Michelle Williams failed to transpire – Lloyd Webber is suing the producers for £3.2m.

While a sequel to Richard Linklater’s film has never been made, it lives on in other ways – Nickelodeon are also lining up a TV adaptation. The musical version of School of Rock will open for previews on November 6 at the Winter Garden theatre in New York.