Andrew Lloyd Webber's School of Rock Musical to Close on Broadway

Andrew Lloyd Webber's Broadway musical School of Rock will end its run at the Winter Garden Theatre on January 20, 2019, after 31 previews and 1,307 regular performances. The show began its run November 9, 2015, and opened on December 6.

Based on the hit 2003 film, School of Rock tells the story of a down-on-his-luck wannabe rock star named Dewey Finn, who poses as a substitute teacher at a prep school and enlists his fifth-graders to form a rock group and conquer Battle of the Bands.

Directed by Laurence Connor, the musical features a score by Lloyd Webber and Glenn Slater and a book by Downton Abbey creator Julian Fellowes. The creative team also features choreography by JoAnn M. Hunter, scenic and costume design by Anna Louizos, lighting design by Natasha Katz, sound design by Mick Potter, comedy direction by Cal McCrystal, and music supervision by Ethan Popp.

The show currently has productions running on London's West End and across the United States on its National Tour – which launched on September 30, 2017, in Rochester, New York. Beginning on October 31, School of Rock will begin its extended sit-down production at Her Majesty's Theatre in Melbourne, Australia before touring Asia.

In addition, Andrew Lloyd Webber teamed up with R&H Theatricals, a division of Rodgers & Hammerstein, and granted youth performance groups and schools the rights to perform the production before it even opened on Broadway. About 1,000 schools have performed School of Rock around the world.

The opening night cast featured Alex Brightman leading the cast as Dewey Finn, alongside Sierra Boggess as Principal Rosalie Mullins. The current Broadway cast of School of Rock includes Justin Collette as Dewey and Analisa Leaming as Rosalie.