NEW YORK — (CNN) NBC has officially picked its next live musical and the show’s star. But it didn’t have to look far.
The network has announced that Jennifer Lopez will star in a live version of the Tony Award-winning musical “Bye Bye, Birdie” in 2017.
Lopez currently executive produces and stars in cop drama “Shades of Blue” on NBC.
NBC’s production of “Bye Bye Birdie Live!” will be based on the 1960 Tony Award-winning Broadway musical that starred Dick Van Dyke as Albert Peterson and Chita Rivera as Rosie. Lopez will play Rosie.
NBC Entertainment Chairman Robert Greenblatt, who spearheaded the revival of the live network TV musical, announced the news Thursday during an event honoring him at the Paley Center for Media in Los Angeles.
He said Lopez came to them with the idea to do this particular show.
Executive producing team Craig Zadan and Neil Meron, who were behind NBC’s other musicals, will once again be on board. They will also be joined by Lopez’s producing partners Elaine Goldsmith-Thomas and Benny Medina.
Tony winner Harvey Fierstein, who also wrote the teleplay for NBC’s upcoming “Hairspray Live!” and stars in it, will pen “Bye Bye Birdie Live!”
“Broadway musicals and films fueled my childhood and ‘Bye Bye Birdie’ was one of my favorites,” said Lopez in a statement. “I’m proud to be a part of the NBC family with ‘Shades of Blue’ and I thought it would be a blast to take on one of their big live musicals.”
While speaking about his efforts to bring back the art of the live musical, Greenblatt joked: “I selfishly did it because I wanted to do it.”
“I just thought, ‘This idea is really just something that will excite me, and I hope to God that it excites other people,’” he said.
It did.
NBC’s first live musical experiment, “Sound of Music Live!” attracted a whopping 18.6 million viewers.
Follow up musicals have included “Peter Pan Live!” and “The Wiz Live!”
“Hairspray Live!” will air December 7.
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