Full casting announced for JCS tour, Hanson plays Pilate

Hanson will play Pilate, the Roman leader who “washes his hands” of the crucifixion, alongside Superstar winner Ben Forster as Jesus, Tim Minchin as Judas, Spice Girl Melanie C as Mary Magdalene and Chris Moyles as King Herod.

Hanson, a previous Whatsonstage.com Award nominee, has previously appeared in The Sound of Music, A Little Night Music and An Ideal Husband, and will now join the Andrew Lloyd Webber musical, which opens at the O2 Arena on 21 September 2012 before heading off for a 21-date tour of the UK and Ireland.

Producers have also announced that Jeff Anderson and Tim Prottey-Jones, both of whom reached the Superstar final, will feature in the ensemble, with Anderson understudying Jesus and Prottey-Jones understudying Judas.

The last major London production of Jesus Christ Superstar, which
tells of the political and interpersonal struggles of Judas Iscariot
and Jesus, was at the Lyceum Theatre in 1997. The show includes hits
such as “I Don’t Know How to Love Him”, “Gethsemane” and “Superstar”,
and has proved one of the most popular of the Lloyd Webber/Rice
collaborations.

The tour kicks off at London’s O2 Arena on 21 September, before
visiting: Glasgow SECC (25 September), Newcastle Metro Radio Arena (28
September), Manchester Arena (30 September), Cardiff Motorpoint (2
October), Birmingham NIA (4 October), Belfast Odyssey (9 October),
Dublin O2 (12 October), Liverpool Echo Arena (16 October) and Sheffield
Motorpoint (21 October).