Minchin makes another musical debut as Judas in Superstar

Having wowed the public and critics with his musical theatre writing debut, Matilda composer and lyricist Tim Minchin will make his UK musical theatre performin debut as Judas Iscariot in the forthcoming arena tour of the Andrew Lloyd Webber and Tim Rice rock musical Jesus Christ Superstar.

The casting – which was widely reported in newspapers over the weekend – is perceived as highly ironic given the comedian’s high profile atheism.

The Whatsonstage.com Award winner will join Pussycat Dolls singer Nicole Scherzinger (as Mary Magdalene) and whoever wins the “search for a Christ” television casting show Superstar, which begins on ITV soon with Jason Donovan and former Spice Girl Melanie Chisholm among the judges.

Minchin selected “Heaven on Their Minds” (Judas’s opening number in the musical) as one of his eight pieces of music on Sunday’s edition of Desert Island Discs on BBC Radio 4 in which he recalled:

“I reckon I sang this song standing in my parents’ living room, to the vinyl original recording, about 500 times, and subsequently got to understudy the role of Judas in two separate Perth productions of Jesus Christ Superstar, but I never played the role and I keep thinking one day I’m going to play Judas. I just love it because it is just pain and rock.”

The arena production will open at the O2 in London in the summer before embarking on a UK tour.