Jennifer Lopez To Headline ‘Bye Bye Birdie’ Live Musical On NBC In 2017

NBC’s next live musical production is going to feature a superstar. Jennifer Lopez will lead the cast of “Bye Bye Birdie,” which is set to run in 2017. This will be the fifth live musical to be mounted by the network following “The Sound of Music,” “Peter Pan,” “The Wiz,” and “Hairspray.” The latter has not yet aired, as it is set to run this coming December.

Aside from starring in “Bye Bye Birdie,” Jennifer Lopez is also going to work as executive producer along with Elaine Goldsmith-Thomas, Benny Medina, Craig Zadan and Neil Meron. The live musical will follow the Broadway production that starred Dick Van Dyke and Chita Rivera in the 1960s.

Deadline  cites the synopsis to “Bye Bye Birdie” below:

Set at the height of rock ’n’ roll, Bye Bye Birdie is set in Sweet Apple, Ohio, where hip-thrusting music heartthrob Conrad Birdie is scheduled to give a lucky Sweet Apple lady “One Last Kiss” before being drafted into the Army. Conrad’s rock ’n’ roll ways give the local teens a bad case of Birdie fever, shocks their parents, and puts songwriter/agent Peterson along with his savvy sweetheart, Rosie, in the thick of it. The story was inspired by Elvis Presley mania, and his 1957 induction into the Army.

Jennifer Lopez will also be seen in the second season of “Shades of Blue” on NBC, which will begin its second season run during the mid-season.