Tyrone Huntley stays on as Judas Iscariot for the Theatre Royal Drury Lane season of Jesus Christ Superstar, where nine performers will share King Herod between them.
Tyrone Huntley will stay on as Judas Iscariot when Jesus Christ Superstar reopens at the Theatre Royal Drury Lane on Friday 16 October 2026, playing six performances a week opposite Sam Ryder's Jesus.
The production closed a sold-out summer season at the London Palladium on Saturday 5 September. It picks up at Drury Lane for a 12-week run to Saturday 9 January 2027, with a gala night on Tuesday 27 October, before a UK tour that opens at the Palace Theatre Manchester on 11 February 2027 and runs to 30 October.
Huntley is off on Thursdays. Matty J takes those performances as alternate Judas and keeps the role of Annas for the rest of the week, and Eric Lewis joins the company as Simon for the Drury Lane season.
King Herod is shared out again, a week or two at a time, across nine performers:
- 16-31 October: Matt Bomer
- 2-7 November: Rob Brydon
- 9-14 November: Reece Shearsmith
- 16-21 November: Bob The Drag Queen
- 23 November - 5 December: Michael Ball
- 7-12 December: Simon Russell Beale
- 14-19 December: Omid Djalili
- 21 December 2026 - 2 January 2027: Layton Williams
- 4-9 January 2027: to be announced
They join Desmonda Cathabel as Mary Magdalene, David Thaxton as Pontius Pilate, Bob Harms as Caiaphas, Phil King as Peter and Matthew Harvey as standby Jesus. The company is completed by Koko Alexandra, Jasmine Jules Andrews, Courtney Arango, Amy Barker, Alistair Beattie, Daniel Bowskill, Jahlil M Burke, Martha Burton, Marcelo Cervone, Sarah Freer, Sebastian Goffin, Alexander Kranz, Owen Lloyd, Milo McCarthy, Dan Moore, Cherece Richards, Kyle Richardson, Olivia Saunders, Toyan Thomas-Browne, Charley Warburton, Lillie-Pearl Wildman.
Tim Sheader directs, with choreography by Drew McOnie and design by Tom Scutt - the team behind the 2016 Regent's Park Open Air Theatre staging, reunited ten years on. Tom Deering is musical supervisor, with lighting by Lee Curran, sound by Adam Fisher, wigs, hair and makeup by Sam Cox and Maria Johal, fight direction by Kate Waters and casting by David Grindrod CDG. The score is by Andrew Lloyd Webber with lyrics by Tim Rice, and the production is presented by Michael Harrison for Lloyd Webber Harrison Musicals.
The show follows the last days of the life of Jesus through the eyes of Judas, and its score takes in I Don't Know How to Love Him, Gethsemane and the title number. It reached Broadway in 1971 with five Tony nominations, and the original London production ran more than eight years, closing after 3,358 performances as the longest-running musical in West End history at the time.
The producers have also put more than 7,000 on-stage standing tickets on sale at £25, seating audiences at the heart of the action as they were at the Palladium over the summer. They go on pre-sale at 11am today, Monday 7 September, and on general release at 11am on Tuesday 8 September.
Jesus Christ Superstar runs at the Theatre Royal Drury Lane from Friday 16 October 2026 to Saturday 9 January 2027, Monday to Saturday at 7.30pm with Thursday and Saturday matinees at 2.30pm.
