LONDON (AP) – Andrew Lloyd Webber announced Thursday that actor David Fynn and 39 “quite awesome” kids will star in the London production of stage musical “School of Rock ,” using the occasion as a cue to urge the government to maintain funding for school music programs.
Fynn, the British star of NBC sitcom “Undateable,” has been cast in the lead role of Dewey Finn, a rocker-turned-substitute teacher who forms a classroom rock band in the show based on the 2003 Jack Black movie of the same name.
He’s joined by a cast of youngsters ages 9-13 who sing and play their own instruments.
At the production’s official launch Thursday, Lloyd Webber said “the depth of the musical talent that we auditioned is something that I have to admit that I didn’t think we’d find immediately.”
“It’s just incredible to think that these kids are playing this sort of music,” he said. “I kind of feared that everybody would be all into their computers and that they’d be doing all of this programmed music.”