Hairspray Live!'s Jerry Mitchell & Alex Rudzinski to Direct NBC's Bye Bye Birdie Live!

NBC's Bye Bye Birdie Live! has tapped Tony winner Jerry Mitchell and Grease: Live Emmy winner Alex Rudzinski as the broadcast's stage and live television directors, respectively. As previously reported, Jennifer Lopez is starring as Rosie and executive producing the project.

Mitchell most recently choreographed NBC's Hairspray Live! He directed the Gloria Estefan bio-musical On Your Feet! and earned a Tony for choreographing the 2013 Tony-winning Best Musical Kinky Boots, for which he was also nominated as a director. He also received a Tony for choreographing the 2005 production of La Cage aux Folles. His other Broadway credits include Dirty Rotten Scoundrels, The Rocky Horror Show, The Full Monty, Hairspray, Never Gonna Dance and Legally Blonde. Mitchell was nominated for an Olivier Award for his choreography in Dirty Rotten Scoundrels, which he also directed and co-produced in the West End.

Rudzinski, who was nominated for a DGA Award for his live television direction of Hairspray Live!, has won two Emmy Awards, including Outstanding Direction for a Variety Special for his work on Fox’s musical Grease: Live. He has directed 22 seasons of ABC’s Dancing with the Stars and his other work includes U.K. series Strictly Come Dancing, The X Factor and Maya & Marty. Rudzinski is the director and co-executive producer of NBC’s upcoming dance competition series World of Dance, for which Lopez serves as a celebrity judge on the show. 

Further casting, the creative team and a broadcast date are still to be announced