TORONTO - Paul Nolan is doing some California dreaming these days.
The star of the Stratford Shakespeare Festival's production of "Jesus Christ Superstar" says he's looking forward to some fun in the sun when the show moves to San Diego's La Jolla Playhouse in November.
"It'll be like a party. Well, I'll be going home early from that party every night so I can sing the show, but it'll be fun, I think," Nolan, who plays Jesus in the show, said in a recent phone interview.
"The season here (in Stratford) is pretty intensive and stressful with how much rehearsing you do for so long, and then you open the season and it's kind of time to audition for the next season and all that stuff.
"So I think it'll be a really nice working vacation for the show."
On Monday, the festival in southwestern Ontario announced its hit revival of the Andrew Lloyd Webber and Tim Rice epic rock opera will run in San Diego from Nov. 18 to Dec. 31.
And on Thursday, the festival announced that due to high ticket demand, it's extending the Stratford run by one week, through Nov. 6.
Nolan said the whole cast from the festival production will be in the La Jolla show, including Chilina Kennedy as Mary Magdalene and Josh Young as Judas Iscariot.
"It's been a tremendous success for the Festival this season, and the demand for tickets is so strong that we wanted to ensure that everyone gets a chance to see this truly remarkable piece of theatre."
Des McAnuff, the festival's artistic director, helms the production, which chronicles the last week of Christ's life.
"I'm really happy for the festival, and of course it'll really nice for us to have six more weeks of work," said Nolan, 32, who hails from Rouleau, Sask.
"The only reason I think anything would be altered in the show would be to fit it in that theatre. But as far as Des thought when we met with him, he thinks that we can pretty much do the show that we've built, which is awesome."
Theatre watchers started speculating last month that the Stratford production would live beyond its run at the festival after Lloyd Webber and Rice went to see it and raved about it after, both to the cast and in the press.
Aaron Walpole, who plays Annas in the show, said the cast found out "a little while ago" that it would be moving to San Diego, but they had to keep it a secret.
"I think I'm going to enjoy spending Christmas in a wonderful sunny climate," said Walpole, 32, a London, Ont., native who grew up in St. Thomas, Ont.
"I was both happy and also a little saddened that we're going so far away, only because I happen to be head-over-heels in love with the most amazing woman ever and it just means I'm going to be away from her for the longest time so far since we've been together. But I'm really really happy that it's continuing."
McAnuff is director emeritus of La Jolla Playhouse and was artistic director there from 1983 to 1994 and 2001 to 2007.
He's helmed several shows there before bringing them to Broadway to great success -- including "The Who's Tommy," for which he won a Tony Award for directing, and "Jersey Boys," for which he earned a Tony nomination.
Nolan and Walpole say they don't know if "Jesus Christ Superstar" will also hit the Great White Way after its run in San Diego.
"We don't even really like saying the 'B' word without knowing if it's actually going to be there," said Walpole.
"Ultimately we hope so and we hope the whole cast stays with it, too."
Said Nolan: "Of course, it would be a dream come true to get to do it somewhere like New York, but at this point there's no future plans beyond La Jolla."
