On the whole, I really enjoy JESUS CHRIST SUPERSTAR.
My favorite song is HOSANNA, which is EXHILARATING (if done right, with a large stage choir with gorgeous voices, as I have seen in some productions). HOSANNA depicts the triumphal entry of Christ into Jerusalem on Palm Sunday, welcome by adoring crowds, hoisted on to their shoulders amid waving palm fronds, etc. Many watching the production burst into tears during this song. I have many times.
Other great songs are Everything’s Alright, Pilate’s Dream, Could We Start Again, Please?, The Trial Before Pilate, and Superstar. Superstar is sung after he is condemned by Pilate, with crowds of unbelievers singing it, led by the ghost of Judas, while Christ carries the cross on his back. It is the song of the doubters and skeptics.
The most powerful song, but the one with the MOST problemmatic lyrics,
is GETHSEMANE. Jesus, in this song, is TOO human, TOO weak. He actually kinda loses his temper with the Father. Yes, he was in great pain, but he was also fully God as well as fully man, and would not have said some of the things depicted in Gethsemane’s lyrics ((when Webber and Rice wrote the play, they were not believers, though they liked Jesus, and this explains the show’s errors)).
A few other tidbits:
The Brown Album, from London, released in 1969, with Ian Gillan of Deep Purple (with his great voice) as Jesus, Murray Head as Judas, Yvonne Elliman as Mary Magdalene, and Barry Dennen as Pilate. Elliman and Dennen reprised their roles in the movie later on.
The show played London’s west end for YEARS.
It opened on Broadway in a very gaudy production directed by Tom O’Horgan, in 1971, to mixed reviews (it was way too flashy and weird of a production), with Jeff Fenholt (now a fundamentalist/charismatics tv evangelist and singer) as Jesus, Yvonne Elliman as Mary Magdalene, Barry Dennen as Pilate, and the great Ben Vereen as Judas.
THE MOVIE, directed by the gifted NORMAN JEWISON, actually played Christ quite respectfully (especially considering it was directed by a Jewish man who did not believe in Jesus as messiah), was filmed on location in various “ruins” in Israel. It was released
in 1973 (not in the 60s) and starred Ted Neeley as Jesus, the fantastic Carl Anderson
(may he rest in peace, died a few years back of leukemia) as Judas Iscariot in a powerful performance as the tortured traitor), Yvonne Elliman as Magdalene, Barry Dennen as Pilate, Joshua Mostel (Zero Mostel’s son) as King Herod.
I like the movie, but it was dated and mixed modern imagery with a mix of traditional and modern costumes. Ted Neeley’s voice was kind of too tinny for the role, but he did a good job with Gethsemane. The Palm Sunday scene was shot beautifully, but the choir singing HOSANNA did not have the gorgeous voices of the choirs on the brown London album, so the song was a tad disappointing in the film. Superstar was done very well, with Judas’s ghost descending in white like an angel falling from heaven, followed by Vegas-type showgirls emerging from a fiery hallway, reminiscent of the pit of hell, led by a scowling Judas. The song is interspersed with images of Judas and the girls singing while Jesus carries the cross and his followers walk behind him weeping. On the cross, Jesus commends his spirit to the Father and dies. Next, you see the entire cast back in their regular clothes, getting onto their actor’s tour-bus, and driving away. Weird thing: The guy who played Jesus, Ted Neeley, is not with them.
The camera goes back to a large cross silhouetted against a blazing setting sun, slowly fading as, at the bottom of the screen, a shepherd leads a flock of sheep in front
of the foot of the fading cross (this is the music-only final song, very sad sounding,
called John 19:41.
There have been many, many productions of SUPERSTAR. And Ted Neeley continued playing the role in touring companies until 2011, when he was 65 years old.
The best production I have ever seen, ever,
was the 1998 production done at THE ACTORS PLAYHOUSE AT THE MIRACLE THEATRE in Coral Gables (Miami), Florida. That production was drop-dead gorgeous, and people stood and cheered, lots of us with tears in our eyes, when the cast took their final bows. It was utterly gorgeous.
I’m intrigued. Which problems are you referring to?
) as the lights were flashing white and red.
