Jesus Christ Superstar Review

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I am making a review of the play Jesus Christ Superstar:

The play is supposed to be the end of Christ’s life through the point of view of Judas, it repeatedly shows Jesus telling Judas to do it already, as in betray Him. It shows Jesus sort of arguing with the Father and sometimes makes one doubt Christ’s divinity. It has Christ talk of the verse which refers to the Eucharist, but they changed it into saying something along the lines of “you treat me like this bread is my Body and this wine is my Blood.” The play in no way supports the Catholic Faith, but maybe this could be excused by it being Judas’ corrupted view, or maybe I’m defending it too much. If one has a weak Faith they should not see this play because they could be led into error. Also it kind of hints at Jesus and Mary Magdalene being in love. The one I attended had lots of immodesty.
 
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I never had the opportunity to watch a stage production of Jesus Christ Superstar, but Norman Jewison’s movie ranks – just talking about my personal taste – as one of the all time top Hollywood musicals. I would also list it as one of the top Gospel-based movies, along with classics such as Zefirelli’s Jesus of Nazareth. I certainly found nothing in it to challenge my Catholic faith. Quite the opposite.
 
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Have you read the lyrics of all the songs?
I am learning a couple of its songs right now. As a Catholic I read and studied to see what the ideas and intentions were.
It is a wonderful musical.
It portrays the Human Jesus, the Low Christology, not the High Christology.

And also listen to the creators of the musical to view their motivation for creating the musical.
 
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BartholomewB said:
I never had the opportunity to watch a stage production of Jesus Christ Superstar, but Norman Jewison’s movie ranks – just talking about my personal taste – as one of the all time top Hollywood musicals. I would also list it as one of the top Gospel-based movies, along with classics such as Zefirelli’s Jesus of Nazareth. I certainly found nothing in it to challenge my Catholic faith. Quite the opposite.
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I agree. It isn’t a doctrinal statement, but a very enjoyable musical. My parents bought the LP when it first came out, and I just about memorized it.
 
It was amongst the first music that I discovered for myself as a teenager in the early 1970s (in contrast to being steered by church or family), and I loved it!

I rediscovered it about five years ago (here in CAF, with the usual arguments… 😆) and thought even more highly of it now than I did as a teenager!

Wonderful music, and a wonderful film!
ps. When I discovered it as a teenager it was good for my faith.
 
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I was not allowed to see productions of musicals like “Jesus Christ Superstar” and “Godspell” when I was young because my mother thought they were at least borderline irreverent. She was not from the generation or era that was putting them on, nor was she involved in theater. I always felt a bit behind my classmates, who were often going to these shows because they had older siblings involved with the productions.

When I was maybe about 14 or 15 I finally saw the movie version of “Jesus Christ Superstar”. I think it played on TV. At the time my impressions as a young person were:
  • The relationship between Jesus and Mary Magdalene seemed a little too romantic, though they didn’t do anything openly bad.
  • I was very leery of Judas’ portrayal as a reluctant betrayer because I had been taught to think Judas was very willful and motivated by greed. Judas in the film was actually struggling with his choice and thinking he was doing the right thing, in other words committing a momentary evil for the sake of good and also it seemed because Jesus was urging him to do so. Also, and I’m not sure if the movie makers considered this or was it just a case of having a talented interracial cast, I thought it was weird that Jesus was white and Judas was black in the film. It was like they were making the black guy into the villain, although he might have been selected just because he was a talented performer with no regard to his race making a statement. That was an era when people in US were extremely race-conscious.
  • There was also some obvious antiwar stuff in the film, which wasn’t surprising given the era, but was heavy-handed.
Having seen the movie several times since then, I now think it provides an interesting and different take on the Jesus story. I can see why it might have been a little controversial at the time. I am more comfortable now with different tones or different “takes” on the standard Bible stories. I am not a big fan of the actor who was cast as Jesus, but the rest of the cast is great.

I also saw the teleplay version on TV in spring 2018. I mostly watched to see Alice Cooper play Herod. Alice was great. I was not impressed with the rest of the cast or with the production in general.

I have never yet seen it performed onstage.

The original album, which I understand pre-dated the musical, and features Ian Gillan and Murray Head, is awesome. I am a big fan of both Ian and Murray and I wish they had both been in the movie. Murray would have made a good Judas because of his general cynical air.
 
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I saw JCS in theology class in the 9th grade (yeah, I know 😜)
I liked the music, Josh Mostel as Herod the Great was epically hilarious (those glasses!!!).
I was offended at the scene where Jesus is pushing away the people who came to Him for help.

I’m definitely a Godspell girl. I love the Christian Hippie aesthetic.

However, if somebody is looking for a more “updated” version gospel, I highly recommend Tyler Perry’s Passion. It’s on You Tube and Trishia Yearwood ROCKS as the Blessed Mother ❤️.
 
I mean, I was there in the 70s and 80s and there was a push for authentic male vulnerability and emotion and I don’t even think it was All Bad.

However, from what we know of the Classical world and it’s philosophy (which cut across cultural lines) was that a man was supposed to “man up” and do the task at hand. And Jesus’ task was to comfort and heal, not freak out.

So I had a hard time with some pagan being strong and stoic, but Jesus the Son of God being wimpy.
 
The Gospels do suggest that Jesus would try to get away and take a break from the crowd. But I can’t see him actually shoving people around.
 
Yes—and there’s a difference between having dignity about it and being whiny about it LOL
 
The most notable thing for me was the fact that the play ends with the crucifixion. Although it doesn’t come right out and say so, it seemed to be implied that the story ended and there was not going to be any resurrection.

Aside from that very major flaw, I found the exploration of Jesus’ humanity interesting, in terms of his doubting his mission. This is very evident in the “Agony in the Garden” scene in which he talks to the Father and expresses very real human concerns and doubts. That scene at least ended correctly with Jesus eventually coming around to accepting his destiny as the Father’s will. I could totally see it happening that way, and it makes the agony much more agonizing to me, as opposed to a Jesus who had no trouble keeping it all together.
 
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I loved the song I Don’t Know How To Love Him. It brought me to tears and I remember singing it in the shower over and over. My very traditional Jewish Orthodox mother must have been just shaking her head and mumbling “meshuggenah” (crazy)!
 
0Scarlett_nidiyilii said:
I saw JCS in theology class in the 9th grade (yeah, I know 😜)
I liked the music, Josh Mostel as Herod the Great was epically hilarious (those glasses!!!).
I was offended at the scene where Jesus is pushing away the people who came to Him for help.

I’m definitely a Godspell girl. I love the Christian Hippie aesthetic.

However, if somebody is looking for a more “updated” version gospel, I highly recommend Tyler Perry’s Passion. It’s on You Tube and Trishia Yearwood ROCKS as the Blessed Mother ❤️.
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So am I. I much prefer Godspell and have seen several different productions of it as well as being the stage manager for my local theatre group’s production.
 
Tis_Bearself said:
I was very leery of Judas’ portrayal as a reluctant betrayer because I had been taught to think Judas was very willful and motivated by greed. Judas in the film was actually struggling with his choice and thinking he was doing the right thing, in other words committing a momentary evil for the sake of good and also it seemed because Jesus was urging him to do so.
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The theology gets pretty severely distorted at times, no doubt about that. Also there are several lines that must have seemed to many people at the time to be in bad taste, such as this instance of snide British humor, when the apostles sing:

Then when we retire we can write the gospels,
So they’ll all talk about us when we’ve died.

But there are also sharp insights that shape the characters without contradicting the Gospels, such as this couplet sung by Judas on his first appearance:

You’ve begun to matter more
Than the things you say.

I’ve always admired Norman Jewison as a director, for movies such as In the Heat of the Night and The Russians are Coming, and all things considered, as I said in an earlier post, I would rank his Jesus Christ Superstar as one of the best Gospel-based movies I’ve seen.
 
LeafByNiggle said:
The most notable thing for me was the fact that the play ends with the crucifixion. Although it doesn’t come right out and say so, it seemed to be implied that the story ended and there was not going to be any resurrection.
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But there was that short instrumental bit at the very end. I always thought of that as the sun rising and showing the empty tomb.
 
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