Which 70's Rock Musical is your favorite: Jesus Christ Superstar or Godspell?

[jkatpc]

Kay Cee:

I voted “neither,” but if I had to choose which was the worse, I would choose Superstar.

I just can’t stand its representation of the Last Supper: “For all you care, this bread *could be *my body.”

I cringe just thinking about it.

Jesus, perfectly (and perfect) man, looks at his friends who don’t understand what he is about to do for all mankind and who don’t understand the sacrament he’s about to institute, laments. But, the music tempo increases, more determined and focused, and Jesus sings, “This is my blood you drink, this is my body you eat. If you would remember me when you eat and drink.”

 

[LSK]

I had at least three songs I wanted to do the Solos on for GODSPELL…

BUT - I got to see JCS in London, England when I was 17 years old and it was MAGICAL…

:dancing:

 

[LSK]

Jaypeeto2:

I voted “neither” even though I have performed in GODSPELL and loved it for many years, and even though I know Jesus Christ Superstar, every word, from start to finish.
My favorite song in SUPERSTAR was “Hosanna,” and I used to sing it all the time. In Godspell, I loved most of the songs.
So why vote for “neither”?
Theological issues, really.
Jesus’ explosive rant at God the Father in Superstar’s GETHSEMANE is really very sacrilegious when you stop and think about it. Christ would NEVER have insulted the Father like that.
As for Godspell, most of the show, like Superstar, is okay, but there are those moments where error and or irreverence come in to play.
In Godspell, the line “C’mere Jesus, I got somethin’ to show Ya” spoken by the Mary Magdalene-type character, is really out of place.
I hated to vote neither, because both shows contain some really incredible music. Superstar’s Could We Start Again Please? is absolutely beautiful, for example. But I have to ask myself if these shows present an HONEST portrait of Christ and sadly, they don’t.
Love, Jaypeeto2

AAACK you are right and you GOT me…but I still love the music…

 

[carol_marie]

I had to vote neither - I’d also pick Andrew Lloyd Webber’s OTHER religious musical - Joseph & the Amazing Tech. Dreamcoat - my all time favorite musical. Want me to sing every word for you…???

 

[Pug]

carol marie:

I had to vote neither - I’d also pick Andrew Lloyd Webber’s OTHER religious musical - Joseph & the Amazing Tech. Dreamcoat - my all time favorite musical. Want me to sing every word for you…???

Oh, wait for me, you can’t sing it alone… “for the children of Israel are never alone” <>

I love, “Oh no, not he, how you can accuse him is a mystery”

and also, “Those Caanan days”

As a musical it is Fun-Tastic!

 

[Jaypeeto2]

Ah yes. JOSEPH AND THE AMAZING TECHNICOLOR DREAMCOAT. Now THAT is an Andrew Lloyd Webber/Tim Rice musical that I absolutely am in love with.

“I closed my eyes…drew back the curtain…to see for certain what I thought I knew. Far far away, someone was weeping, while the world was sleeping, any dream will do.”

I love that show. And I know most of it by heart. And the finale is beautiful too, “So Jacob came to Egypt, no longer feeling old. And Joseph came to meet him in his Chariot of Gold…” That is one of the most touching scenes in any play or musical, when Joseph is reunited with Jacob.

On a scale of one to ten, I’d rate JOSEPH a ten. I also am a huge fan of Webber & Rice’s biographical opera, EVITA. I know every word of that show by heart too, from beginning to end.

Love, Jaypeeto2

 

[MEP]

You lost me at “70s Rock Musical”. Worst decade ever. We have this era to thank for destroying our hymnals too.

 

[Gottle_of_Geer]

Edwin1961:

So which is Your favorite?

When one (or both) of them was (or were) first produced in the UK, it (or they) was (or were) vigorously denounced as blasphemous & obscene - so was “The Life of Brian”. How times change.​

 

[patrick457]

I like Jesus Christ Superstar, though I do not mean that it is a ‘perfect’ depiction of Jesus (Then again, all cinematic portrayals of Jesus aren’t also perfect and couldn’t match the perfectness of the Divine Story). Only it’s depiction of Jesus is also quite a bit problematic for some, I admit.

Alma,

There is a gentleman by the name of Mark Goodacre who did a sort of thesis on JCS. http://www.unomaha.edu/jrf/jesuscss2.htm

Anyways, he made the same statement as you, that there is no ‘resurrection’ in JCS. But you are both wrong. If you leave the movie running beyond the bus driving off into the desert, you will see a sunset. If you watch in the dunes, a lone shepherd starts to walk across the screen (basically a silhoutte) followed by a flock of sheep. There is the resurrection. IMHO a wonderful way to portray it.

I did email him with the info and he agreed with me, unfortunately he has never added an addendum to the link above, so many will never even see the resurrection played out.

And another thing you’ll notice there, is when John 19:41 started to play, they ‘left’ Jesus on the Cross along with the Two thieves but when this scene rolls in, only Jesus’ Cross is the one that’s standing. Another thing you’ll notice here is the Cross is EMPTY. Then the whole shepherd thing comes.

I have once read a writer sayinghere,

The programme made a couple of interesting points. Firstly, one of the interviewees comments on how at the time Godspell was widely accepted by church groups, but has now fallen into disrepute as fundamentalism has risen. This strikes me as an interesting contrast to Jesus Christ Superstar which was considered scandalous in its time for it lack of resurrection amongst other things, but is gradually being rehabilitated. Whilst I don’t imagine it’s any more popular than Godspell amongst fundamentalists (especially as it also excludes the resurrection), it’s curious to see these two films level out in acceptability having come from very different starting points.

 

[LilyM]

Jesus, perfectly (and perfect) man, looks at his friends who don’t understand what he is about to do for all mankind and who don’t understand the sacrament he’s about to institute, laments. But, the music tempo increases, more determined and focused, and Jesus sings, “This is my blood you drink, this is my body you eat. If you would remember me when you eat and drink.”

I absolutely adore a lot of the music from JC - the Temple scene, Pilate’s dream and Herod’s song especially.

While some of the sentiments of the Garden of Gethsemane scene are dubious, true. Then again it was probably the second most painful and difficult moment of his life, so who’s to say that we know all that did go on between Jesus and the Father?

And the Last Supper sets the scene as to WHY Jesus sings the ‘for all you care’ bit … it starts with the Apostles singing a hymn to their own greatness - ‘… then when we retire we can write the Gospels, so they’ll still talk about us when we die’, which always gives me a chuckle.

This is entirely appropriate, since they are repeatedly recorded as to arguing which of them was the greatest. I can picture Jesus wondering, as he does out loud a bit later, whether ‘my words will mean nothing [to those who hear them only, of course] ten minutes after I’m dead’

 

[Actress101]

My high school is putting on Godspell for the spring musical! rehersals start tomarrow night! i’ll let everyone know what part I get asap.

 

[TrishaW]

Definitely JCS, but I saw it live a few years ago and have never seen Godspell live.

 

[SMHW]

I can’t speak for Godspell, which is the one in the modern setting.

For Jesus Christ, Superstar, it’s pretty obvious --at least once it is pointed out-- that the story is told from the perspective of Judas. Judas was dead by the time of the Resurrection so it is not included.

 

[Jaypeeto3]

WOW, this is REALLY an old thread…

Anyway, I have to confess that I’ve had a sentimental re-attachment to most of SUPERSTAR in recent months (still disapprove of the Gethsemane rant though), and catch myself
singing

Hosanna, Heysanna, Sanna Sanna Ho
Sanna Hey Sanna Ho Sanna
Hey JC, JC, won’t you smile at me,
Sanna Ho Sanna Hey Superstar !!

Can’t get that song out of my head lately.

Jaypeeto3 (aka Jaypeeto4)

 

[patrick457]

One part that amuses me though is that lyric in Simon Zealotes:

Christ you know I love you,
Did you see I waved?
I believe in you and God
So tell me that I’m saved

Whenever I hear that, The first thing that comes to my mind is that doctrine popular among some Protestants Confess Jesus as your Lord and Savior and you will be saved, you know, that doctrine of Sola Fide (Faith alone can bring justification, works mean useless) thing.

 

[kellie]

All through my childhood, the movie of Godspell with Victor Garber was aired every Easter.
Sadly, the TV networks fail to show it now.
A couple of years ago I bought the movie on DVD, as well as JCS.
I was also going through my Titanic stage, and got that on DVD too.
To my surprise, I realised Jesus in Godspell was Mr Edwards in Titanic.
I was so excited.
I love all the music in Godspell, especially “All For The Best” the duet between Jesus and John/Judas.
“Day by Day” is great too.
And I always get chills down my spine when Victor Garber is tied to the fence, and sings “Oh Lord I’m dying”.
Fantastic!

 

[Penny_Plain]

Godspell.

It’s so joyful, but the song that gets me is “On the Willows.” Any exile will understand. “Sing us one of the songs of Zion. How can we sing, sing the Lord’s songs, in a foreign land?”

Joseph has some of the most egregious rhymes:

All the things you saw in your pyjamas
Are a long-range forecast for your fahmahs…

It’s still genius, though.

 

[Strummer]

Although Jesus is a character in both, the two shows are vastly different (musical comedy vs rock opera) and tell different stories. One is a collection of parables told in an entertaining fashion with the Passion of Our Lord tacked on to the end and the other examines the “human side” of Jesus, Judas, and Mary. I like them both and have both on DVD (and, yes Victor Garber has done TONS of work since then). I even got to see Ted Nealy and Robert Hooks(?) recreate their movie roles in a stage production of JCS. Nealy was about 50 but he still had his rock-n-roll pipes. There’s an interesting video of a BBC stage production JCS I caught a glimpse of once which looked interesting as well (cameras and microphones for “Tell me, Christ, how you feel tonight? Do you plan to put up a fight?”)

JCS trivia: The final scene after the bus of actors leave was to be a sunset shot of just the empty cross on the hill from a distance. However, a shepherd guiding his sheep happened right across frame right when the lighting was just as the cinematographer wanted. Reshooting it would’ve been an expensive hassle but then they realized just how fitting that final “addition” was and kept it in.