A belated Happy Easter to my Christian friends, an early Happy Easter to my Greek Orthodox friends, Happy "Didn't We Do All This A Couple Of Weeks Ago?" to my Pagan friends. Oh and I wag a finger at my Jewish friends while jokingly ask "What did you do?". Now I don't celebrate the entirety of the holiday but most of my family does so I follow suit. One of the things I have made it a custom of doing is watching the '73 Jesus Christ Superstar movie based on the musical. For a couple of years now I have wanted to see the live rock opera version starring Tim Minchin as Judas. Well this was the year. Aside from Minchin, the performance also features Ben Forster (who won an American Idol type contest named Superstar to win the role) as Jesus Christ, and Melanie Chisholm as Mary Magdalane. Chisholm is also known as Mel C who was Sporty Spice in The Spice Girls. Every version I have seen has had a somewhat campy performance from whoever plays King Herod. I saw Alice Cooper play the part in the TV version from 2018, for Christ sake, and even that was pretty good.
Oh, pardon the pun! I don't want to forget to mention Josh Mostel's version in the '73 film which is absolutely sublime! Playing the part here is English radio and TV personality Chris Moyles. Now I wouldn't know Moyles if I tripped over him in the street but he does an excellent job as well with it even if the part is only about ten minutes long. The other person I wanted to mention is veteran stage actor Alexander Hanson because his version of Pilate is like none I have ever seen. Not that it is better than the (at times) shocking portrayal by Barry Dennen, for I think without his version, we would never have gotten the version we have here. Hanson is all at once sympathetic and accusatory to Jesus and his choices but you can see the sadness inside him even as he spouts vitriol while condemning Christ to death. His words say "Crucify Him!" but his face begs the crowd for their forgiveness of Jesus.
The stage is mostly just bare bones black risers with the occasional prop or scenery used in a very updated (but certainly acceptable) way. One who knows about JCS knows it's filled with anachronisms and this version is no different. It's always interesting to see how each version will be updated. The orchestra, which is really more of a rock band, is divided in half on either side of the stage with several different levels of the stage being used for them. This of course leads to the audience down in front getting a great view of the action. Also on either side of the stage, scattered throughout the band, is the production crew with some monitors where you could see for a few split seconds here and there stage directors giving different actors their cues. At least that's what it looked to me, I don't know much about the stage. That's not really a complaint about it either, but what do I know.
This concert tour/performance was the first time that composer Andrew Lloyd Webber actually saw his original vision fully realized. He even makes a point of coming on stage afterwards to say so. As much as I liked this version (which I am leaning towards rating higher than I do the '73 film which is so far the best version I have seen) there is a couple things keeping it from being perfect for me. One is due to a few decisions (wrong ones to me) by the director of the film Nick Morris who has made his living off of filming musicals. The main one that stood out to me is during the song Hosanna which is when Jesus gets a idea that he's going to die for his actions. His followers are seemingly asking him to prove his love to them by doing so. In the '73 version when Jesus makes this realization the change in looks that overcomes the face of actor Ted Neeley's clearly foreshadows what Jesus already knows is to come. Here, Jesus is hardly shown feeling one way or another, in fact it isn't until the Gethsemane (I Only Want to Say) performance do we really know that Jesus is aware of his coming fate.
The other and more glaring part is while Tim Minchin is hands down the best part of the show, I mean it's not even close, his performance is the only one that is auto-tuned. As far as I can tell it also seems unnecessary. Upon further investigation, Minchin himself was furious when he found out about it. This two things are pretty much all I have to complain about. I know what the '73 film was trying to achieve and that was put a musical in a wider area than a stage can afford. Which it does well. I mean it looks incredible but (and here comes the hate mail) I always thought the actual vocals by the actors were the third most important part of the film. Don't get me wrong, the performances are some of the most iconic in rock opera history, if not in all musical film history. I just feel cinematography and acting was valued more than the vocals. With all that in mind I highly recommend this version regardless if you've seen the film before. Either way see this and let me know how you feel about it. Watch both, compare them, and then talk to me. Until I am convinced differently this is my new favorite version and I will give it four and a half apostles out of five.
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