So I was thrilled when I found out the latest entry into the catalogue of live musical events would be Jesus Christ Superstar, fittingly on Easter (and my birthday!). The cast announcements proved it was shaping up to be a good one and I eagerly tuned in, waiting to be blown away.
I was not disappointed.
First, a little synopsis because some people were still confused about the plot even though it should be well known. Jesus Christ Superstar tells of the last 7 days of Jesus’ life…through song. We start before he rides into Jerusalem on Palm Sunday as Judas worries about how large the crowds that surround Jesus are starting to get. He is afraid they will draw the wrong kind of attention from the Pharisees as well as the Roman officials, leading to disaster. It leads to some tensions between him and Jesus while Mary Magdalene tries to keep the peace. But Judas ends up turning Jesus over to the authorities as the crowd turns against him. Ultimately, Jesus is crucified.
Got it? Good. Let’s get on to the review!
We’ll start with the man himself—Jesus Christ. I was really excited when John Legend was announced for the role because I love his voice. And I wasn’t disappointed, though I’m not sure I’m happy with the changes they made for “Gethsemane (I Only Want to Say).” The song was written with a rocker in mind and Legend isn’t a rocker. His smooth vocals worked everywhere else except here, when he needed to really howl at the heavens. They toned it down but I hope people go and watch some other performances just wail it to get why some aficionados weren’t too happy with Legend’s version.
But Gethsemane is only one song. As I mentioned, he handled every other song well—even The Temple and the scene with the lepers. Legend was also very good during the Trial with Pilate. He always had this calm presence about him, which seemed perfect for Jesus—even when everything was chaos. He knew he had to die, that it was God’s plan, and he had accepted it.
While Jesus is the title character, Judas is the true star of the show. Brandon Victor Dixon certainly delivered in this aspect. Dixon is probably best known to the general audience as the actor who played Aaron Burr in Hamilton when then Vice President elect Mike Pence attended the show and gave his now famous speech asking Pence to remember he represented everyone. Now they’ll only remember him as Judas. He commanded the stage every second he was on it and he sang the role with such power yet such vulnerability at the same time. Judas isn’t just some villain—he’s a flawed person who is trying to do what he thinks is best and Dixon showed the anguish he feels at betraying Jesus perfectly.
Let’s move onto our leading lady…the only female lead in the show. That would be Mary Magdalene, played by Sara Bareilles. I absolutely love her songs and she’s definitely been honing her acting talents in the Broadway show Waitress, which she wrote the music and lyrics for. Her vocals were perfect for Mary’s two big numbers—“I Don’t Know How to Love Him” and “Could We Start Again Please?” She also played Mary as the peacekeeper between Jesus and Judas, almost like the glue that holds the group together.
The second-to-last big part is Caiphias, played by veteran Broadway actor, Norm Lewis. He added gravitas and a menacing air to the Pharisee determined to get rid of Jesus. With his deep singing voice, he was a perfect choice for the villain of the piece. I cheered when he took the stage.
And the last big part is, of course, Pontius Pilate, played by Ben Daniels. I am not familiar with his other work but he had a serviceable voice for Pilate. He started to sound strained toward the end but it worked as Pilate grows more anguished over Jesus’ treatment.
While it’s a small role with only one song, I think Alice Cooper deserves his own graph. He played King Herod and performed “Herod’s Song” halfway through Act II. It’s written like some vaudeville number and Alice relished every moment he was on stage. He handled the song very well and was thoroughly entertaining. Alice proved why he is a legend.
The rest of the principal cast—Jin Ha as Annas, Jason Tam as Peter and Erik Gronwall as Simon Zealot—rounded out the cast quite nicely. Each handled their parts perfectly, especially Gronwall as Simon Zealot. He put his rock experience to good use as he wailed about people being willing to follow Jesus in a rebellion against the Romans. Jin Ha also served as a great balance to Norm Lewis as well.
The live aspect of this show added additional layers that made it even better. When John Legend came out, the audience cheered and reached out for him because he is a superstar they admired. It was like the people reaching out for Jesus and added some authenticity to everything. And it energized me and several other people in the home audience when those there started to applaud or cheer during particularly impressive moments.
Another cool aspect for this live performance was the inclusion of the musicians. The other live productions haven’t had the musicians be so close to the performers and for this one, it added an extra layer to the show. Brandon Niederauer, an original cast member from Andrew Lloyd Webber’s Broadway musical School of Rock, had a few guitar solos and pretty much opened the show with his performance in the Overture. The musicians were then included in some numbers, such as the violinists who proceeded the procession for “Hosanna.” Everything was just electric with them there.
As seems par for the course for Jesus Christ Superstar productions, there was scaffolding and a minimalist set that evoked an urban area, perhaps a rundown one. Graffiti litters the wall and one cast member spray painted the name “Jesus” during the overture. There was also a giant cauldron of fire that was lit as well. If it had any symbolism, I’m not ashamed to admit it went over my head.
The costumes were pretty cool, once again modern yet eliciting a feeling of revolutionaries in some war-torn country about to rise up in rebellion. Much was tweeted about the costumes, including one tweet by Chrissy Teigen than read “The V’s they are a-deepening!” Because, yes, those necklines got lower and lower as the Crucifixion neared. I do wish they would’ve stolen the idea from the 2000 production where Jesus started out dressed like the others but as the play went on, his costume slowly morphed until he was dressed similarly to the traditional images of Jesus. I liked that symbolism but the costumes here were very good as well.
Many places have declared this the best of the live musicals and I have to agree. The creative teams generally remain the same (at least at NBC) and they are constantly learning, constantly improving. Making this a live concert with live musicians was inspired. I really hope they do the same next year when they do Rent Live! (Though I do wonder how they are going to get around the fact that there are quite a number of curses in that show).
Congratulations to the cast and crew for an amazing job! Bravo!
(Okay, the kinda funny, kinda sad story about when I saw Jesus Christ Superstar on Broadway. My aunt got tickets for her, my mom and I as an 8th grade graduation present to me. But when my mom and I got to the theater, my aunt was nowhere to be found. While my mom has had a cell phone since the mid-90s, this was 2000 and it still wasn't common for everyone to have a ccll phone. So we didn't really have anyway of getting in touch with her and figured she was just running late. When she still wasn't there by intermission, we started calling around and finally got my cousin--not my aunt's kid--who said something was wrong with my grandmother but it wasn't serious. We figured my aunt stayed home to take care of her and went back in for Act II. Afterwards, my dad finally got in touch with us and told my mom that Nana had actually been taken to the hospital and that he was there with my aunt. Keep in mind, we live in Staten Island and my grandmother lived in Queens at this time. So my mom and I hopped a train to Queens and met up with my family at the hospital.I feel like my dad pretty much took me straight away to his mother's apartment, where my sister was, so I didn't spent too long in the hospital. My grandmother ended up being okay, though she was kept for a few days, and my father has never let my mother live it down that he drove out to Queens to be with her mother while she continued to watch a Broadway show).
No comments:
Post a Comment