This is how I know many years have passed. Last night I saw Jesus Christ Superstar’s 50th Anniversary tour. The production was modern, nary a tunic or toga in sight. A rock band was onstage stuck in cubes stacked atop each other on the boards. A very large cross served as a runway for the singers and a table for the last supper.
I had never seen a stage production of the show before. However, I had heard the album many, many, and dare I say many again, times. Also, I had seen the first movie version when it came out. Went with one of my cousins, both of us inebriated, to the now gone Village movie theater down around 6th or 7th Street in Ocean City, NJ. The entrance to the cinema screamed faux “Ye Olde…”.
Back then Jesus Christ Superstar was a lightning rod between the faithful and the godless. I mean of course there was the huge hullabaloo over there being no resurrection scene. And using rock and roll in relation to Christ, blasphemy. I mean rock and rock itself was a blasphemy simply by existing. And then there was the whole Mary Magdalene and Jesus narrative in the play. Yeah, back when the album was released in 1971 it was promoted as a rock opera. Webber and Rice released it this way because nobody would finance their stage production of this “challenging” story). Jesus Christ Superstar was an LP you didn’t play around your parents and how the single was a top 40 hit (three times on the charts over two years topping out at #14) is mind boggling.
After attending the play with my son, we walked part of the way home afterwards. In my mind I was reviewing not just the production against the album and the first movie (I didn’t even know there was a second movie until my son showed me the wiki) but the crowd at the show. I mean a solid proportion of the attendees were just like me, people who had been 14 or 15 when the star-studded album came out. But the proportion of the “faithful” there last night surprised me. Lots of people wearing crosses on the outside of their garments. A couple of groups that had obviously bought tickets with their congregations. Jesus Christ Superstar has clearly passed from revolutionary to something quaint. I can almost hear the pastors making the speech in the post viewing discussions that starts, “The play didn’t show the resurrection but we know in our hearts what really happened…”
In my conversation with my son, I talked about the zeitgeist when the music first hit the scene and the changes I saw in the crowd, in America, in the majority faith in America. The music hit us in the midst of the antiwar antiestablishment movements and revolution never seemed far off. Riots were everywhere it seemed. But that particular fervor passed. Church’s seemed to have little relevance except as voices to stay with the status quo.
My son focused on the staging being contradictory to the weight of the show’s history/legacy. The actors wore hoodies and other nondescript garb. Herod was played by a woman dressed roughly akin to the ringmaster at a circus. My boy’s opinion was that it would have been better staged as a concert like one of the Les Mis anniversary shows rather than trying to mash up a historic tale, and a production with significant staging history, with the “youth” look. With so much of the past of this musical being period tied, just imposing a flashy set and faux hip hop garb took away from the overall impact of the production.
His comments were not made flippantly. He knew every song, every lyric by heart. We both agreed one major failing of the production was the lack of a fifth strong voice. Pilate, Caiaphas, Judas and Mary Magdalene were are very strong. I particularly liked Pilate’s voice in his dream piece. But the actor playing Jesus seemed lost in the vocal mix. Maybe it was on purpose, making him quieter thus showing him to be a pawn in God’s game or something along those lines. But I think it was simply a casting choice of less that optimal quality.
From Jesus Freaks to prim and proper attendees at musical theatre my how my generation has changed. We have gone from wannabe revolutionaries to willing participants in the bread and circuses, ah so it goes.
Five decades have slipped by and now I spend most of my time on the east side of the Atlantic. But the play triggered memories of my youth on the west side of the Atlantic. Ocean City faithful ( you know who you are), right now, I am wanting a Taylor pork roll sandwich and some birch beer. I would settle for a cheesesteak, fries and a coke from Del’s. Personally, I would like to be wearing a medium size t-shirt showing the face of that guy on the King Crimson album and size 32 cut off blue jean shorts watching the waves and smelling the creosote of the boardwalk. 50th anniversary, geez. Funny how time slips away.
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