"During intermission, a woman behind me was complaining that Jesus Christ wasn't very nice in this production of "Jesus Christ Superstar". That's not quite right. What Jesus was was very, very tired. After three straight years of attempting to save people from themselves, he was exhausted. And with foresight and foreboding, he knew what was going to happen. And while Jesus moved exhorably towards his fate , the entire world was clamoring at him, begging him, demanding, exalting condemning. As Jesus healed one person after another, they all but killed the God, the man, the Man-God, until, in the single sagest piece of advise you will ever hear, he shouted: "Heal yourself".
If this Jesus Christ, portrayed with a cerebral aloofness hiding a world of pain by Paul Nolan in the brilliant Stratford Shakespeare Festival production, currently in previews at the Neil Simon, was the center of "Jesus Christ Superstar", you couldn't watch it. It would be too painful.
The problem with "Jesus Christ Superstar" is that by dwelling solely upon the days leading to his death, it is a triumphant story of spiritual resurrection that plays out as a tragedy. The nature of Jesus is a question mark to those that surround him and, while we know the truth, even if an actor makes us only one removed from the Christ, his divinity is a question mark to us as well. The forces of fate, actually God, are bearing upon him. And Jesus Christ has no way out he would care to chose and so after Judas betrays and he is crucified, it feels like what we've watched is just the horrifying persecution of one man, plus some often great symphonic rock songs.
There is no way to change this truth, that it is 115 minutes of devastation followed by five minutes of Glory.
Concentrating on Christ's last days hurt Mel Gibson's "The Passion of Christ" and it harms "Jesus Christ Superstar.
What this brilliant production does it take the story away from Jesus and on to Mary Magdalena and even more so Judas Iscariot. It was always Judas' to steal. He has all the best songs, "Heaven On their Mind" "Damned For All Time" and the title track are, with the exception of Mary's "I Don't know How to Love Him", the best songs in the Andrew Lloyd Webber and Tim Rice score. But Judas is a rich and complex character and it is easy to lose him in the bombast. Josh Young, a young yet journeyman musical actor, takes his moment here. This Judas doesn't know what's what. He is blinded by his love for Jesus and terrified that the political movement and the spiritual movement, both of which are spiraling out of control, will crush Jerusalem and the Jews with them. Josh plays Judas as a Trotskyite who is beginning to figure out Trotsky might not have the situation under control.
The suggestion of homosexuality in the Christ story, or any sexually segregated story, is always there, and Young, hiding and watching Mary's protestations of love to a sleeping Jesus, response is to immediately go to the Romans. It makes the betrayal by a kiss all the more disturbing.
Musically, all three leads are very pretty and very fine though Chilina Kennedy is no Yvonne Elliman as Mary Magdalena. King Herod is an especially good take on the vaudeville number. At the time the concept of symphonic rock was a very new, and the score felt too bombastic. Time has attuned us to it and what is left is Lloyd Webber's most melodic work. It isn't the equal of "The Phantom Of The Opera" but it is better than the rest of his work.
They leave the best for last. A towering, thundering "Jesus Christ Superstar", with the recently deceased Judas in a blue tux dancing across the stage and the very nature of catharsis and all the confusions of the show resolved in the glory of sound and beauty.
Director Des Mcanuff has transformed a messy book with fabulous score into a masterful musical theater experience. And it should be a huge hit. but I've discussed it with two people and neither liked it, one of them dismissed it as a "boring operetta".
Grade: A