On Saturday I went with our two Ptown friends (they call us the Show Girls, so I think I will refer to them as the Show Boys) and my mother to see Jesus Christ Superstar at our favorite regional theatre. Years ago when I was a little kid, my sister had been in a local production of Fiddler on the Roof, playing one of the minor roles as one of Tevye’s younger daughters. For some reason, this same theatre was also doing a production of JCS at the same time, and so we wound up seeing both of them. Oddly enough, apart from my sister’s one line, “Mama, where should I put these?” and the mother’s response, “Where do you think? On my head?!” I remember more of JCS than I do of that live version of FotR. My sister was a very young teenager when she was in that show, so I couldn’t have been more than 6-8 years old.
Being such a young kid who was forced to go to church every Sunday (and Sunday school!), my main memories of JCS were being incredibly weirded out by the whole thing. Church and everything surrounding Jesus were always very serious and somber, and I remember having a distinct feeling of WTF watching all these people singing and dancing to rock music with Jesus, Judas and all the gang. I distinctly remembered the scene where Judas commits suicide (although in the original play I saw, I think they made it seem more like he just fell into hell, and people intoning, “So long Judas.” This seemed so weird to me that I thought I must be misremembering, but they do indeed say, “So long Judas.”
I also remembered some of the main Jesus Christ Superstar song, where they sing, “Who are you, what have you sacrificed?” I also remembered Jesus at the end, standing with a board tied to his back so it looked like he was on a cross, crying out for his father. I remember the whole show making me feel very sad for both Jesus and Judas. It was an absolutely wild thing for a young churchgoing kid to see.
I was hoping that this production would jog my memory and more bits and pieces would come to me from that show I saw so long ago, but it was staged so differently from the one that I saw as a child that I really didn’t remember anything else.
It was a typical production for The Palace Theatre, incredible dancers with really inspired choreography, great singers, just a fantastic show all around. However I don’t think I would go see this one again. They did an amazing job, but it just isn’t my kind of show. I’m much more into musicals that make me laugh and enjoy myself, and Jesus Christ Superstar just makes me sad. Even with all the energetic dancing and singing, at the end of the day, the story of Jesus is… kind of a bummer. Perhaps it’s different if you’re a believer, but for my atheist ass, it’s just a sad story about a man going through terrible things.
The stage design was fairly minimal, with a big metal staircase at the center, and a scaffold for people to walk across at the top. They also had the orchestra pit open and an additional staircase leading down to it which made for some cool moments with cast members appearing and disappearing out of the pit. The young girl who made me cry when I heard her sing “On My Own” from Les Mis during the theatre’s summer preview last year was in the ensemble, but unfortunately she didn’t get too many bits of singing where you could hear her voice. She has such an incredible singing voice though, and I’m just happy to see they’re casting her in the professional shows, even though she’s still just a teenager. I hope I get to see so much more of her at that theatre. Another one of my favorite performers from past summer series was also in the ensemble. He played a lot of Disney princes over the years, and I always loved how energetically he dances. He always looks like he’s having the most fantastic time up on stage. During one scene where Jesus gets ticked off because a temple’s been filled with sex workers and drinkers, that dancer ran out to the aisle and was trying to get us to buy one of his boys or girls. I was delighted! He’s another one that I hope sticks around and keeps performing at The Palace.
There is a song called, “What’s the Buzz?” and my mother nudged me and was like, “Are they saying ‘What the Fuck?’” when I corrected her, she spent the next several minutes shaking with laughter over her mistake. Never a dull moment with my mom, thinking they would be flinging around f-bombs in a musical about Jesus.
The guy playing Jesus was quite good, but he wasn’t my favorite of the cast. There were a few parts where he wound up screaming in kind of a falsetto register, and I wasn’t such of fan of that. I’m not sure if that was a vocal choice he was making on his own, or if it’s how the songs are arranged. The Show Boys appreciated his physique and handsome face, but I was more interested in what product he uses in his hair as he had beautiful, tight, shoulder length curls. He spends so much of the show just standing around and looking sad. During the scene where he’s being whipped, they had members of the ensemble run by him with some sort of red chalk on their hands. After each “hit” they’d leave a mark and with him standing up there and grimacing in pain, it was very effective.
I would argue that if you’re a guy looking to be cast in JCS, the part you want is Judas. While Jesus stands around looking sad for most of the show, Judas gets to chew the scenery a lot more, and his songs were more bangers. Our Judas did a great job as far as the quality of his voice, and his acting, but it was difficult to understand what he was singing a lot of the time. Also, is it just me, or do Jesus and Judas have a bit of a shippy thing going on in this show? Like… I was definitely getting jealousy vibes from Judas over Mary Magdalene. Like that bitch was stealing his man or something. Is it just me?
The guy who’d been an enormous hit playing Brick in Escape to Margaritaville was playing Pontius, and it was wild getting to see him play such a serious part after he’d been so hilarious in ETM. He has a wonderful voice, and his vocals really got to shine this time around. I was happy to see him back at the theater, and I hope he becomes a Palace Theatre regular.
One of the other er… man is my Catholic upbringing failing me. One of the bad guys who wants Jesus to die, the guy playing him had an incredible, deep, baritone voice. It looked like such a deep voice shouldn’t have come out of him. He was new to The Palace, and I’d love to see him come back. I had to look up the word because it was driving me nuts, he was one of the Pharisees.
I would say that the two real stars of the show though, were the woman who played Mary Magdalene, and the guy who played King Herod. The woman who played Mary had a sensational voice, and she was definitely the best singer of the show. I don’t know how flamboyant King Herod usually is in this show, but he was literally all bedecked out like Elton John, complete with a glowing sign above his head that said King Elton Herod. He had the giant platform boots, big colorful sunglasses, it was wild. He did loads of fourth wall breaking and talking to the audience. It was actually a nice bit of mirth in the middle of such a heavy show. It was hilarious though, because he’s in the middle of the stage, all glitz and glamour, and camp behind his keyboard, and the whole time he’s cracking us all up, Jesus is just off to the side of the stage completely stone-faced and glaring at him. Such a vibe-killer that Jesus. Herod definitely stole the show, and it was probably my favorite bit of the show. He got a HUGE round of applause at the end when he took a bow.
So yeah, I was happy that we went to see it, and it was definitely an enjoyable experience with a super talented cast, just not my cup of tea at the end of the day. The Show Boys were looking around like crazy for Jesus after the show ended, but there was no sign of him! We did catch a few other cast members coming out near the end, but they don’t really do a proper stagedoor experience at this theatre, and everyone was just trying to get home to sleep, so we didn’t hassle any of them.
My next show is going to be at the beginning of June when we see A Chorus Line. I’m really looking forward to that one, because during the brief period of time when we had drama classes at my high school (literally just during my senior year), we spent weeks and weeks doing bits from A Chorus Line. So I remember loads of the songs, but I’ve never actually seen the show in person. I’ll be excited to see who gets cast in that one.
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