Article written by Samuel Burnett.
It was 2010 when I first fell in love with musical theatre. While I had gone down to QPAC or La Boite for school mandated trips, it was not until I saw the Harvest Rain production of Jesus Christ Superstar that my mind became open to the wondrous possibilities that musicals offered.
I remember sitting in the second row of the theatre, completely awestruck as Luke Kennedy as Jesus screamed during the song Gethsemane. He could reach these unbelievably high octaves with such perfect clarity and consistency. He brought this charming, youthful vibrancy to the role and when he was hanging from the cross during the climax, gasping in agony, crying out for his mother, I am not ashamed to admit that there were tears streaming down my face.
After this, I looked for every other version of the show that existed. While the hippie aesthetics and certain directing choices prevented me from ever being able to love the original, I can still understand why this version has the love that it has. There’s something oddly charming about the way it’s presented: a bunch of hippies take a bus into the desert and put on a version of the show purely for their own benefit. And, who can forget the electrifying performances of Ted Neeley and Carl Anderson as Jesus and Judas respectively?
Then came my personal favourite, the 2000 production starring Jérôme Pradon as Judas Iscariot. That man did something truly special with the role bringing out the anguish of a man who can see the writing on the wall and knows that everyone he cares for is in mortal danger unless he betrays his best friend. The raw ferocity of the performance becomes unleashed during the Last Supper when his fury at Jesus’ actions leads him to spitefully, almost proudly boast about his betrayal.
While many people have their own favourite depiction of the characters, this one will always be hands down my favourite and the one that I keep coming back to.
Which brings us to the 2018 version, Jesus Christ Superstar Live in Concert. When this musical starring John Legend in the title role was announced, I could barely contain my excitement. Huge names like Legend and Alice Cooper were attached and I just knew that people were going to see this and finally love this musical as much I had.
Finally, it was released. My two brothers and I had decided to make a night of it, pizzas and drinks littered the living room table and we sat down to watch.
The Overture was as over the top as you would expect and Brandon Victor Dixon’s Judas made for a thoroughly okay opening number but something horrible happened immediately afterwards.
John Legend appeared.
My brothers and I exchanged looks of pure horror.
This had to be a mistake, something had clearly gone wrong because there was no way that this smug looking, flat voiced, robotic performance could be the lead character. I had heard John Legend sing in the past, the man has talent and lots of it so why, why, did he choose not to use it? His simpering performance had all the charisma and range of a wet carrot.
During the riot led by his disciple, Simon the Zealot, rather than looking horrified at the violence like the previous iterations of the character, Legend instead had this simpering, smug smile on his face for the entire number, even dancing along if you can call those vague shoulder movements dancing. Which makes his attack on them for promoting violence in literally the next song come completely out of nowhere as does his utterly bizarre reason to include Judas in the takedown as Judas had barely been onscreen since his opening number.
Oh yes, I forgot to mention that, the story of Jesus and Judas, two men that love each other but are driven apart by their choices barely includes Judas!
How? Why? Just why?
That is singularly the most important relationship in the entire production but Brandon Victor Dixon is given the shaft so that Legend’s Jesus can spend his time making goo-goo eyes at Mary Magdalene played by Sara Bareilles whose costume makes her look like she wandered in from a completely different production. It’s really quite bizarre.
Was Legend afraid that acting an intense relationship with another man would make people think he was gay? Why else would they shaft the character that is arguably the lead of the show?
As the show continues, Legend makes mistake after mistake finally culminating with his butchering of Gethsemane, the most important song that features the character. During the climax of the song, Jesus lets out a heart wrenching, high pitched scream as he begs God not to let him die. It is often one of the emotional high points of any version and, when done well, can create an experience that is truly special.
How did John Legend decide to tackle such an important part of the song?
He didn’t.
That’s right, John Legend did not even try to include the most important part of his character’s song, one of the most important parts of the musical itself. He clearly did not have the voice to attempt such a feat but, if that was the case, what on Earth was he even doing in the production?
That’s when I realised that, although this performance had several high-profile celebrities, absolutely zero thought had been put into making sure that they were appropriate for the roles for which they had been given.
After all, why cast no name nobody who actually had the required vocal range for the part when you can cast the John Legend? Who cares if he can’t actually hit the right notes? Who cares if he can’t act? After all, he’s John Legend.
People will show up to see John Legend.
It just gets worse from there.
What we thought was going to be the single, solitary bright spot, Alice Cooper as King Herod, turned to ask before our very disappointed eyes.
Rather than addressing Jesus, Cooper instead decides to mug to the audience, loudly declaring “Jerusalem! I am your king!”. Cooper doesn’t even sing. Yeah, you read correctly, Alice Cooper does not sing in this musical.
Instead, he rather harshly screams out his lines with no thought as to how that might come across. Luckily for him, apparently no-one cares as he receives a standing ovation from the audience who seem to be cheering for his past career rather than the performance in front of them.
The Herod song is supposed to be this over the top number, not unlike Be Our Guest from Beauty and the Beast. It’s a visual spectacle that makes the audience laugh at the absurdity of the situation. Memorably, in 2012 Chris Moyles turned the whole thing into a twisted parody of talent shows like The Voice where the audience can vote “Is he a Lord or is he a Fraud? Find out after the break!”
Instead of that however, we get a wizened, seventy-year-old who stands perfectly still while some of the saddest looking back up dancers stand at his side. There’s no spectacle here. Cooper is supposed to be spectacle enough on his own but that was back in his heyday. He just can’t do that anymore and if he is unable to perform the role with the energy required he has no business being on that stage.
Which then brings us to one of the silliest non-John Legend related scenes in the entire show, Judas’ Death.
In other production, this the emotional equivalent of a gut punch, brutal, unforgiving and potentially terrifying.
The 2010 Harvest Rain production takes on an almost supernatural quality as a pistol materialises in Paul Watson’s hand before he roughly jams it to his head and the lights go out at the shot. In the 2012 production, Tim Minchin agonisingly draws it out as he methodically, painstakingly prepares his own execution, giving out a soul tearing “JESUS!” before he hangs himself.
What does Brandon Victor Dixon decide to do in the 2018 production?
He throws a tantrum, nasally whining out his lyrics as though he is fighting a head cold, and ties some very flimsy looking (nearly transparent) cloth together before killing himself offscreen,
Yep, you read that correctly, the 2018 production of Jesus Christ Superstar Live in Concert kills its protagonist with an offscreen death with one of the silliest build ups ever put to screen.
That faint sound you can hear in the background is a howl of total rage and disappointment that I am currently letting out.
Let’s just get the rest of this over with.
So, as you can probably guess, Jesus is arrested, charged, found guilty and condemned to die but not before being “flogged.” I use quotation marks because the “flogging” consists of John Legend writhing with a slightly constipated expression on his face while people run around him.
At this point, my brothers and I were just quietly resigned to the fact that this production was going to be terrible in nearly every aspect when something truly bizarre happened.
Brandon Victor Dixon remembered that he could actually sing!
As Jesus is lead of to his execution, the spirit of Judas Iscariot returns once again to finish this production with one of the greatest takes on the song Superstar that I have ever heard. Dixon was belting out these lyrics with the kind of ferocious intensity that you could only dream of.
What? Now they decide to put some effort into this production? At literally the last second?
Why?
However, as if the director realised that such vocal magnificence kind of clashed with the mediocrity that had made up the rest of the show, he decided to force Dixon to wear what could only be described as a spangled, chainmail tank top. If you don’t believe me, just a look at the picture below.
And, as if that wasn’t bad enough, the backup dancers accompanying Dixon are performing what appears to a yoga class for middle-aged pregnant women.
The 2000 production had Pradon rise up from Hell itself, supported by an army of angels, demons and reporters and the entire number became a mocking, yet deeply bitter attack as Judas finally gets to gloat about Jesus’ imminent death and the mistakes that led to it.
It is a thrilling, heartbreaking, awesome set piece but why would the 2018 want to emulate that?
No, it was clearly to have a bunch of people take part in a disjointed dance sequence where Judas and Jesus don’t even acknowledge each other’s existence.
So anyway, Jesus is thrown onto the daintiest, most delicate little cross I have ever seen in my entire life. Two toothpicks tied together would possess greater structural integrity than this pathetic piece of woodwork.
Finally, John Legend, proving he lacks even the meagerest of acting ability, dies in a death scene so poorly acted Marion Cotillard’s death in The Dark Knight Rises looks Oscar worthy..
Jesus Christ Superstar Live in Concert is a bizarre thing. It has so much going for it, possessing source material so good that it is still reinvented nearly fifty years later but instead, was content to do nothing with them.
It was lazy, phoned in production that has some of the best current names in music attached to it but in woefully miscast roles.
“You’re a joke, you’re not the Lord, you are nothing but a fraud!” declares Herod as he mocks Jesus with a sadly prophetic condemnation.
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