Jesus Christ Superstar in Concert

Finally got the chance to watch my DVR recording of NBC’s “Jesus Christ Superstar in Concert“.  The original Broadway version was a must-have recording when I was in high school and college.  I still know almost all the words to every song in the show.  So I was pretty excited when I heard about the live version that the Peacock Network was planning.

I know this is a bit “day late and a dollar short”, but here are my thoughts on the show.

  • Visually this was a stunning performance.  They really did a great job creating a new and television-friendly version of the staging.
  • John Legend seemed a little overwhelmed by the role.  His voice is fine, but he lacked any stage presence.  I got to the point where I was waiting to see if his arms ever moved.  Too often he sang with no physical presence at all.  He didn’t “command the space” as some acting teacher over the years once put it to me.  Left the title character a little flat.  He did seem to come alive during the “Gethsemane” piece in the second act.
  • Brandon Victor Dixon, who played Judas, jumped off the screen. Ben Daniels (Pontius Pilate) and Sara Bareilles (Mary Magdalene) also did very nicely. 
  • Alice Cooper (Herod) was less impressive.  A nice concept as stunt casting but he was being Alice Cooper, not playing the role.  I was disappointed.
  • What struck me the most was that the show really looked like it needed a couple weeks on the road to smooth out the rough edges.  Live theater isn’t easy, nor for the faint of heart.  On the whole, the entire production did a very good job.  The real problem here might be caused by what’s next among my topics.

I was just going to include this last item on the list above, but it deserves to be set on its own.  The commercials.  The seemingly innumerable commercial breaks.  NBC screwed up.  They treated this like any other TV production, and along the way robbed the show of any sense of flow.  I’ve done enough live theater to know the vital importance of getting a performance on a roll.  Building the energy between castmates, and the cast and the audience.  This stop and go format was awful to watch, even when I could zip through the commercial breaks.  It had to be awful backstage and in the live audience.

The 1969 studio album of the show remains my favorite version.  I am not a fan of the movie version.  I did see a national touring company of the show (also starring Ted Neely as Jesus, as in the movie), which was fine except for its star.  Neeley was clearly milking the role for all it was worth and was well past his prime.  I posted about that on one of my blogs and got a very nice response from a cast member who was watching the online response.  
Saw criticism of Legend and Cooper, which was fair.  I’m always amused at the “Andrew Lloyd Webber is overrated” comments that pop up with any production.  You don’t have to like his work.  But by most contemporary standards, he stands at the apex of musical theater.  “Jesus Christ Superstar”, “Evita”, “Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat”, “Cats”, and “Phantom of the Opera” are at the top of the heap of his 13 musicals (not all of which were hits, but that’s part of the business).  Seven Tonys, three Grammys, an Academy Award and a Golden Globe.  Those are just the American awards.  He has a boatload of British theater awards,  plus a peerage from the Queen of England.  He’s the most commercially successful composer of all time and has changed (for better or worse may be open for discussion) the face of musical theater.  Several of shows ran for a decade.  While he, like any star, has his corps of sycophants, the idea that he is “overrated” is silly, in my not so humble opinion.  YMMV
On the whole, I’ve spent an evening watching a lot worse TV.  But next time NBC, figure a better way to handle the commercials.  Think soccer rather than football as your model.

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