Sunday I went to see usernamenumber* in the MTG’s production of Jesus Christ Superstar. I attended the Sunday matinee, and Bernie and Plesser were good enough to accompany me. I enjoyed Evil Dead there very much, and I know now that I should never miss a chance to see Brad act and/or sing onstage.
The production was decent and I enjoyed it, but it had issues. To put on my critic hat, as I threatened Brad I would, the biggest problem for me and the one that kind of pervaded the whole show was that the sound levels were really off. I had a very hard time hearing the singers over the band, which unfortunately made it harder to appreciate everyone’s performance. Judas was a good actor as well as a good singer, but he particularly got lost volume-wise. Brad of course was amazing, easily my favorite performance in the show. He has such a rich, strong voice, and I very much enjoyed how he conveyed the peculiar conflict of Pontius Pilate, particularly when he exploded with frustrated rage when the man he was trying to spare would do nothing to save himself. I also had no idea that wired_lizard* could dance, and my compliments on her really fun costume work!
My favorite scene was the scourging of Jesus. They had a very clever, visually striking way of doing it. They had Pilate stand on a higher level than everyone else, cracking his whip and counting the lashes, as Jesus was seized by the arms and turned away from the audience, so that the ensemble could run downstage, dip their hand in a bowl of blood, and smack their bloody fingers against Christ’s back in time with each of Pilate’s strokes. I thought that was an incredibly clever way to do that. Other highlights include Greg Lohman’s really fun performance as Herod (his song is one of my favorites from the show) amid girls dressed as sexy security guards, and the tiny Asian guy with the BIG BASS VOICE playing Caiaphas.
I wish I could see it with Jared and hear what he thought. He's a big fan of the musical, and while I saw the movie a million years ago, I didn't remember it all that well. He and I had an interesting conversation as to how the musical is ambiguous about whether or not it sees Christ as truly divine. As for the group I went with, Plesser was the only one of us with real familiarity with the music. He was sorry that Pilate's Dream was played electric instead of acoustic. I was just glad that they did Superstar justice. And though I'm not sure I agree with every stylistic choice made by Andrew Lloyd Weber, I find his adaptation of them material very interesting. Recasting Jesus as a sixties-style revolutionary is a great idea because he really was a revolution. Religiously, socially, politically, ideaologically revolutionary. He did what every great social reformer means to do: he changed the world. And after all, as I've always said regarding the saga of Christ-- even if you don't believe it, you gotta admit, it's the greatest story ever.
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