I was admittedly very excited to see this one. I’d heard all sorts of things about it being an awesome musical with some great numbers and an awesome story arc.
I hate to say this… I was extremely disappointed, and I mean extremely….
Let’s begin…
So the music opens up somewhere in the desert with a bunch of performers getting off their tour bus and setting up for the production. To anyone just sitting down to this movie having never seen a production of this musical before… if you’re reaction isn’t ‘Okay, wtf is going on here?’ You’re a better man than me. Well they get started and to be honest… I don’t know… there really isn’t much to say here.
Ted Neeley and Carl Anderson as Jesus and Judas definitely stole… what there actually was to steal from this show. Both of their voices were powerful and you could see they were putting a lot into this… it’s really too bad they seemed to be the only ones who were.
So this movie is basically about the trial, crucifixion, and death of Jesus. Okay… definitely a workable premise for a music. But I guess my first problem is that the sets were not well done. This to me looked like opening night at a pre-broadway performance of a play where the sets are somewhat shoddy, the actors are still finding their places, and the producer is backstage biting his nails, hoping it will be a big hit. For a stage production, this is acceptable, but this was a fairly high budget movie we’re talking about! Cheaping out on the sets is not a good way of going about it. Oh and don’t you dare try to tell me that they were done that way to be artistic, because of that’s the case, then a case of severe pretense can also be added to this movie’s rap sheet!
Take that situation out to the desert and basically throw the set over more modern buildings, and not in a way that they had the modern stuff. Just do it in a way so that it’s barely covering anything and you should be golden. That’s what this was. In fact the only costume I found believable was Jesus himself. His robes looked believable, but that was about it. The other’s were gaudy, unrealistic, and… not even aesthetically pleasing. I mean if you’re trying to be preteni… artistic, that’s fine, but first you have to make what you’re doing appealing. So you’ve got crappy sets, crappy costumes, substandard musical numbers… so with all this in mind, can the one aspect we haven’t gone through yet save this play; the story? Sadly… no.
This is where I really get irked. The story of Christ’s crucifixion and death is literally referred to as “The Greatest Story Ever Told.” Whether you’re christian or not it is a compelling story of self-sacrifice and salvation. How could anyone screw that up? Sadly, this play found the way. Jesus Christ Superstar decided to take the sort of anti-hero approach to this one. Jesus is portrayed as a primadonna more interested in his own fame than the work he was doing while Judas was more portrayed as the voice of reason.
A good example of this is when Mary washes Jesus feet with perfume and oil. In the original story, Judas wanted her to sell that oil. He said he wanted her to do this because the money from the perfumes could have been given to the poor. The reality was that he was a thief who planned on taking the money for himself. But Jesus rebuked him and allowed her to anoint him.
This story paints it more as Judas saying that she should sell it to be charitable and the reason Jesus wants it to be done is because he’s the son of God and he deserves luxury, etc. etc…
Yeah you know something, aside from the blasphemous aspect of this… this might actually be an interesting twist on the original story if #1. It wasn’t reminiscent of the ramblings of every anti-christian or atheist punk out there, and #2 Every hard rock band out there hadn’t already done this to death! So yeah, the people who made Jesus Christ Superstar better hope that God either has a sense of humor or doesn’t exist… otherwise, they may be getting a Divine ass beating.
So the story ends with Jesus dead and Judas basically making fun of him in hell. It does not deal with Jesus ascending to Heaven or being resurrected. We’re basically left to either draw our own conclusions or believe that he stayed in Hell. Great…
So in the end, this play really didn’t turn out to be anything more than the normal ramblings from kids in college who wore all black, didn’t wear shoes, or wash their hair. It was very disappointing and I could go without another showing. Feel free to disagree, but that’s really all I took from this.