JESUS CHRIST SUPERSTAR
This is the musical that rocked the world, that prompted boycotts, picketing, bomb threats, and letter writing campaigns all over America, the musical that dared to recount the "Greatest Story Ever Told" in the earthiest, most democratic, most populist language of all -- rock and roll. The kick-ass score features classics like "Superstar," "I Don't Know How to Love Him," "Everything's Alright," and "Heaven On Their Minds."
The New Line cast included John Sparger (Judas/Jesus), Khnemu Menu-Ra (Judas/Jesus), Kimi Short (Mary), Aaron Allen, Sarah Armstrong, Kiné Brown, Christopher “Zany” Clark, Kevin Collier, Joy Ducree, Joseph Garner, Charles Glenn, Alison Helmer, Ember Hyde, Adam Leong, Uchenna Ogu, B.C. Stands, and Scott Tripp. The show was directed by Scott Miller with choreography by Robin Michelle Berger and fight choreography by Nick Kelly, and with a set by Todd Schaefer, costumes by Thom Crain, and sound and lighting design by Florian Staab. See Charles Glenn's brilliant star turn as a very different kind of King Herod... Superstar focuses on Jesus' role as political activist and challenger of the religious and political status quo, with clear parallels to the hippie movements of the 1960s and the growing political unrest in America today. Just as it was when the show first premiered, many Americans in 2006 are moving away from organized religion and toward more personal spirituality and philosophy. In the early 1970s, American youth saw that mainstream religions had reduced religious experience, the act of living through faith, to nothing more than symbols and metaphors, subverting and short-circuiting the personal religious experience itself. They believed that mainstream religious traditions and rituals got in the way of true faith and the search for ultimate truths. The same thing is happening today, as church attendance decreases in America and more and more Americans search for something more. Today, Superstar doesn't seem as controversial because too many productions have shoehorned religion back into the show against its creators' wishes. And today the show might seem positively mainstream in its use of rock and roll, which is now the music of adults. But imagine the uproar if the Catholic church began allowing gangsta rap as part of the liturgy. It was a very ballsy choice at the time...
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New Line's Superstar
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Want
to explore more? We recommend: The
original studio cast
album of Jesus Christ
Superstar The 1973 film on videotape or DVD OR the new "definitive" version on videotape or DVD Director Scott Miller's background notes and analysis, newly expanded, updated and revised from a chapter in his book From Assassins to West Side Story The website FaithfulAmerica.org -- the kind of grassroots political organization that the Jesus of Jesus Christ Superstar would be a part of... The UMKC Law School's webpages The Trial of Jesus, and profiles of Pilate and Caiaphas, The books The Politics of Jesus and Misquoting Jesus, as well as the book Jesus Acted Up by Robert Goss, examining Jesus' life as a political activist A History of Political Theatre webpage The "ultimate" Superstar website and a very cool fan site The official Andrew Lloyd Webber website and the official Tim Rice website 25 different CDs of Jesus Christ Superstar from Amazon.com or check out the list from Footlight Records with even more foreign recordings The CD The Tim Rice Collection: Stage and Screen Classics The Jesus of the Week website and the Jesus Christ Superstore |
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