Jesus Christ Superstar

[Brother_Bliss]

I love musicals, and I was a fan of this before I came into the truth, and still am to this day. It's one of those things you keep to yourself and just a few close like-minded friends since it's a worldly production. If you're sensitive to these things, click the back button and go read a different topic. Jesus Christ Superstar is a story told from Judas perspective, and is kinda quirky in that in some versions of the play the Roman soldiers have machine guns and King Herod is Elvis (or in this one below, Alice Cooper). But, that aside, the music and lyrics in this rock opera is top notch. If you like musicals, and are mature enough to grasp that worldly productions will sport a cross and some other inaccuracies, and have seen this, tell me what you think of the latest production that aired on NBC just last week. The entire thing from beginning to end is on YouTube, starting here....

 

Video:

 

Link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hd_NGdjK3Ps&list=PLRUSbbQynOdEMfDD86ybn4FnvEkb_8VgX&index=2&t=0s

 

Personally, John Legend, who plays Jesus, can definitely sing and has a good voice, but I didn't thing he was a good fit for the part. The part of Jesus was very very high tenor, and John Legend just doesn't have the range, so many of his parts were in a different key or sang an octave lower. 

 

Still, I enjoyed this very much.

[Stormswift]

Interesting Bob, while JC Superstar doesn't appeal to me personally, I was part of a school production of Joseph and his technicolor dreamcoat ... I LOVE the abridged version of that - play the music on the piano when I can. It actually taught me the names of Josephs brothers and the basic story of Joseph ... but the interesting thing is - the Pharoah was Elvis in that too!

[Hope]

I don't have network tv anymore but I watched each song as it was posted up to YouTube. I thought it was incredible!  Loved the dude who sang Judas, and the Caiaphas & Anna's were... just wow!

 

Agree about Legend... not only his voice wasn't quite right, but he has too much of a baby face.. trying to look serious, etc- you just wanna go, "awwww..." and pinch his cheeks. :D.  He was still pretty good.

[rbrown1205]

I seem to remember a version where Ben Vereen played Judas.   Seemed like his character, and his critical philosophy against Jesus, was more prominent, certainly louder, than that of Jesus.

 

If you'd come today you could have reached a whole nation.
Israel in 4 BC had no mass communication....

Do you think you're what they say you are?

 

http://www.metrolyrics.com/superstar-lyrics-jesus-christ-superstar.html#ixzz5BssJIENX

I  did like the song Everything's Alright.   It showcased the women who, apparently with Mary, fed and took care of Jesus and the apostles, a fact that wasn't depicted in most movies of his life.

[Pjdriver]

6 hours ago, Dismal_Bliss said:

If you're sensitive to these things, click the back button and go read a different topic.

I really like this comment. 

 

Back on topic....

I really like some of the  songs from the musical. 

[Tortuga]

7 hours ago, Dismal_Bliss said:

I love musicals, and I was a fan of this before I came into the truth, and still am to this day. It's one of those things you keep to yourself and just a few close like-minded friends since it's a worldly production.

 

I'm a closet fan of the movie with Ted Neely. I loved the blend of ancient and modern actions and attitudes. I didn't watch the recent musical but I was whistling one of the songs for days...

[Hope]

Omg Ted Neely can SING!!! 

[Thesauron]

ALW returned to his rock musical origins with School of Rock, which has some lovely tunes and skilled young musicians. Although it won’t reach the cult status of Jesus Christ Superstar, it is a great evening out, if you can stand the irreverent attitude, lol.

[Hope]

6 hours ago, rbrown1205 said:

I seem to remember a version where Ben Vereen played Judas.   Seemed like his character, and his critical philosophy against Jesus, was more prominent, certainly louder, than that of Jesus.

 

If you'd come today you could have reached a whole nation.
Israel in 4 BC had no mass communication....

Do you think you're what they say you are?

 

http://www.metrolyrics.com/superstar-lyrics-jesus-christ-superstar.html#ixzz5BssJIENX

I  did like the song Everything's Alright.   It showcased the women who, apparently with Mary, fed and took care of Jesus and the apostles, a fact that wasn't depicted in most movies of his life.

 

Yeah - for whatever reasons (probably not difficult to suss), Judas is basically the narrator/antagonist of the story.  It's sorta like he represents "us" as we're considering the story.  Of course, that's giving the real Judas way too much credit.  But I did really find the way his lyrics may have described his feelings, wrong as they were.  The song where he's expressing remorse and regret for selling Jesus out -- it's powerful and scary.  One *could* feel sorry for him... but I just looked at it and thought about how awful it is to be on the irredeemable outside of Jehovah's love and forgiveness.  That level of hopelessness is terrifying and it was illustrated well.  

[JayV]

I own 3 versions of Superstar and I have two playlist on my phone which take each song form the original concept album and follows it with corresponding chapters in The Greatest Man and the Jesus WTL books. I partial agree about John Legend. I think his and Sara Bareilles versions of Jesus and Mary were very refreshing. And Brandon Victor Dixon was amazing. The Temple scene is pointless without religous context and I don't know what they doing. Buckets of glitter??? Overall it was an A-/B+.

I know this is kinda old but you can tell I've really wanted to talk about this.

[Brother_Bliss]

I have the 1973 movie and have watched the recent NBC performance on HULU a few times. As a fan of theatre, broadway, and the arts, I get my kids into these things as well

 

John Legend was good. I really like much of what he put into it. However, his rendition of Gethsemane wasn't my favorite, and I think he fell flat on his high falsetto note but it has been auto-tuned on the subsequent soundtrack release. Sarah Bareilles as Mary was great, probably my favorite to date. Brandon Victor Dixon was outstanding, and I'm struggling to decide if he might have even done better than Carl Anderson did back in the day.

 

Quote

 The Temple scene is pointless without religous context and I don't know what they doing. Buckets of glitter??? 

 

The tables arranged like a cross was stupid, but it's only natural that *we* would feel this way. The glitter was supposed to be the money/coins, I believe.

Overall, it was fantastic. I would have loved to have been there. I've seen JC Superstar twice live, and will again when it comes around again.

 

[JayV]

1 hour ago, Dismal_Bliss said:

Brandon Victor Dixon was outstanding, and I'm struggling to decide if he might have even done better than Carl Anderson did back in the day.

 

I can't decide but I'm leaning Carl Anderson. I think BVD vocally was the best but Carl's total performance was great.

Edited April 28, 2018 by JayV
Clarity

[Hope]

Check Anderson's performance from early 2000s... he sounds better than when he was younger!