I remember when this whole thread began… no talk of Glenn then…
Anyway, the first time Neeley really lost me is when he rebuked Judas.
That’s supposed to be a very angry outburst. Neeley sounds like somebody mildly p.o.d at an aunt who hurt hurt his feeling, more pouty than furious.
My favorite film bio of Christ remains Zeffirelli’s miniseries Jesus of Nazareth. It’s interesting to me that both that version and Superstar (which came several years before it) feature a very sympathetic Judas, one more in line with the Gospel of Judas. In neither version is Judas motivated by greed or in any way wanting Jesus to die but rather is trying to speed up his coming to power.
I’ve wondered if Zeffirelli was inspired by Rice/Webber in that regard. (The official novelization of the miniseries was done by Anthony Burgess but was largely disregarded and for good reason- it’s awful.)
The weird thing is I’ve seen reviews from back in the seventies that argued the opposite point. They called Neeley “Screaming Jesus” and said he was acting too emotional. Jesus had traditionally been portrayed as beatific and actors playing him (like Max von Sydow and Jeffrey Hunter) didn’t even raise their voices.
I agree with both the “Screaming Jesus” and the “petulant” description of Neely in the role.
If I put the movie on and surf the dope, rarely raising eyes to the screen, it sounds like he’s emoting all over the place.
Neely’s VOICE is rather hammy and sometimes overdone, with a side of constipation. Neely’s FACE looks like a Botox accident. So he both overacts (voice) and underacts (face) at the same time.
That being said, I think we have to give this show credit for making it even fathomable to play Jesus as other than beatific, and Judas as other than a blackhearted villain. It’s a huge part of why I love it. I’m far more interested in human beings and their foibles than I am gods and puppets of destiny.
And yet it’s not unknown for very successful musicians to take time off from their touring and recording duties to star in films. John Lennon and Art Garfunkel both did this at the height of their popularity.
I just did this as an experiment - and y’know what? You’re right.
Did the What’s the Buzz/Strange Thing Mystifying sequence…and without paying attention to the video, the only time his vocal performance is noticeably weak is when he’s defending Mary (unfortunately, that’s the part of the segment he needs to really hit it). It’s just…he’s wandering around looking like he doesn’t really know where he is…the emoting that he’s doing with his face and body are…dull, and feel kind of like he’s just hitting his mark, rather than actually feeling it.
Not unknown… but after 1966, the Beatles didn’t tour any more. So, if John Lennon wanted to do ***How I Won the War ***or Ringo wanted to do The Magic Christian,, that wasn’t going to cause any tour delays.
As for Art Garfunkel, well, things were complicated there. Paul Simon was a brilliant songwriter but NOT a prolific one. There were a lot of long periods when the duo wasn’t touring and when Simon’s Muse wasn’t inspiring him, and Garfunkel was left twiddling his thumbs for months. He may always have had some interest in acting, but I’m sure he took the role of Nately in*** Catch 22 ***partly out of boredom and partly to send Simon a message (“I’m not just a flunky who’s going to wait around for YOU”).
1973 was probably Deep Purple’s biggest year, in terms of record sales AND as a concert attraction. A few years earlier OR later, and Gillan would probably have done the movie (assuming it was offered to him). But not in 1973. Not with hundreds of sold-out hockey arenas waiting.
Are you kidding? That song has the best guitar riff in the entire musical, though even if you don’t like it it’s still an earworm because they repeat it 39 times.
BTW, the JCS album was huge in USSR. It was played everywhere, there were amateur underground productions of it all over the place, and it was spoofed (same music, different lyrics, usually humorous/satiric commentary on various aspects of Soviet reality) a few dozen times.
