Jesus Christ Superstar

Cafe Society
141

“Darting” the eyes to one side is also a common movement for a person trying recall something from memory (which side varies from person to person, but for each person it’s pretty consistent). It has nothing to do with reading, it’s just sort of the way people are wired. Professional stage performers who have done repeated shows have the material down so well they don’t need to do that, but during the initial periods of using newly memorized information it’s not uncommon.

So, it may not be that he was reading a teleprompter and tripped while reading it, but rather than he was about to lose the lyrics and was trying harder to remember his place in the song, triggering the “eyes to the side” that can happen when attempting to retrieve memorized information.

142

You should read the post just above yours.

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It’s supposedly available on the NBC website until this time next year. That said, I’ve not gotten the video to play.

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I’m not hung up on it, but I do understand not wanting that. People do kinda want their live stage productions to involve everyone having their lines and lyrics memorized. It’s just expected. Wouldn’t seeing the people in Hamilton with TelePrompTers be seen as subpar?

SNL is famously working by the seat of their pants, as are the talk shows and such. It makes sense they get a pass. But this type of show is a weird hybrid.

I wouldn’t be surprised to attribute the whole “fell flat” feeling you have to the fact that it wasn’t memorized. One lines and lyrics are memorized, you can work on what makes acting and singing great.

145

I play at a lot of bluegrass jams, where it seems the most common direction to look when seeking lyrics is up. Often prompting others to look ceilingward and say something HYSTERICAL and ORIGINAL like, “Are they written up there?”

I’m happy to imagine that a good part of my issue w/ Alice was more the casting and direction, than the performance. But, as the majority of comments here suggest, my objections seem to be in the minority. Amusing that folk seem to get exercised over the fact that someone responded to a performance differently than they. :rolleyes:

DooWah, I appreciate your insider-adjacent viewpoint.

146

I thought Alice owned King Herod’s Song by adding one word - “And now I understand you’re God- deadpan Wow.”
Also, I didn’t so much think he was dressed as Alice as much as another Al… Pacino in his mob boss persona.
(I saw Pacino play that role the same way in a dramatized read-through of Oscar Wilde’s Salome’. Yes, that’s the same Herod.)

Sarah Bareilles seemed to hold back more than Yvonne Elliman on “I Don’t Know How To Love Him” but was still effective. When she was announced for the role, I had to look her up & realized I’d enjoyed her songs for years, just didn’t know she was the one singing them.

Pilate reminded me a lot of if a younger Sting had taken the role. I loved that moment where he got in Jesus’ face & saw something that scared the hell out of him.

The finale’- from Superstar to John 19:41- I thought at first we should have been seeing more of Jesus carrying the cross & then getting fastened to it during Superstar, then it occurred to me- that song was everyone getting pre-occupied about their questions & ideas of what Jesus should be, then they are confronted by the stark horror of His Actual Sacrifice and in the Light of it, they fall in adoration- seeing in Him both Divine Judgement and Forgiveness.

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Well sure they would, but I’m not sure of your point. It wasn’t my idea for him to use a teleprompter; I just knew he was using one. It was incredibly obvious to me. And it makes sense that his schedule wouldn’t allow him the same rehearsal time as everyone else. It wasn’t so much a criticism as an observation, and ironic since he was the only one (that I heard) who tripped up on his lines. And yes, I absolutely agree if you have the lyrics in front of you you’re more likely to mess up, as opposed to memorizing them. Memorization also allows you to make stronger acting choices, as you mentioned; I agree.

Thank you. It’s important to note that the SD does not make up the entire world, haha. As I said, the general feeling in the theatre community is that the broadcast exceeded expectations (much like Jesus himself sings!), but Cooper was a low point. So I wouldn’t necessarily call your objections the minority. Or, if it is, it’s a loud minority being proclaimed by people who know what they’re talking about.

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Yeah, well, I didn’t see it on pre-view.

Still true, though - when asked to recall things sliding the eyes to one side is a very common thing.

Also - wouldn’t mind independent confirmation of the existence of a teleprompter. It’s certainly possible, but when one poster’s interpretation is so different from anyone else’s in a thread a little extra on their side doesn’t hurt. Of course, a professional in the field might well see things the average audience member doesn’t.

149

Thanks for this link. I loved the story at the end about the new chorus parts.

150

When I first saw Pilate, I thought it was Sting. For a second.

I rewatched the Simon Zealotes part again last night, and I think he was perfect for the part. He seems like a modern day version of what a Zealot would be like. But that was probably John Legend’s low point. He was doing a total “white boy dance move” during that song.

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I’ve never seen it played quite that way (well, not until I watched the same clip from the mostly forgettable 2000 version later that night), but it’s telling that at that moment, the orchestra, almost inaudibly, quotes from “Pilate’s Dream.” So you can read that moment as Pilate realizing, “HOLY SHIT THIS IS THE SAME GUY I HAD THAT DREAM ABOUT.” (Interestingly enough…that moment isn’t on the original concept album. The extra “verse” beginning “Why this is new!/Respect for Caesar?!” was added for the Broadway version. Instead, the original goes right from the first “We have no king but Caesar! Crucify Him!” to “I see no reason! I find no evil! This man is harmless” etc. and from there into the thirty-nine lashes.)

And funny you should mention Sting as Pilate…I believe that Martin Scorsese had him in mind for the role in The Last Temptation of Christ before going with David Bowie.

As for Herods and how they are played…it’s interesting to contrast Josh Mostel’s (“You should have told him to hire TOPOL’S son!”) Herod with Alice Cooper’s, or Victor Spinetti’s on the 20th anniversary album. Josh’s Herod was a spoiled child with an inordinate amount of power, who figured no one could refuse his commands, not even the man who claimed to be the Son of God. He seemed to genuinely expect Jesus to perform miracles on command, and, when He wouldn’t even dignify the twit with an answer, pitches a hissy-fit like a little kid. Whereas the Herods of Alice and Victor are mocking from the get-go…believing him to be only a fraud and doing the whole thing just to humiliate Him. (Maybe it’s a “take THAT for escaping my father’s net” business.)

(I love Victor Spinetti’s performance on that album. Maybe I’m biased in his favor because he was a Beatle pal and veteran of three of their movies, but I can’t listen to his version of that song enough…especially, “Hey…aren’t…you…SCARED of me, Christ? Mr. Wonderful Ca-Rist?”)

152

Guess I’m late to the party, as I just got around to watching this.

I was surprised to find that I liked this a great deal more than the 2000 performance or the 2012 “arena tour” performance, though I always have big issues with productions that absolutely insist on placing it in a modern setting. It just makes no sense to take a work (the original JCS) that was a deliberate allegory for the then-present (late 1960s) and destroy the allegorical aspects by actually setting in the present. What’s the point? It’s not being clever to make Caiaphas and Annas actual businessmen (as they did in the 2012 production) when we were supposed to interpret them as being the same as modern businessmen in the original. Where’s any subtlety or message about the universality of greed and self-interest?

Overall, I still have to rank the 2018 live production below the 1973 movie and some earlier stage productions. I didn’t think it at the time, but the 1973 movie did an underappreciated job of handling the setting of the performances in the present while retaining the original intent and tone.

OTOH, it’s hard for AC to go wrong. It’s sort of like Elvis in his later years…all he had to do was show up.

153

Took a while to get to this, but thanks to the wonders of this modern age, there’s no more time limits to getting to stuff. Saw it on video on demand because someone deleted the recording (fine by me; there were very few commercials this isn’t the type of show where I need to fast forward past stuff).

My opinion?

Mmm…

Look, guys…I grew up in the cultural, spiritual, and musical wasteland that was 80’s Hawaii. I had NOTHING. The four types of music on the radio were pop, country, oldies, and really oldies. My religion was as homogenized and white as my milk. Theater? The typical school production had the energy of a calculator battery and almost as much acting skill (and don’t get me started on the stuff I was forced to do). By the time the cool stuff finally creeped its way over here, I had bigger concerns, such as graduating for college and building a career, both of which took me a DAMN long time. Bottom line is, when I see something big, and grand, and colorful, especially when it involves lots of coordinated people who have a lot of passion for the project, my initial reaction isn’t to judge the acting or take exception to how this or that character is received or compare it to different productions of the same material I’ve seen in the past (ha!), my initial reaction is to be unbelievably grateful that something like this exists at all.

So, my review: Loved it, had a great time, will definitely watch again, may be tempted to catch the '73 movie on my IPad to see if it really is better. Amen and God bless. :smiley:

(Oh, and just for the record, I found Carrie Underwood’s The Sound of Music mildly entertaining at best, so it’s not like I give free passes just because I don’t have to pay for it.)

To address some of the individual points raised:

Re. Jesus being a bland character: Didn’t really notice it. Isn’t the whole point about how the people around him react to him, in particular Judas (who is a star, though not the only one)?

Re. Herod/audience cheering Alice Cooper: The whole segment did sound completely out of tone with the rest of the play, but you know what? I’m fine with that. Theater has every right to surprise, amaze, defy expectations. As for the cheering, that’s one of the first things every wrestler promoter learns: You don’t get to decide what the fans like. It seemed genuine and not excessive to me, so I’ll give it a pass.

Re. cheering interfering with the songs: Yeah, a tiny bit annoying, but that’s pretty much how live theater works. Watch the movie if you can’t stand that sort of thing. (I really do intend to!)

Re. Pilate: I think he was perfect. He came across exactly as an exasperated politician who thinks he’s being paid way too little for this trying to handle a hopeless aggravating situation as best as he can. This doesn’t require white-hot rage, just irritation and the right amount of righteousness (“Hypocrites! You hate us more than you hate them!”)

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IMO, it isn’t. The 73 is, IMO, the worst of the versions I’m familiar with.

The two worst parts were Annas (I wanted to poke my eardrums out whenever he was singing), and Herod.

Gods below, I hate 1973 Herod. The only completely non-sympathetic named character in the whole play (not conflicted like Judas, Pilate, or certain takes on Caiaphas, no reasonable fear like the priests and Judas) and makes him an ambiguously bi joke character. Removes all the malice and replaces it with Unfortunate Implications.

155

Watched it again today. Three more comments and I’ll leave it be:

Someday I’m going to have to figure out how to turn on closed captioning on my DVR, because subtitles would have helped a lot. I kept missing words to audience reactions or the music.

The thing I found the most impressive was that the singing went from start to finish. This was the entire story of the death of Jesus in rock opera form. The sequence that actually impressed me the most was the wretches pleading Jesus for help, especially the beginning. Think about it: Multiple singers, who must have the exact same pitch and tempo and project the same emotion. This is damn hard to pull off with a mixed cast.

As someone who’s watched American Ninja Warrior from almost the beginning (and makes regular updates on the thread here, of course), I gotta give the camera crew here major props for one thing…they actually knew when and how to use crowd shots. Capture the emotion, get the reaction when the actor faces them directly, and above all else, make it quick and get back to what we’re supposed to be watching.

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That. I attended first and second grades at Saint Mary Magdalene Catholic School in 1962-64 and it was made pretty clear that she was the beneficiary of the “cast the first stone” gag.

Not that anyone was telling me what a prostitute was when I was six.

157

Respectfully, he was cast perfectly.
Jesus is portrayed in the Gospels as a pretty mellow fellow.

Judah was…er…a bit more tightly wound?

I actually think that John Legend is a brilliant choice. I get that he’s Pop not Broadway. But forget that crap.

Think about THESE characters in THIS play. His voice is clearly good but not Broadway intensive and his acting is quite subdued. Likely because he is not an actor- but they knew this and cast him knowing how he’d come across.

I see this entire show as casting genius.

Except for Alice Cooper. Who clearly was just being Alice and shattered the fourth wall good and hard while he was doing his song - which is one of the hits of the score and might have carried the it ended level of deep loathing and resentment present in the lyrics if sung by a real actor…

An analog? Elton John as The Pinball Wizard in the film “Tommy”. It worked. Why? Because playing “competitive pinball” means that you’re playing AND performing in an over the tip mannner.

Alice? Disappointing.

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158

I agree that the '73 movie stunk, especially Herod.

When Herod sang “Hey, aren’t you scared of me, Christ?” I remarked to Madame P.: “What? Scared of 250 pounds of baby fat?” Too much of a joke.

159

Whether or not one likes the 2000 version is much like arguing whether one likes or doesn’t like another person’s religion, but some people, myself included, love it. Here’s the playlist for it: