I just saw Jesus Christ Superstar at the Port Theatre in Nanaimo. This is the third time I’ve seen it, and I love this rock opera so much, I probably would not normally post my views on it, but wow, they really did a bad job, so here’s my revenge… 
1) Geriatric Jebus: FAIL. Time for Ted Neely to hang up the tunic and sandals. He couldn’t sing to save his life — er, so to speak. He did manage to screech a little — which made people clap — but luckily a few well-placed bright lights and thunder booms, and ridiculous acting, covered it all up (mostly).
2) Director: FAIL. He completely missed any and all irony (not to mention the real tragedy) in the original production. He produced it straight — with Christ as the hero — and made Judas into “evil Shylock” (short, with a pointy Jew beard and devil-red pants).
For example, right after the 39 lashes, when the score cuts to the Jesus Christ Superstar music, the center piece is Jesus struggling back to his feet (I half-expected Elton John’s I’m Still Standing to start playing). Anyone who knows this piece knows that the point is Judas’s words and not Jesus’s defiance. Judas sings…
Every time I look at you, I don’t understand
Why you let the things you did get so out of hand
You’d have managed better if you’d had it planned
Now why’d you choose such a backward time and such a strange land?
If you’d come today you could have reached the whole nation
Israel in 4 BC had no mass communication…
Tell me what you think about your friends at the top
Now who d’you think besides yourself was the pick of the crop?
Buddah was he where it’s at? Is he where you are?
Could Muhammmed move a mountain or was that just PR?
Did you mean to die like that? Was that a mistake or
Did you know your messy death would be a record breaker?
This is possibly the grooviest song in the score. It’s supported by an iconic chorus, not to mention the radical notion of Judas’s voice from the grave. And what does our director want us to see? Geriatric Jebus bathed in glowing white light struggling to overcome the extreme unfairness of it all… Come on!
This to me is the biggest failure of the production. Judas as villain wouldn’t have worked 30 years ago. It certainly doesn’t work today. But then again, maybe not. I might be wrong about that. Maybe it *does* work today, and that’s a very sad statement about today.
3. Judas: also fail. But somewhat reluctantly and so lowercase. This performance was damaged far more by the director than the singing. But seriously, it’s Judas. Your cries need to be blood chilling dude. Maybe it was just a casting error. But then again, between needing to diminish the power of Judas’s lines, and running out of thunder boomers and blazing lights to cover up for Neely’s voice, maybe he was just told to aim for mediocrity. (Win?)
4. Pilate: FAIL. Back to uppercase. I actually wanted to plug my ears during his final climactic lines. He was just shouting. I’m all for making the part your own (who could ever reproduce the irrepressible Barry Dennen?), but again, this is another one of those important (non-deity) characters, and whoever this guy was… <yawn>.
5. Mary: win. It’s not all bad news. Mary’s voice was beautiful, and one of the highlights of the show for me.
6. Herod: WIN! It’s not risky to do Herod as Rice/Webber intended him, and so here our director does not let us down. Way to go!
7. Choreogrpahy: WIN! Arlene Phillips and Louanne Madorma-Williams saved the day in my opinion. Considering what they were given to work with in terms of interpretation, they pulled off some great numbers. In particular, the blob-like mass of bodies pressuring Jesus to cure them was brilliant! (Although Neely turning his face quizically skyward in mock conversation with dear old dad mouthing “His purse?” in response to one of the lines actually made me laugh out loud.)
Poor Ted Neely. Poor Jebus. Poor Christians.
In the end, that’s what this production is all about. That oh so annoying “oppressed majority” and its oh so easy-to-hurt feelings. I suppose one good thing about this production is that it shows just how ridiculous it is to believe that there can even *be* such a thing as a villain in a plan you laid out in the first place to accomplish!
One thing that I always liked about JCS (whether as a believer or an atheist — I’ve enjoyed it as both) was that I could identify with both Judas and Jesus. I Only Want to Say is Jesus’s great moment of questioning the difficulty he faces. At that point, he’s just like you or me, struggling to do the right thing. It’s about overcoming fear with courage. And that’s Rice/Webber’s genius. It works because both sides are human. As soon as you turn Judas (and the mob, and Pilate) into the obvious villain and Christ into the poor victim (not helped by the white hair and wrinkles Ted!) it all just becomes sanctimonious and righteous.
The production ends with Neely twitching his way to a slow (almost) death on the cross. At the last instant, he stops twitching and is raised into the heavens (with a goofy grin on his face). It was all Janice and I could do not to laugh out loud. It was simultaneously hideous, comical and sad. Keep in mind this is all happening just a few hundred seconds after Judas has belted out the great title song.
And then? Ta da! The show is punctuated by a huge Shroud of Turin dropping in front of the entire stage.
The best part of the whole night for me was in that instant of silence right before the applause, and before my filter had time to kick in, when I let slip, “CON!!!” and even heard a few giggles in response. 
