Reimagined ‘Jesus Christ Superstar’ inspired by 1970 concept album
It’s only fitting that the “Jesus Christ Superstar” coming to the Benedum Center was inspired by the show’s source, which 50 years ago launched Sirs Andrew Lloyd Webber and Tim Rice as a musical dream team.
Their 1970 concept album, a rock opera about the last days in the life of Jesus Christ, brought the collaborators worldwide fame and introduced them to Broadway.
Despite being banned initially by the BBC — which denounced it as “sacrilegious” — the album became an unqualified smash, hitting No. 1 on the 1971 U.S. Billboard charts and topping even Carole King’s “Tapestry” at year’s end. The song “I Don’t Know How to Love Him” at one time had two versions on the charts: by Helen Reddy and Yvonne Elliman, the original singer who went on to star in the Broadway production.
Which is to say, “Jesus Christ Superstar” became a hit again, as a stage production that helped launch the career of Ben Vereen. There have been four Broadway stints, a movie version, countless tours and now a brand-new stage version. The show that starts the new year in Pittsburgh captured the best revival Olivier Award — the Brit equivalent of Broadway’s Tony.
Director Tim Sheader and cuttingedge choreographer Drew McOnie have created what Mr. Sheader calls “gig theater,” stressing its atmospheric immediacy, and using expressionist dance inspired by the 50-year-old album.
The production coming to the Benedum on New Year’s Eve began outdoors at Regent’s Park Open Air Theatre in London, where Mr. Sheader is artistic director. The Guardian newspaper of London was effusive in its praise, labeling it “a gorgeous, thrilling, heavenly musical.”
“Jesus Christ Superstar” itself was inspired by the Gospels that tell of Jesus’s last seven days on Earth, covering his journey from Bethany to Jerusalem, to the garden of Gethsemane, to Pontius Pilate’s palace, to the house of Herod, back to Pilate, and finally to Golgotha, site of the Crucifixion.
Mr. Sheader brings in the present-day notion of celebrity, rather than a strictly religious retelling, through the use of dance. The choreography, he said in a phone interview, “is quite ritualistic,” but not strictly Christian.
“It’s supposed to represent a group of people who are having a religious experience and are expressing it through unified ritual and dance,” he says.
It was in reading the thin libretto — nonexistent, actually — that Mr. Sheader realized he wanted to use the album to create his own blueprint for presenting the Webber-Rice songs. “My choice was to express my reaction, my feeling, my creative response to that album, and let people find the story within that.”
A tipping point was when the idea of the chorus as “the mob” — the people who decide who’s in and who’s out — took hold.
“I knew I didn’t want a lot of people standing around naturalistically, pretending to be talking to Jesus or to be pretending to be Apostles or any pretending. I wanted to do everything through expressionistic dance, so that the chorus would become another major character in the piece,” he said.
“So they take on two parts: a mob that follows [Jesus] and kind of celebrates his celebrity, enjoys his celebrity, provokes him and pushes him and asks him to do extraordinary things 24 hours a day.”
And then their adoration takes a turn.
“In celebrity culture, what it’s often like is, when something or someone doesn’t quite deliver, then that mob might change into something else and might help to destroy somebody. So that was kind of the overall note for what the choreography might be.”
When it is suggested that this version of “Jesus Christ Superstar,” in its unorthodox approach, might bear a resemblance to the Emmywinning live version done on NBC in 2018, Mr. Sheader notes that his production at Regent’s Park came first. “It’s not a million miles away from the NBC version,” he says, and adds that he is an admirer. They have in common the importance of a live audience, creating a concert-like atmosphere.
That brings Mr. Sheader back full circle to the starting point for him and the show’s creators — what he refers to as the “brown album.” The original 1970 two-record set was packaged in a thin brown cardboard outer box.
“This piece was not written to be a musical theater piece,” he says. “It wasn’t meant to be and isn’t a musical like I might describe ‘The Book of Mormon’ or ‘West Side Story’ or ‘Carousel’ or ‘Dear Evan Hansen.’ It’s none of those things. It’s a theatrical experience.”
The experience that began 50 years ago on vinyl has been given a fresh look for the stage, one that will kick off a new year among First Night revelers in Pittsburgh.