Jesus Christ Superstar performance a true revelation

I previously doubted the wisdom of The Court Theatre’s decision to resurrect Jesus Christ Superstar as a Christmas showcase musical. But opening night was a true revelation.

Andrew Lloyd Webber and Tim Rice’s 1970 rock opera is based loosely on the Gospel accounts of the last week of Jesus’s life. However, this is not a religious musical. It is a humanistic interpretation, which concentrates on the conflicted relationship between Jesus the teacher, and Judas the pure believer turned betrayer.

Superstar is now approaching its 50th birthday. Age, I had assumed, would not be on the side of a musical, which, judging by the last time I saw it, lingered as a 1970’s love-in redolent with good vibes, beads, hair and an inoffensive doe-eyed Jesus straight from a Golden Bay commune.

But under Stephen Robertson’s direction, the Court’s Jesus Christ Superstar takes a hard turn into a dark dystopian world filled with punks and Goths alongside the stale smell of corruption and betrayal. There’s nothing pretty or gently soothing about this production. The young cast doesn’t hold back throughout two hours of highly charged physical theatre. The result was not what I expected. It was much, much better.

Everyone shone in a production, which, literally and figuratively, never put a foot wrong.

As Jesus, Nic Kyle fused human doubt, belief and fear into a potent performance. His singing was powerful, his acting credible, especially in the scene set in Gethsemane where an operatic tenor would have envied his ability to hold a sustained anguished top note.

If Kyle fired on all fronts, Caleb Jago-Ward as Judas was combustible, scorching his way through a hugely demanding role with a mesmerising voice and riveting stage presence. One faulty step and Judas could simply become a one dimensional stage villain. JagoWard, despite some moments of indistinct delivery, ensured that this didn’t happen with a rock star performance.

Monique Clementson’s luminous voice gently illuminated her role as Mary Magdalene. James Foster was entirely believable as an emotionally tortured Pilate while Ben Kubiak’s magnificent basso profondo voice lent magisterial authority to the role of Caiaphas. Special mention must be made of Fergus Inder as an outrageously camp Herod and Chris Symon as a lizard-like Annas. On this night everyone was a star.