FULL CIRCLE
National tour is not local actress’ first go-round with ‘Jesus Christ Superstar’
Being part of “Jesus Christ Superstar” is a “fullcircle moment” for Savannah Fisher.
The Detroit-born actress, singer and dancer was in the production — playing the same role in the ensemble/soul singers chorus, in fact — during her sophomore year at Western Michigan University in 2018. Not surprisingly, she’s “so excited” to be doing it again this week in her home town at the Fisher Theatre.
“This is so amazing,” Fisher, 24, says by phone from the “Superstar” tour stop in Madison, Wis. “I’m so grateful to have the opportunity to be a part of this show. I cherish every single day. I love the music of the show, and to be surrounded by so many wonderful artists every single day is just…awesome.”
Fisher didn’t become a “Superstar” convert, however, until she was cast in the college production of the celebrated Andrew Lloyd Webber-Tim Rice rock opera about the final days of Christ’s life.
“I actually hadn’t heard of it before then,” she acknowledges. “But ever since doing it I’ve been obsessed with it.” The original album — released in the U.S. in May 1971, seven months after it came out in the U.K., was Fisher’s most-played album of 2022, according to her Apple Music statistics. “I listened to it straight through over 200 times,” she reports. “I just love it.”
While still young and in the early stages of her career, Fisher has been on stage since she was in fifth grade, playing Sour Kangaroo in “Seussical.” “My family has always influenced me to be creative and have a love for the arts,” says Fisher,
whose mother was a dancer and visual artist. “I grew up wanting to be like her. I would always ask her opinion on dances I would randomly make up — ‘Mom! Hey mom! Look what I can do!'”
Fisher also sang with her brothers. “I’d try to challenge them — ‘I can sing lower than you,'” she recalls.
Though the family lived in Sterling Heights, Fisher attended the Detroit School of Arts, where she majored in vocal performance and was valedictorian, and sang in the Rackham Choir. She was also a regular at Stagecrafters in Royal Oak, where she “loved the people, loved the work that