Gammage Goers - Alumnus

Jesus Christ Superstar at Gammage, 4/6/10
Review by Alan Handelsman

I love theater. It offers a unique opportunity to feel, to think, to laugh. Or maybe just to be entertained by good music, good singing, something beautiful to look at, or just so much vitality that I get caught up in the energy. Some shows are written so well that you don’t need much else. For instance, the singing doesn’t need to be great, or the choreography doesn’t have to sparkle.

Theater at its best, however, offers a high level of all the elements, along with a strong, coherent vision. Wicked, Avenue Q, and My Fair Lady are just of few of the shows that represent the best that theater has to offer.

While I love theater, I don’t like a show because it is a show. Some shows simply don’t deliver on their promise. This week’s production of Jesus Christ Superstar was a very disappointing theater experience.

Friends of mine once saw a concert performance of Superstar. They didn’t say much about it, but I assume concert means they just stand on stage and sing. Nothing “theatrical” like sets and such. The production I just saw was as close to a concert version as I could have imagined. It brought nothing to the words and music to provide a vision or vitality to the experience. I didn’t understand the story, the characters, or the relationships any better because of how they were presented on this stage. (And as for laughter, I’ve learned not to expect much when I attend a Webber musical. There was one laugh in this production, but it was such a surprise I almost missed it.)

The first thing I saw as the show began was the set, very simple and industrial black metal. I was thinking that the set was a good start, and looked forward to how they would build upon it, alter it, and enhance it as the show progressed. This never happened. They hung a banner or two, shined lights on it, even put a moon behind it, but the set never came alive, or looked any different.

To me, it was as if the producers said, “People will come to this show anyway, let’s not spend any more money than we have to on the sets. We can get into and out of each town more quickly, easily, and cheaply. The audience won’t notice.”
Well, some of the audience noticed.

The staging and choreography were equally uninspired. The characters didn’t seem to know what to do with themselves, maybe because one part of the stage looked pretty much the same as any other part of the stage. The choreography didn’t add any vitality to the show. Much of the movement in this show seemed like it was in slow motion.

The “special effects,” were almost laughable. When Judas hung himself, it would have been better to have him do it offstage. Anyone watching could have brought more imagination to the scene than we saw on stage. I know that for Jesus to ascend, he needed to be pulled up, but I didn’t need to see the cables. There are times when something like that doesn’t matter, but for a show that takes itself so seriously, seeing the cables took me out of thinking about Jesus’ experience, or what meaning his ascension had for the world or for me, and started me thinking, “I wonder how much weight those cables can bear?”

Another aspect of the show where they not only cut the payroll, but also seriously diminished the vitality of the production was the choice to use only five musicians, and have all of the string, woodwind, and brass parts synthesized. At intermission, my in-laws, who have little or no musical training, commented on how they noticed that there was something a bit off about the sound of the music.

Synthesized sounds can sometimes come near to the sound of musical instruments being played by live musicians, but they cannot provide the power or emotion that an orchestra does. In some shows, the lack of musicians simply doesn’t matter. But in this show, where there is no dialogue, much of the story is conveyed through the power of the music. The small, five-man pit band was inadequate to provide the richness and impact that this music – and story – deserves.

Hearing orchestral parts through a synthesizer is like seeing the Mona Lisa in a room with one 15 watt bulb, eating your favorite ice cream bar without taking the wrapper off, or reading your favorite book with every fifth word deleted. Would you tell Borders that you got your money’s worth from that book?

As I looked through the program at the cast bios, I noticed another curious thing. Most of the cast members had very little experience. Some listed college productions they were in, instead of the usual professional credits. A couple of the bios sounded like ones you’d expect to see in a high school show program. Once again, in my devious mind, I wondered if the producers decided to save money by hiring young talent at entry-level salaries.

Please don’t misunderstand: the cast sang their parts well. Yes, they are talented. When the chorus sang, the sound was indeed beautiful and balanced. But either they were not asked, or didn’t have the experience, to bring something more to their roles. I wanted to know more about these characters than the lyrics were telling me. So the show became more of a concert than an exposition of character and story.

There was one cast member, of course, who has a lot of experience. Ted Neeley, now 66 years old, has been performing the role of Jesus for as long as Jesus was alive. When a show is advertised as: “Featuring _________,” I often worry. Very often the “name” star that they cast to bring people into the seats turns out to be the weak link in the show. This was the case here. Yes, it is my personal taste, but falsetto screaming has never, even in rock music, conveyed depth of emotion. If someone pleads with me, I listen. If someone screams at me, I stop listening. Anyone who has worked in retail can relate. Neeley’s performance didn’t help me understand his character, and didn’t move me. His voice, which reminded me of David Clayton-Thomas from Blood Sweat and Tears, was okay, but I would have rather listened to the voices sung by Judas, Pilate, Mary, and other members of the cast. Neeley’s acting was affected, disconnected, shallow, and strangely unemotional. He always seemed to move in slow motion. His character didn’t seem to be too upset about things that were happening to him, his followers, and his apostles, although Neeley did seem satisfied with his own performance.

Come to think of it, maybe Ted Neeley’s performance was spot on. From the very moment he appears on stage, he is posing for photo ops. That’s what a superstar does, isn’t it? A superstar spends most of his time not acting, interacting, or working, but simply appearing wonderful so he can gather the adulation of the masses. That’s pretty much what Neeley’s Jesus was doing. Not so much healing the sick, or spreading his message of redemption, but simply appearing wonderful. He spent much of his time on stage seeming to carry on conversations with “the man upstairs.” (At first I thought he knew someone in the balcony.) That would only enhance his image as someone who has connections that ordinary people don’t. He did this even when other people were singing on stage. This made me feel, as an audience member, that Jesus had more important things to do than engage in conversation with those around him, or even to pay any attention at all. He just didn’t seem to care about them. Of course, that led me to think that maybe I had more important things to do than pay attention to these characters. If Jesus doesn’t care, why should I?

As a whole, I felt disappointed, and somewhat cheated by this production. I expect amateur productions to scrimp on sets and staging, to scale down the orchestra and choreography because of the limitations of the performers (and the budget), and in general to present only some of what the show might have to offer. But I expect a national touring company of an iconic show to offer more vision, insight, energy, imagination, inspiration, creativity, and downright effort.

Now, for some good news. There is a production of Superstar that provides all that was missing from this one. In the late 1990’s, Gale Edwards directed a Superstar revival in London. In 2000, with Webber and Rice’s blessing and participation, Edwards made a movie version. While most movie versions of shows fall far short of the theatrical experience, the 2000 movie of JCS provides all that was missing from the Gammage production. I got my money’s worth from the Gammage show because it led me to discover this movie, which brings out more from this show than was written into it. The directing, singing, acting, character development, staging, choreography, music (played by a full orchestra), are all exceptional and inspired.

The relationships that Rice and Webber wanted to explore are developed in this version in ways that bring new insights into the story. The singing is as good as I’ve ever heard. (Check out Fred Johanson as Pilate.) All the voices convey intense emotion, with very little screaming. The characters are three-dimensional. The acting is brilliant. In short, while I didn’t intend to discuss a movie in a theater review, I believe that Jesus Christ Superstar, which started not as a show but as a recording, has achieved its most complete expression in the 2000 movie version. I didn’t appreciate all that Superstar could be until I saw this movie.

When Andrew Lloyd Webber saw Gale Edwards’ stage production, he said, “I’ve waited thirty years for this,” and asked her to make the movie. I’d rather not wait thirty years to see a good stage version. I bought the DVD.