Jesus Christ Superstar is a famous musical by Andrew Lloyd Webber. It’s maybe not everyone’s cup of tea, but I still enjoyed it. Here’s my Jesus Christ Superstar theatre review.
Overview of Jesus Christ Superstar
Jesus Christ Superstar is a musical by Andrew Lloyd Webber. It’s been around quite a long time, but in 2024 it’s back in a new production that’s touring UK theatres. My Jesus Christ Superstar theatre review is a bit mixed – I’m still not sure how much I like this musical!
Jesus Christ Superstar follows the story of the last days of Jesus’s life. Judas, one of the main characters, is shown to be unsure of being one of Jesus’s disciples. The musical follows the story of how Judas betrays Jesus, and Peter denies Jesus. The Romans, and King Herod, then find Jesus and take him to be crucified. The show ends with Jesus’s crucifixion.
What I liked about Jesus Christ Superstar
There were definitely some aspects of Jesus Christ Superstar that I enjoyed. I thought the staging and production of this performance were excellent. The singers, especially Judas, had amazing voices. And the 12-15 other dancers were all excellent as well, constantly moving and helping to tell the story through dance.
I also thought Mary Magdalene was brilliant, with a great voice. Her performance of ‘I don’t know how to love him’ was one of the highlights of the show for me, and I really enjoyed it. I also enjoyed the performance of the song ‘Jesus Christ Superstar’ towards the end. The music was loud and powerful and quite emotional.
The crucifixion at the end was really moving and powerful. The special effects of the blood looked really real, and the acting was great. It was a really moving scene, when they raised the cross with Jesus on it, accompanied by powerful music. I’m not religious – but I still found that scene really moving and powerful.
What I wasn’t so sure about
Despite there being several aspects of the show that I really enjoyed, there were quite a few things I wasn’t so sure about. So my views on the musical overall are quite mixed.
I found the show really lacking in plot. I feel like I could describe the plot in about two sentences – it really is just the last days of Jesus’s life, with Judas betraying him. There’s not a lot that actually happens in the show. But that could also be because so much of it is hard to understand. There might actually have been more happening that I just completely missed because it’s so hard to understand. The whole musical is sung – there’s no speaking at all. And it’s all quite loud rock music – and the lyrics are so hard to understand. There were entire songs where I don’t think I could understand any of the lyrics. So although the music was enjoyable to listen to, it wasn’t easy to hear the lyrics to understand more of what was happening. So it was a combination of now much plot, and also not being able to understand what little plot there was, that made it less enjoyable than it could have been.
King Herod
I also thought their choice to have a comedy Herod character was really strange, and didn’t really work. Herod was played as a guest performance from Julian Clary, a famous actor. But to me, it just didn’t work. The second half of the show is all about Jesus having been betrayed and the Romans about to take him to be crucified. It’s quite dark, moving material. But then this comedy Herod appears just for one scene. He’s playing the character really camp and effeminate, getting laughs from the audience when he prances around and takes off his gold cloak. It was a good performance – but for me, it didn’t fit in at all well with the tone of the show. As soon as Herod left after one song, to a huge round of applause, the musical is straight back to being dark and serious. The camp comedy character didn’t feel like it fitted in well at all.
Would I recommend Jesus Christ Superstar
I’d recommend going to see Jesus Christ Superstar if you enjoy musicals and haven’t seen this one before. This was the first time I’d seen it, and I’m glad I did go to see it. It’s a famous musical with some well known songs, so it was good to see it on stage. I thought the production was generally very good. But I definitely wouldn’t be in a rush to go back to see it again.
i loved the dvd of JC superstar with tim Minchin and Ben Forster in it, it was superb.. If I have one minor criticism with it it is the casting of Mel C as Mary, the prostitute. She is the flatest chested fully clothed pro I have ever seen. Furthermore she was useless in the Temple scene which was almost written for her.