How would you stage Jesus Christ Supestar on stage?

[Annas_Priest]

Posted: 8/6/09 at 12:40pm

I want to pitch a new way of staging this show to my theater next season and I need some ideas!

Be creative, and don't worry about budget!

[spiderdj82]

Posted: 8/6/09 at 12:47pm

I don't know exactly how I would stage it, but Judas needs to play a bigger role. Not in the "singing" dept, because you can't do that, but in almost ever proudction I have seen, Judas is there......sings.....looks sad.....and walks off. People forget that JCS is the last days of Jesus through JUDAS' eyes and when he is no where to be found...it just makes no sense. Also, in all these productions, Judas just seems pissed until the very end and people just don't feel sorry for him. I would make him more sympathetic of a character. He is upset because it is not going the way he wanted it to, but not have him continually scowling at Jesus.

[LizzieCurry]

Posted: 8/6/09 at 12:52pm

Stage it on stage? As opposed to staging it off stage?

Updated On: 8/6/09 at 12:52 PM

[gvendo2005]

Posted: 8/6/09 at 1:00pm

^ Don't be a dick.

To answer OP's question, JCS has always been a really difficult show to stage, partly because (as the book The Theater Will Rock points out) it was conceived as a sound recording. Because of that, the authors eschewed many of the narrative devices required for musical theater. As an album transferred to the stage, with no traditional musical theater book to speak of, JCS is hard to stage because the story isn't there, as it would be with a book. When one analyzes the show's lyrics, one realizes that this is an unfinished piece in theatrical terms. Without a book, it's just a show about the thoughts and motivations of Biblical characters, without any real emphasis on action. To quote one observer, "Rice and Webber were more interested in asking questions than providing answers."

That said, if I were to stage it, it would have several distinctive marks, not the least of which being that it would have an all or mostly black cast.

[bobby_luvs_bway]

Posted: 8/6/09 at 1:02pm

You could have it all happening in an asylum and everyone plays an instrument on stage and...oh wait.
I love the music but staging this show is difficult because it ends up looking so cheesy most of the time (outside of a concert format or a bunch of dirty hippies in the desert). Remember, with this show simple and subtle are best because the material is so over the top.

[gvendo2005]

Posted: 8/6/09 at 1:07pm

I agree with you, bobby. A lot of people over time have complained about the 1973 film directed by Oscar-winner Norman Jewison, but I must confess that I don't see a lot of valid arguments in terms of bashing the film's concept. The show doesn't support a strictly traditional approach simply by virtue of the score then being anachronistic, but by the same token, as Tom O'Horgan (RIP) proved in abundance, it doesn't support an "everything but the kitchen sink" approach (one of my favorite comments on the sets for the 1971 OBC was that it looked like gofers had spiked the drinks of Lincoln Center designers with acid). A play within a play was really the ideal approach at that time.

[dramamama611]

Posted: 8/6/09 at 1:07pm

Are you looking for a CONCEPT? That really needs to come from your vision, the way you feel it. YOU need to be able to believe in it to produce an effective piece.

[spiderdj82]

Posted: 8/6/09 at 1:09pm

I agree. Make it REALISTIC. Like I said in my first post (in not the exact words), all of the characters are so 2-D and wooden. They have one single expression and they stick with it the entire musical. Like the line, "We could have raised maybe three hundred pieces or more. People who are hungry. People who are starving matter more than your feet and hair." EVERY SINGLE version of that song has Judas yelling at Jesus. I would have it more confused and sympathetic. Judas wants to help the poor but he doesn't understand why Mary is using to on Jesus, and he allowing it. I would do it more of private conversation with Judas being right infront of Jesus or kneeling. When he is far away from Jesus fighting the other guys......he just seems like a dick.

[Renart]

Posted: 8/6/09 at 1:10pm

One thing I am really tired of is the ubiquitous Jesus-in-blue-jeans thing that is way too prevalent. It seems like community theater directors want to show how "daring" they are by presenting a "different take" on JCS when in reality it's been done that way ad nauseum since at least the 80's. Not exactly fresh anymore. When I was in college in the 80's one of the professional theaters in MPLS had Jesus in blue jeans and cowboy boots and using Doritos for the Eucharist. Yaaawwwwn.

I'm all for a relatively traditional presentation (including 12 male apostles. Sorry, but that's what's in the Bible). You shouldn't go overboard with the costumes or makeup lest it appear campy. If the men can grow beards, let them, but don't paste on fake ones.

I agree with the comment about Judas' role. You can't add any lines or songs, but you can leave him on stage in the background looking pensive or showing emotion when something else is said or done.

[allofmylife]

Posted: 8/6/09 at 1:20pm

As an atheist, I would have Jesus offstage all through the show, just a detached voice that requires faith or suspension of disbelieve to recognize.

[allofmylife]

Posted: 8/6/09 at 1:20pm

As an atheist, I would have Jesus offstage all through the show, just a detached voice that requires faith or suspension of disbelieve to recognize.

[spiderdj82]

Posted: 8/6/09 at 1:27pm

Then you wouldn't have a show.

[SporkGoddess]

Posted: 8/6/09 at 1:33pm

Just once, I'd like a Jesus who has short hair. I recently watched a special on TV that said Jesus would have had short hair because of lice and bugs and what have you. Okay, that is more costuming than staging, but yeah.

I also prefer a more "traditional" staging with Biblical-era costumes. I don't mind the hippie-ish or modern concepts (I LOVE the movie and actually thought the revival was okay when I saw the tour), but for me the show is more believable when it's set in the age in which it supposedly took place.

I also agree with the idea that Judas should be sympathetic.

Updated On: 8/6/09 at 01:33 PM

[gvendo2005]

Posted: 8/6/09 at 1:35pm

^ That's one interesting thought. Another thought I've always wrestled with has to do with the show's title song. It doesn't make sense within the show. It's sort of like the hit single that then had to be on the album. The song has nothing to do character-wise with the show, other than as a statement of concept, or as another "Sixties" protest song.

The youth movement of the sixties had been about new found spirituality and a rejection of institutionalized religion. Their drug use was not just an escape; it was also a means to help them find the spirituality they believed their parents had lost in the meaningless hypocrisy of organized religion in the 1950s. In 1967, Father James Kavanaugh had published his book A Modern Priest Looks at His Outdated Church. Looking at their parents and the rest of the "older generation," they saw evidence that mainstream religions had reduced religious experience, the act of living through faith, to nothing more than symbols and metaphors, subverting and short-circuiting the religious experience itself. They believed that mainstream religious traditions and rituals got in the way of true faith and the search for ultimate truths. The language of the King James Bible was as remote from their lives as it could be, full of thees and thous, strange grammar and sentence structure; sure, young people thought, this dusty old relic doesn't relate to my life in the tumultuous 1970s.

Because more young Americans than ever before were attending college in the 1960s and 70s--and while there studying other world religions--they were finding that the Christian creation/Genesis story, the sacrifice/crucifixion and resurrection of Jesus Christ, the miracles performed by Jesus, and most of the rest of the central stories of Christianity had shown up in other world religions long before the birth of Christianity. Though this did not automatically discount all of Christianity for them, it did throw its claims of absolute and unique truth into question. As a result, many young adults began exploring the older Eastern religions.

"Superstar" as a song is for and about them, comparing Jesus to such other religious figures as Buddha and Mohammed, and asking questions that will never go away, questions like:

* How can so many different religions all claim to have the only truth?
* Why should we believe that the Bible's truth is necessarily more true than the other truths?
* More pointedly, why should we believe in any religion at all?

It's too broad in scope for the show. Kick-ass song, and it fits with the style of the score, but really it makes no sense. That's why I've always had a problem with Judas being the guy to sing the song, a tradition only enforced because Murray Head did the original single and then sang Judas on the album. I liked the tack that the CD version of JCS: A Resurrection (yes, the Indigo Girls version) took on it in the CD's liner notes by describing the title track as taking place at a recording studio somewhere in Atlanta in 1994. It's modern commentary from an outside narrator that doesn't fit the rest of the show.

ETA: Don't get me wrong (oy, what unintended pun is this?), I can see why Judas sings it. Other than the fact that the single was arbitrarily inserted into the album at that point, Judas has been the voice of doubt throughout the show, so why be any different now, but it doesn't make the song fit in any better.

Updated On: 8/6/09 at 01:35 PM

[fgreene1938]

Posted: 8/6/09 at 1:50pm

I saw a touring version of the show in Boston in 1975 (!) and vivdly remember it. The staging was very simple and straightforward, the cast did NOT look like a bunch of hippies (I remember a lot of loose flowing robes, etc.) and then the song Superstar was done as a Motown piece with microphones, back-up singers and modern clothing. It worked because that song is not so much to Jesus as it is to us about our perceptions of him. Some of the performances were too broad; the naturalistic ones worked far better. Also, having characters remain onstage to react to the proceedings instead of exiting after their songs would help flesh out the skimpy narrative.

[bobby_luvs_bway]

Posted: 8/6/09 at 1:52pm

gvendo - i totally agree about Judas. That has always bothered me about the character. It's always such a 1 dimensional take. I also agree that I would like to see the cast reflect the region it all took place.

BTW - I love the movie, but it's been done. It's time to really examine the material. I think most directors are lazy when it comes to this.

[spiderdj82]

Posted: 8/6/09 at 2:03pm

I also hate the way "Superstar" is staged with Jesus carrying the cross and Judas jumping all over the stage. If I was directing it, I would take certain liberties and have Jesus actually being crucifed during the first few chords and Judas come out of the crowd and sing directly to Jesus (which really is asking him why he chose to do this and what was his reasoning behind it). I would have the "back up ladies" going through the crowd and kind of mingling with them without anyone in the crowd noticing. At the last "JEEESSSUUUUSSS" I would have Judas standing at the cross staring up and Jesus. When Jesus starts saying the "Father forgive them," I would have him look down and Judas as to say "I forgive you" and during the "John 19:41" have the crowd leave one by one but have Judas still standing there staring at Jesus with a spotlight on them. When they take Jesus off the cross, have Judas kind of back walk out of the light.

[MTVMANN]

Posted: 8/6/09 at 2:09pm

When I did the show (and I was Annas) during the song "Gethsemane" where Jesus is trying to decide what to do the director had some of the cast walk out on entire side of the stage during the music break in the song.
There were children, a bride, an older couple and pregnant mothers.
There represented the people that Jesus will save and help him make the decision (I suppose).
I really liked it.

[gvendo2005]

Posted: 8/6/09 at 2:10pm

Agreed with you on what the title track is, fgreene. Also, I've since had a couple of other ideas, albeit for the more design/casting department than staging, that I want to see people chew on:

* Iconoclasm. I had a thought for the casting of Jesus and Judas, based in part on the absolutely amazing graphic novel Marked by Steve Ross. I think whoever plays Judas should look like the traditional image of Jesus that we've seen in centuries of Western artwork, and that his entrance at some point during the Overture should be the first one we see, so that the audience makes the automatic assumption that this must be Christ. Then the real Jesus comes along and is totally different (whatever race, costuming, etc. is up to the casting director and designer), a total shock to the audience, the punchline being that the person who you think is Jesus in the beginning is really Judas, and hence maybe the Antichrist, because it says in some interpretations of the Bible that the Antichrist shall be taken for Christ. It's a little deep for a rock show, maybe, but it would keep the intellectuals flustered.

* Iconography. The look, if working from a traditional standpoint and with a knowledge of what the show is really about, should be based very much on Caravaggio's work, with lots of dramatic lighting and hanging material.

* Sound of Music. The score has to sound like straight-ahead, rebellious, smart-ass rock and roll--no trained sounds necessary for the earthiest, most democratic, most populist musical language of all time. The recent revival in 2000 only proved that no matter how much dramatic acting one threw at it, people would remember the show not as a piece of theater, but as a rock concert dealing with a central concept (sort of like how Frank Wildhorn tried to describe The Civil War as a "dramatic theatrical concert"). It needs to return to being the controversial piece it once was, the musical that rocked the world, that prompted boycotts, picketing, bomb threats, and letter writing campaigns all over America.

Updated On: 8/6/09 at 02:10 PM

[SporkGoddess]

Posted: 8/6/09 at 2:18pm

I like staging "Superstar" as more modern and glamorous, so it comes across like Judas is singing from the afterlife, or just echoing modern thought. I thought the movie did that pretty well with the silver pants and lighting.

When I think about it, though, you're right in that the song doesn't really fit the show. The idea of Judas singing it to Jesus while he's on the cross could work well.

[gvendo2005]

Posted: 8/6/09 at 2:21pm

I agree with that idea in particular. When the show was touring as just a concert in the early Seventies, one reviewer characterized the title track as Judas singing to Christ on the cross, and after I saw that review archived on Jeff Fenholt (OBC Jesus)'s website, I've been quietly obsessed with the idea.

[bobby_luvs_bway]

Posted: 8/6/09 at 2:22pm

gvendo - i really like your ideas (all too often productions try to force the theatricality of it, when it's basically a rock concert). I didn't like the 2000 version as i think it totally missed the point of the piece.

[gvendo2005]

Posted: 8/6/09 at 2:26pm

To quote the revival's director, Gale Edwards: "Andrew [Lloyd Webber] showed me this wonderful painting by Holbein [see link below, may need to be refreshed] of Christ dead on a slab, sort of cold and white, a very painful rendition of Christ with the holes in his palms. And Andrew said, 'I think Superstar actually has this kind of edge, this kind of passion, and this kind of impact, and I think you're the person to do it.' So how could I resist?"

Needless to say, comparing that painting and her production is a bit like comparing apples to oranges with some people, to say nothing of the question of whether or not she actually brought any edge, passion, or impact to the show that wasn't already there, but let's sidestep that for now, eh? How about the rumor that Glenn Carter was the result of the casting couch? :S

Holbein Painting

Updated On: 8/6/09 at 02:26 PM

[bobby_luvs_bway]

Posted: 8/6/09 at 2:58pm

I tend to believe the Glenn Carter rumor, since he is the worst Jesus I've seen...and I saw Sebastian Bach!

I checked out the painting you referenced and I think the 2000 production is quite representative of it. Which, imho, is the complete wrong way to go.

I would've loved to have seent he recent Atlanta production with all the gospel singers. It looked deliciously over the top!

[gvendo2005]

Posted: 8/6/09 at 3:02pm

I want to hear it, as I never got to see it. There were rumors of a Broadway transfer and tour, but I guess that's on hold until Ted Neeley finishes his tour. More power to Ted for still doing it (he's definitely still got the vocals now, I dare say he sounds better than the film, more grit/depth/texture to his voice), but I'd like to see their concept.