Jesus Christ Superstar

[Ilive4nyc]

Posted: 4/24/07 at 12:33pm

Does anyone know if there is a cast recording of the show from a few years ago? I have looked at all the resources I know of and can't find a thing. So I'm asking all you knowledgeable people!

Thanks so much!

[vmlinnie]

Posted: 4/24/07 at 12:38pm

I'm currently buying the 1996 London Cast CD online.

There are millions:

JCS CDs - Amazon.com

[Guido Contini]

Posted: 4/24/07 at 12:41pm

is that the one with Steve Balsamo and David Burt, linnie?

[BSoBW2]

Posted: 4/24/07 at 12:47pm

There is no recording of the recent Broadway revival. There is, however, a CD of the film version they made of the revival. It's really only a highlights CD (though highlights is a bit of a misnomer).

Glenn Carter as Jesus.
At Amazon

[Mother's Younger Brother]

Posted: 4/24/07 at 12:50pm

The Glenn Carter version (on CD or DVD) makes me shiver, and not in a good way.

The 1996 London recording (with Balsamo and Burt) is my favorite by a long shot. It's from the London production on which the Glenn Carter Broadway and DVD versions were based.

[spiderdj82]

Posted: 4/24/07 at 1:09pm

1996, Original Concept Recording, and Australian Recording are the best.

[Mother's Younger Brother]

Posted: 4/24/07 at 1:16pm

I've heard so much about the Australian recording. I really need to get that one.

[CATSNYrevival]

Posted: 4/24/07 at 2:34pm

I'd listen to some clips first if I were you... but then you can't go by me. I adore the new soundtrack, but really only because of Tonny Vincent. I wish his Judas had been recorded. grrr...

[Mother's Younger Brother]

Posted: 4/24/07 at 2:35pm

Tony Vincent was the only thing RIGHT about that production (whether as Simon on DVD or Judas live).

[spiderdj82]

Posted: 4/24/07 at 2:38pm

Tony Vincent was the only good thing about the newest recording

[Mother's Younger Brother]

Posted: 4/24/07 at 2:43pm

He was also cute as sh*t.

[BSoBW2]

Posted: 4/24/07 at 3:47pm

I think Tony Vincent was a great Judas vocally for THAT production. He definitely has one of the best HEAVEN ON THEIR MINDS (especially his final performance)!

That said, I think he is a very clean cut rocker - if that isn't too much of an oxymoron. The whole production was very much like that. I think people who dislike him are really disliking the choice for the production.

[Mother's Younger Brother]

Posted: 4/24/07 at 4:36pm

Out of everyone I know who saw that production (including myself), I've never heard one person say they didn't like Tony. Again, he was the ONLY part of the whole production anyone seems to have liked.

[BSoBW2]

Posted: 4/24/07 at 4:40pm

This is true. I've heard people say they disliked him as Judas (not sure how or why). But to those who dislike him, I think it was the production, not him.

He should record HOTM and JCS someday...

[Greekmusicalfan]

Posted: 4/24/07 at 4:40pm

It is the only musical, that I prefer the movie soundtrack, more than any Cast Recording !

[spiderdj82]

Posted: 4/24/07 at 4:44pm

The only two people I liked in the movie soundtrack is:

Carl Anderson (the BEST Judas)
Yvonne Elliman (the BEST Mary)

[Mother's Younger Brother]

Posted: 4/24/07 at 4:54pm

I love the movie soundtrack all-around.

The strange thing about JCS, for me, is that I've yet to see a live production that lives up to the score. I'm not yet convinced that the piece transfers well to a musical-theatre format. The performances that I've seen that I've liked the best have been very presentational, and done almost more as a concert than a straight-forward piece of theatre.

[Dark_Angel]

Posted: 4/24/07 at 5:04pm

OMG, I was going to bring this show/movie up because I've been watching this movie almost every day for the past week. I hadn't seen it in about 15 years. While at Target I found a copy for $9.99. Watching it reminded me how much I loved this score and the performances in the film.

I've only heard the soundtrack from the film. I haven't heard any other recordings of this score and I really wouldn't know where to start, there are so many it's almost daunting.

[PB ENT.]

Posted: 4/24/07 at 10:49pm

Gayle Edwards' direction of the Bd'w revival is a far cry from the classic direction. It's not my favorite, nor was Glenn Carter or Maya Days. Tony Vincent was loud and roudy and the teeny boppers loved him. Kevin Gray's Pilate was ok. But he too was directed to scream his brain out during 39 lashes. His acting was at least solid. The revival lasted 6 mos. ...so that says something.

I am and am not looking forward to covering the Ted Neeley tour next week. It's the Gayle Edwards' version, though I am looking forward to seeing Ted. After all he's been with this as long as Christ himself. I am doing an inteview with him tomorrow.

[CATSNYrevival]

Posted: 4/24/07 at 11:10pm

umm... the Neeley tour is not at all the Gayle Edwards staging. that's why I don't want to see it...

[Caroline-Q-or-TBoo]

Posted: 4/24/07 at 11:11pm

concept cast

[PB ENT.]

Posted: 4/24/07 at 11:19pm

Yeah it tis, Cats. The Press Release info. I received from The Roberts Group, who is handling this tour lists Gayle Edwards, direction


Here's the JCS reps. info.
The Roberts Group [phone]

GALE EDDWARDS - Directing
Productions in the U.K.: Don Carlos (also at B.A.M. in NY), The Taming of the Shrew, Webster's White Devil (Royal Shakespeare Company), Donizetti's Mary Stuart (ENO), Shaw's Saint Joan, Turgenev's Fortune's Fool, Whistle Down the Wind (West End) and Aspects of Love. Previous productions in Australia: Arcadia, Coriolanus, The Tempest, Much Ado About Nothing, A Winter's Tale, Absurd Person Singular, The Glass Menagerie, The Rover, King Lear, Present Laughter, Uncle Vanya, Another Time, Racing Demon, My Three Sons, The Shaughraun, A Doll's House, M. Butterfly, The Real Thing, and The Magic Flute, Manon Lescaut, Katya Kabonova and Nixon in China. She directed the Australian premiere of Sweeney Todd, and has created various original musicals including Miracle City, Boojum! and most recently The Boy from Oz. She has directed a television drama "Pride," and most recently the video of her production of Superstar soon for international release. Awards: The Melbourne Greenroom Ward three times (Best Director, Best Production), The Sydney Critic's Circle Award three times, and "Mo" Award for Outstanding Contribution to Musical Theatre.

Updated On: 4/24/07 at 11:19 PM

[wonderwaiter]

Posted: 4/24/07 at 11:21pm

I know it's been mentioned before, but back in the 90s the Indigo Girls collaborated with a number of other Atlanta musicians to create a very different Jesus Christ Superstar. I wouldn't recommend it as your first recording of the show. It's very hit-and-miss, but if your already very familiar with the source material most of it will come as a refreshing change. Recent Superstar productions have reduced the score to "Afternoon FM Radio Lite Rock Favorites", so this was a nice take on the source material.
You can hear clips and buy it here.

[Mother's Younger Brother]

Posted: 4/25/07 at 12:00pm

Ok, I've now heard the Australian recording, and I have to say...it's kinda hilarious. In their attempt to update the orchestrations, they've actually made it sound more dated than the original. It now sounds like a pastiche of late 80's/early 90's pop, and I couldn't stop my ears from hearing it. It's almost like they specifically decided to orchestrate "Heaven On Their Minds" in a Mike Post/Miami Vice style, "Simon Zealotes" as Marky Mark's "Good Vibrations," everything Mary Magdalene sings with a Gloria Estefan/Billy Ocean/Caribbean feel, etc. And it seems that Judas' voice is always mixed with an 80's hair-band echo, when no one else's is.

BUT, for being such a product of its time, I think it's very well done. As someone said, I wouldn't recommend it as your first recording of the show...but already being a fan, I had a great time with it! The cast is indeed probably the best on record (John Farnham as Jesus is especially fantastic), but in the end, I can't help feeling that I wish they'd gotten the chance to record with the original, superior orchestrations. That really would have made for a definitive JCS recording.

[spiderdj82]

Posted: 4/25/07 at 4:06pm

It's not the Gale Edwards direction in the tour. I have already seen it, and it is NOTHING like what's on the newest dvd.

MYB--YAY, I am glad you had fun with it. Yes, the orchestrations are on the weird side, but the more you listen to it, the better it becomes. And I agree that it is the BEST cast overall ever put on cd. And just think, Anthony Warlow was supposed to play Pilot but he found out he had cancer right before they opened. Now, if he was on the recording, it would have been orgasmic.