"Then We Are Decided" is a great song, especially since it showcases Caiaphas's incredible voice. I was surprised (and disappointed) the first time I saw Superstar on stage and realized it wasn't a standard part of the show. Practically speaking, this is because the copyright for the song belongs to the film studio and not to Really Useful (CWSAP
is in the standardized licensed score because it was written for the Broadway production and has been part of the show since then; TWAD -- what an unfortunate acronym, one letter away from vulgarity -- was written specifically for the film). To use it in a stage production would need a separate negotiation/fee. That's not to say some productions haven't done it. There was a UK tour in the Eighties with Ray Shell as Judas that did it; the now defunct Candlewood Playhouse did a US tour, also in the late Eighties, that included it (it was not listed in the program, they didn't apply for the rights legally and got spanked by MCA/Universal for it); the 2003 production in Remscheid, which had a commercial release, did it; the 2004-05 UK tour produced by Bill Kenwright did it. But the separate licensing fee
is a pain in the ass.
Artistically? That, again, owes to the different dynamics between stage and record, while adding the dynamic of film to the mix as well. On stage and record, a rising line of tension is created that runs through the first scenes: Judas is worried about Jesus (HOTM), Jesus dismisses all worries while Mary soothes his nerves and his apostles act in a fashion that could get them all killed if the Romans took notice (WTB), Judas' worry comes out in anger (STM), and it culminates in Mary trying to diffuse the tension, which fails (EA). To interrupt that with a side trip, even if it's important for plot purposes and goes to motivation, slows down the action, especially if one is literally setting the scene in another place entirely from where the primary characters are, necessitating a scene change.
On film, one can more easily cut away to Caiaphas convincing Annas that Jesus is a problem without worrying about interrupting the flow, and if anything, on film, it allows Judas' anger to simmer. But on stage and record, that dog don't hunt.
The solution, since the song is good and better explains Caiaphas' motivation for wanting Jesus put to a stop, would be to move "Then We Are Decided" to a different spot. Some place it right before "This Jesus Must Die," but that's stupid because it insults the audience's intelligence. It is logical dramaturgically -- Caiaphas convinces Annas, and then the council, which is certainly the sequence of events suggested by the former -- but the audience is thinking, "Didn't we just hear this crap? Why is he telling us again? I mean, that he wants him to
die is kind of news, but Annas did say to frighten them, right?"
Short of re-writing the first act to make it more linear (placing "Then We Are Decided" where TJMD is, and moving TJMD to later in the act after Jesus has actually done something worth being arrested for, namely causing a riot by attacking the money changers in the Temple), which Webber would never allow and fans like me would carp about, a solution I came up with was to present TWAD as a prologue before the overture. Jesus' fate is sealed, cue the foreboding music. It works dramatically.
"There is no problem so big that it cannot be run away from."
~ Charles M. Schulz
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