How would you stage Jesus Christ Supestar on stage?- Page 3

[gvendo2005]

Posted: 8/7/09 at 12:28pm

As for "Could We Start Again, Please," too many people miss the point of the number. In theater terms, it's a "slow-down" after the raucous shuffling from government official to government official, much needed relief for the audience. But it's also much more than that.

For one thing, it's not really a song of apology, unless you're buying into the additional lyrics for the 1992 20th anniversary London cast, which were added to give the album a hit pop single to springboard off of, and which have rarely (if ever) been used since. In dramatic context, the song makes more sense, and is hardly an apology from anybody.

It's about Mary's (and to a lesser extent the apostles') sense of loss. She may have seen his arrest coming, but not so soon. She's thinking, "Whoa, whoa, wait a minute--things were just going well. I was happy, you were happy, he wasn't necessarily happy but we made it work. It shouldn't be like this. The first guy who treats me well, and he's gone. What do I do now?" She wants to turn back the clock, to calm him and anoint him again, to feel his hand in hers. She feels desperate and confused. How did things get so out of hand? Why is Jesus taking things to such an extreme? Mary says she's been both living to see him and also dying to see him, that she's been hopeful but also now pessimistic. Like Jesus himself, like his movement, this moment is rife with emotional and intellectual contradictions. Mary even echoes Judas' opinion that Jesus has gone too far, begging Jesus to stop all this--just as Judas had. Even Mary no longer believes that Jesus is on the right path--could it be because he's not? But the song also tells us that Mary finally realizes that she has lost forever her chance to express her love to Jesus. She was scared and now she's lost him.

That's the main thrust of the song. No apologies about it.
The additional lyrics, plus the title line, do tend to make it seem like more of an apology song, but it's not like that in the show. It's a plea to turn back time before it's too late more than anything.

Updated On: 8/7/09 at 12:28 PM

[SporkGoddess]

Posted: 8/7/09 at 1:30pm

I feel so sorry for the real Mary Magdelen because she wasn't even a prostitute.

[EVIE]

Posted: 8/7/09 at 2:13pm

gvendo2005 your break down of Gethsemane is brilliant. IMO Eric Kunze portrayed it exactly that way. He was awesome as Jesus!

[Mister Matt]

Posted: 8/7/09 at 2:27pm

Another thought I've always wrestled with has to do with the show's title song. It doesn't make sense within the show.

Ok, here is my take on that song. First of all, I think whole concept of the show really hinges on the idea of Jesus as a "Superstar" or celebrity figure as a challenge to the conventional acceptance of him as a deity (or offspring of a deity, if you will). The song was meant to be the only number completely set in modern times as if Judas is pointing out to Jesus that, as someone who was there, how effective was Jesus if thousands of years later, we are still questioning his actions and the events of the Gospel. And I think the placement of the song, when staged well, works since it echoes the sentiments of both Herod and Pilate, increasing the progression of doubt, but in the spirit of tough love that begs the response that perhaps Herod and Pilate weren't wrong. It's Jesus's "fever dream". His glimpse into the future that causes him to review the circumstances and shortly thereafter ask, "God, why have You forsaken me?" This is why I think setting the entire show in modern eras simply doesn't work because it is that song which gives meaning and purpose to the show's entire concept. I've seen the two different tour that have been rolling around for the last 15 years and they both pretty much relied more heavily on conceptualizing the show, trying to make the past seem relevant through costuming and makeup, when it ultimately weakened the pivotal moment of relevance, which was written into the show to begin with.

[spiderdj82]

Posted: 8/7/09 at 4:16pm

gvendo - I understand your point about Mary, but remember (as I have stated NUMEROUS times) this is Jesus' last days through JUDAS' EYES. What would have been really acceptable and what Judas perceives are entirely different thing. No where in the Bible does Jesus tell the lepers and such to "heal themselves." But in Judas' eyes, him not helping all of them could have been what Jesus was thinking or even meaning. That is what a lot of the protestors, et al. forget about this show. It's not REALLY how Jesus lived his last days. It's like in the movie version of CHICAGO - people didn't REALLY burst out into song. It was all in Roxie's head. In "What's the Buzz," Judas says, "It's not that I object to her profession. But she doesn't fit in well with what you teach and say." Even in the beginning of the musical Judas doesn't understand why Mary is even there. To have Judas "see" Jesus and Mary have some sort of intimate moment (even if it doesn't REALLY happen) kind of puts a stamp on why she is there (only in his mind, of course). There HAS to be a reason why he goes and betrays Jesus but the show never states why. This would give Judas the perfect reason.

[gvendo2005]

Posted: 8/7/09 at 5:43pm

That's just it, though. I don't mean to question you or anything, saying Judas is your dream role, but your dream role states his motivations right from the top in "Heaven on Their Minds." To quote Tim Rice in 1970, "We made him a type of Everyman. Judas did not think of himself as a traitor. He did what he did, not because he was basically evil, but because he was intelligent. He could see Christ becoming something he considered harmful to the Jews. Judas felt that they'd been persecuted enough. As far as what Christ was saying, general principles of how human beings should live together, Judas approved of this. What Judas was worried about was that as Christ got bigger and bigger and more popular, people began switching their attentions from what Christ was saying to Christ himself. They were saying that Jesus is God, here is the new Messiah, and Judas was terrified, because a) he didn't agree with it--he thought Christ was getting out of control and it was affecting Him, and b) Judas reckoned that if the movement got too big and people began worshiping Christ as a god, the Romans who were occupying Israel would come down and clobber them."

Right there, in the first song, Judas' reasons for betraying Jesus are spelled out. Judas is passionate, fiery, impatient, smart as hell, a real control freak, and clearly does not believe Jesus is the Son of God. It's important to remember that at that time there was dozens of men constantly claiming to be the Messiah, each with his own devout followers who believed utterly in their teacher. Judas thinks this movement has accidentally evolved into one of those. He believes this turn of events is contrary to Jesus' intentions. Judas' other concern is for his people. He knows that the minute Jesus becomes famous, the authorities will clamp down on him. He may be killed--they all may be killed. The Jews were an occupied nation under the tyranny of Rome. Judas sees Jesus' lessons of love and peace and brotherhood as a path straight to the gallows.

What follows, as we see Jesus losing sight of his mission (if you choose to believe that this was divinely inspired) and losing control of his temper, is justification or examples of all the reasons Judas thinks things are going wrong. Judas sees Jesus cracking under pressure and really believes that this is the best course of action he has available to help his friend. I like to say, along with actor Danny Zolli, that it's the musical theater equivalent of Hamlet, because Judas knows what he has to do and every action he might take is being justified right in front of him, and yet it takes him so long to just take action already that it's frustrating.

Updated On: 8/7/09 at 05:43 PM

[Mister Matt]

Posted: 8/7/09 at 5:46pm

I understand your point about Mary, but remember (as I have stated NUMEROUS times) this is Jesus' last days through JUDAS' EYES.

I think at times, Judas presents scenes from his perspective to allow Jesus's actions and motivations to be questioned in a secular way, but Judas is absent far too often in the show to justify that the entire story is being filtered through his view. Judas begins the show with a song of serious doubt and dark foreshadowing, but he offers his help to try and turn it around, which suggests that he is not an omniscient narrator and honestly does not know what to expect. I think Judas's part was obviously played up for dramatic structure and balance, but I don't get that it is so obviously one-sided.

There HAS to be a reason why he goes and betrays Jesus but the show never states why.

Weakness and lack of faith. He even states he doesn't know exactly why he's doing it.

[gvendo2005]

Posted: 8/7/09 at 5:53pm

To continue on from my previous post before Mister Matt, where Judas differs from Hamlet is that we can also see the reasons he hesitates without needing to speculate about what they are.

The dichotomy between Judas and Jesus is a fascinating one. Judas is the practical one, concerned with image, message, public opinion, money, etc. Jesus is concerned only with the message. Interestingly, the relationship between Judas and Jesus mirrors the relationship between the show's twin antagonists, Annas and Caiaphas. Like Judas, Annas is the practical one, trying to see the obstacles ahead, worrying about public opinion; while Caiaphas is utterly single-minded, just like Jesus.

That central relationship shows us a mammoth tug-of-war between pragmatism, represented by Judas, and ideas, represented by Jesus. Each of them is missing what the other has. Judas finds himself constantly frustrated and confused by Jesus' refusal to look at the practical side of their situation, as verbalized in "Heaven on Their Minds," "Superstar," and the fragment of "Superstar" at the end of the Last Supper. They fight because they both care passionately about the cause and about each other. There are three main arguments that break out between them, during "Strange Thing Mystifying," "Everything's Alright," and at the Last Supper--the second two set to the same music. Judas acts as a kind of business agent and PR man, concerned over the political message they're sending out, at the perceived inconsistencies in Jesus' teachings, and the money wasted on Mary's ointments and oils. He believes in Jesus' philosophy, in his ability to lead, but not in his methods and his choices.

As for his anger at Mary, that's partly about the waste, and also because he sees Mary and her relationship with Jesus as a PR liability. He also seems at times to be jealous of her. He is a man full of frustration, and one of the ways that anger manifests itself is in jealousy against the one other person to whom Jesus is that close.

Updated On: 8/7/09 at 05:53 PM