SporkGoddess said: "Jesus is supposed to be this guy who won over all these people as followers, almost to the point of being cult-like, and for once, I saw a Jesus who clearly was capable of doing that. That really added to the show for me."
That sounds more like a good actor (and a director's framework for the production; this version played more with the "superstar" part of the title than the "Jesus Christ," from what I saw) than anything, considering the flaw is unfortunately built into the libretto.
Tim Rice is the first to admit that back when he wrote it, he had the luxury of assuming everyone knew the backstory from the Bible and he didn't need to spell out that Jesus was special, alongside the gimmick that this was the first time the human side of Jesus was so fully treated outside of books like The Last Temptation of Christ.
In recent years especially, that knowledge of the backstory has become less and less prevalent. The American Bible Society's annual State of the Bible report recently revealed that as many as 26 million Americans have mostly or completely stopped reading the Bible, a historic low. Study after study since the Nineties has reported such alarming (at least to fundamentalist Christians) statistics like 12% of Christians thinking Noah's wife was Joan of Arc, and 63% being unable to name the four Gospels -- a widespread glaring lack of knowledge about basic doctrines and the traditions of one's church even among people who are staunch believers. I can only imagine the learning curve is far steeper for those who don't believe it.
Formerly gvendo2005
Broadway Legend
joined: 5/1/05
Blocked: After Eight, suestorm, david_fick, emlodik, lovebwy, Dave28282, joevitus, BorisTomashevsky, Seb28