Jesus Christ Superstar Farewell Tour with Ted Neeley — Page 2

Ted Neely has been playing Jesus in Superstar LONGER than Jesus was alive.

So I saw this show on Wendesday in Concord, NH at the Capitol Center for the Arts. It was a very nice little theatre, had an Egyptian theme to it. I would recommended anyone from the Boston area to head up there for non-Equity tours; the seats are cheap and the setting is intimate. But anyways, I’m definitely glad I saw this tour. The material alone is worth the price of admission. Jesus Christ Superstar is definitely one of Andrew Lloyd Webber’s best. Each and every song is quality and each has the same capability of getting stuck in your head. The production values of this tour were only so-so, but the cast more than made up for it.

The production was very bare-bones. It wasn’t minimalist because there was no minimalist conception going on, it was just simply cheap. It was basically a curved bridge raised in the air above a couple overlapping platforms a few inches off the stage. There was nothing cool about it; no wow factor at all. The only cool effects were SPOILERS: the spotlights following Judas just before the end of Act I, symbolizing his guilt; the bolt of lightening which frightens Jesus during Gethsemane, and the effect of Jesus flying to heaven after being crucified. Otherwise not much going on with the set. However, they did drop down a curtain and attached it to the railing of the bridge to create the image of an Emperor for the temple scene, which I thought was cool. The lighting was very good, as well. The costumes were pretty much time-period-appropriate, except for Mary’s costume, which was a red ball-gown-esqe dress (?). Another thing I didn’t understand was Corey Glover as Judas’ red hair; why?

So the production values lacked a little, but the cast more than made up for it. After reading all the praise people had for Ted as Jesus, I was expecting to be blown away, so I was a little disappointed when he seemed to be taking the beginning of Act I easy. However, once the Temple scene arrived, he was amazing. I cannot believe a man of that age can still go up that high in a different city 8 times a week. It has to be taking a toll on him somehow, but he’s not letting it show. His Gethsemane was bliss, sheer bliss. It was definitely a goosebumps moment for me. Also, his portrayal of Jesus dying on the cross was intense. The person seeing it with me turned to me during this scene and says, “I think this guy thinks he is Jesus!”

I cannot understand why they cast Corey Glover in this production. It would be one thing if he were some huge celebrity and it would cause millions of people to buy tickets. But he simply isn’t famous enough to even count as stunt casting. I had no idea who he was, and neither did my friend. Perhaps he’s a product of another generation, but his fame did not justify the casting of him in the role of Judas. That said, he wasn’t horrible. He just simply wasn’t good. He seemed bored, which made me ask myself why he would even want to do this. His acting was limited to point at Jesus questioningly during most of Act I when his character is suspicious of Jesus, and lowering his head in pity once he’s made up his mind to betray him. He was just terribly miscast.

The ensemble was surprisingly strong. I’m not quite sure who I saw as Mary Magdalene. The program listed Tiffini Dodson, but I remembered reading Christine Rea-Briskin (sp?) took over the role of Mary. Maybe she has left by now? I’m not sure. Whoever it was, she had an amazing voice and really had people around me going “that was beautiful”. Her costume was an odd choice though (see above). The people playing Simon and Peter both had amazing voices as well. I had an understudy for Pontius Pilate (Thomas C. Lash), who had a very powerful voice. I also had an understudy for King Herod, not sure who though. But he had an amazing voice! I’m not kidding, he went up into this amazing tenor during the last bits of Herod’s song, and it really made me question whether this really was an understudy. It must have been an understudy though, because he was wearing some sort of bathrobe that matched his lady servants’ costumes, and in the program Herod is wearing some sort of suit. The only quibble I had was that the priests following around Pilate and Caiaphas were extremely feminine, and had very flamboyant ways of walking and hand movements. I’m not sure why they’d choose to use this characterization, but whatever.

So to wrap it up, I’d definitely recommend seeing this. The production is cheap, but the cast and material is amazing. Just hope for an understudy for Judas :)

Justchillin...there is probably not gonna be another tour since this is the farewell tour....until

Jesus Comes Again!

Get it? :P

Ted Neeley has been on this "final Tour" for years......what a rip off listening to a senior citizen singing the role of Jesus

I saw the show in Canada and I loved it. Great Cast!!

Just saw this tonight.

In regards to the comment about Mary's little red dress - when she entered in What's The Buzz all I could hear was "Let me stick my boobs in your face a bit, let me stick my boobs in your face a bit..." I was in the upper center balcony and any straight male audience members sitting in my immediate area were treated to a VERY nice view of Mary's considerable cleavage. This Mary has the "nicest rack" of any production I've ever seen.

The part I'd most like to focus on is the stage door. I collect window cards and I already knew that Ted Neeley was very welcoming and gracious at the stage door having met him on a previous tour through Atlanta with the late Carl Anderson. Tonight was something special.

I had heard through the theater's production staff that he had come out into the lobby at the previous night's performance, but I also knew they were loading out after this production so I didn't know if that would happen again. After the performance I milled about in the lobby for a bit and when he didn't appear I headed for the stage door. After a while I was joined by a few more people and we all stood a respectful distance from the stage door. The rest of the cast filed out and got on the bus as we stood there. We smiled and nodded at them and they smiled and nodded back but no one really tried to engage one another because I think they knew we were all there waiting for Ted. No disrespect intended on either parts, mind you. We appreciated the job they did and they knew and respected what we were doing. After more than 200 performances of this tour they more than likely knew the routine better than we did.

After the rest of the cast's bus pulled out we waited an indeterminable amount of time standing on the sidewalk waiting while looking up hopefully every time the stage door opened only to be disappointed when a stagehand came out to dump YET ANOTHER dry ice machine and other, more "production-oriented" people with multiple radios on their belts came out and stared at us for a minute before closing the door.

Finally, a security guard came out and asked us point-blank (jokingly) if we were waiting to meet Ted Neeley. He then led us back around to the front of the theater into a little corral and let us know that he would be out shortly. There was a whole other set of people that had been waiting in the lobby this whole time who had a whole other set of memorabilia in hand while they were waiting. I got to look at the packaging of an original LP of the movie soundtrack and look through a souvenir program from the original Broadway production while I waited.

It really was "neat". We got to be corralled all together and share JCS-related stories about how the show had affected or influenced our lives while we waited - and it seemed like we waited forever, because the layout of the RiverCenter had us all focused on this one door.

Then, in a lull in the conversation, Ted Neeley just kind of snuck up on us! We were so focused on this one door that we failed to recognize that the star dressing rooms are on the opposite side of the house. I worked there and knew this, but even I was watching this same other door breathlessly with the rest of the crowd.

It had to have been an odd moment for him to enter a crowd of people waiting for him from behind. We were all waiting for him, but we were all staring at this door at the other end of the room expecting him to emerge from it. I can only wonder what thoughts went through his head when he saw a waiting audience of people turned in entirely the wrong direction.

He handled it with good humor. He tapped a woman sitting on a bench as his first "announcement" of his arrival. She jumped up and hugged him. It was the first clue to any of the rest of us that he had entered the lobby, but we were all at attention after that.

He made it a pretty solid and valid point of character that he was going to personally speak to every one of us and at least get to know a little something about each and every one of us before he signed anything. The friend accompanying wanted to send something to her dad because he had first shown the Superstar movie as a child and it was her impetus for choosing theater as a career in the first place.

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Updated On: 5/16/07 at 03:23 AM

http://www.azstarnet.com/allheadlines/273187

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To quote the Tourettes Guy, "God bless him, but he's old as ****!

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I saw the tour production, with Glover, and thought he was fantastic. Neely also, except in some parts (are those the ones some of you are calling the "diva" moments, maybe...?) where he seemed to "overact" a bit, as when he was speaking to God;just not very believable for me.
Honestly, Neely looks pretty good, indeed, for his age (even when in loin clothes). Part of being an audience is to suspend the "disbelief", anyways, unless something is downright striking a negative vibe in the performance. So, even if Glover was a "black" Judas, who cares? He played a part, and sang it well. We knew who his character was, and, if you never knew who Judas was, then it did not matter, anyways.
The production, for me, was well done. Remember that some performances might lack a bit of luster, due to things like exhaustion, sickness, or just the state of bio-rhythms, so not everyone is going to presence the SAME performance (although, in my opinion, actors should strive for consistency in EVERY performance, but I know this might not happen, always).
If you have the opportunity, go see this production.