Jesus Christ Superstar - OBC- Page 2

[g.d.e.l.g.i.]

Posted: 4/3/16 at 5:03pm

CarlosAlberto said: "As far as the original concept album goes it's essential because it provided the blueprint for the other excellent versions of the score. My first exposure to JCS was via the movie, so the soundtrack was the first recording I owned and it will always have a special place in my heart. I also prefer the OBC over the original concept album, but each version has something unique to offer. I always love to listen, compare and appreciate each one."

The movie soundtrack is, barring a couple of tunes and some copy-pasting of bars here and there, largely the same rhythm tracks as the concept album with new vocals and an overlay of non-rock instruments conducted by Andre Previn. It's not altogether different, so in a way, you still got the basics.

[lovebwy]

Posted: 4/3/16 at 6:33pm

Jesus was HOT in the OBC. Yummers!!!

[CarlosAlberto]

Posted: 4/3/16 at 7:45pm

 

My favorite number in the film has to be "Simon Zealotes" featuring Larry Marshall's off-the-charts vocals and frenetic choreography by Robert Iscove performed by a talented group of dancers. 

[CarlosAlberto]

Posted: 4/3/16 at 8:31pm

 

 

 

 

 

[Mr. Nowack]

Posted: 4/3/16 at 11:15pm

I will forever be fascinated by the insane production design of the original Broadway production.

[g.d.e.l.g.i.]

Posted: 4/4/16 at 8:18am

Mr. Nowack said: "I will forever be fascinated by the insane production design of the original Broadway production."

Funny story, that. Originally, the design team of the Broadway production (Robin Wagner -- sets, Randy Barcelo -- costumes, Jules Fisher -- lights) was assembled to work under a different director entirely, Frank Corsaro, who was most known at the time for staging such successful Broadway plays as A Hatful of Rain and The Night of the Iguana, and most recently, at the time, multimedia productions of classic pieces at the NYCO. (This drew Rice and Webber to him in particular.) Indeed, Corsaro played a huge role in shaping the eventual Broadway production (it was he who suggested the creation of "Could We Start Again Please" and lengthening the Trial scene because the score ran so short by theater standards, and many of the cast members eventually chosen for the show initially auditioned for him), but he was in a severe auto accident and was unable to do the show.

So the producer, Robert Stigwood, went back to pursuing his first choice, Tom O'Horgan, who had the cachet from Hair at the time. Initially, Tom had used his commitment to Lenny as an excuse to say "no," but after Corsaro's accident, the calls began again in earnest. Tom held out until they finally offered so much money to do the job that it would have been an absurdity to refuse. So he was now stepping in as director on a show with a firm opening date that had as yet never left the drawing board, and he needed a new concept. (Thankfully, he'd worked with the design team before, so he saw no reason to dispense with them and start afresh -- good thing, too, as it would have set the show back even further.)

But now he had a limited time-frame in which to come up with a concept for the production. And limited time, as it often does, led to ideas that seemed really great in his head, but proved impenetrable to an audience once they left it.

Quoting Tom (in Lawrence Thelen's great book The Show Makers):

"I had seen -- and I never told anybody this at the time -- a documentary about insects. The view that I took was that this was a reenactment of the Christ story by a future, future, future group of people who are really insects. So, if you look at the costumes of the priests, for instance, they really are some kind of insect. You see that through the whole piece."

Later, in Elizabeth Wollman's The Theater Will Rock, he said basically the same thing:

"I had gone to the Museum of Natural History, and there was a whole thing about insects when I was in the process of putting it together. So I thought, maybe I would do this piece as if a further civilization of evolved insects looked back at this primitive society's myth and decided to make a version of it. I don't think anybody ever got that. But if you look at the costumes, for instance, Judas is resurrected as a butterfly, and Christ comes up out of the ground in a chrysalis, and it breaks open and becomes a great moth."

As I understand it, with more time to plan and to come up with his own ideas, and perhaps having already been told his New York concept would never leave Gotham, O'Horgan came up with a much better concept for the outdoor production at the Universal Studios Amphitheatre in L.A.

Updated On: 4/4/16 at 08:18 AM

[Sondheimtime]

Posted: 4/4/16 at 8:48am

Which issue of LIFE did that spread appear in?

I am so enjoying everyone's input. 

[g.d.e.l.g.i.]

Posted: 4/4/16 at 9:11am

I don't recall an exact date, but Life did a story on the show in October 1971.

[CarlosAlberto]

Posted: 4/4/16 at 11:22am

Thanks g.d.e.l.g.i., you certainly know your JCS history, and I am so appreciative of you sharing your knowledge with us here.

 

I think it's fascinating the concept that Tom O' Horgan came up with in such a brief amount of time. The results as far as photos I've seen of the original production (I was only a wee tot of 3 in 1971) indicate a visually stunning night of theater and coupled with that fantastic score - - - I can only imagine the impact it had on theatergoers back then.

 

Some people may find O' Horgan's concept laughable but in my opinion that man was a genius. 

 

[Musical Master]

Posted: 4/4/16 at 11:50am

Tom O'Horgan was underrated, he was indeed a theatrical genius whose concepts may sound silly but to people who did see the original productions, they were unforgettable. I wonder what Jeff Fenholt is doing these days, it seems that after he did JCS, he seemed to have vanished from the public eye.

I wish there was more footage of this production (Tony Awards not withstanding), Follies has a plethora of footage, why not this one.

[g.d.e.l.g.i.]

Posted: 4/4/16 at 12:55pm

Musical Master said: "I wonder what Jeff Fenholt is doing these days, it seems that after he did JCS, he seemed to have vanished from the public eye."

Well, before JCS, he'd had limited regional success as a singer with rock bands around his home state of Ohio (had a Top 40 hit with The Fifth Order when he was 14), attended college for two years on a voice scholarship, and then wound up in a road company of Hair before he scored his gig in the concert tour, and eventually the Broadway run, of JCS. Left a real mark on the guy, as I understand -- how could it not when people forgot he was an actor playing a role (much as some people now have in the case of Ted Neeley). He was heavily addicted to alcohol and drugs by the end of his time with the show, and though he attempted on several occasions to get a solo career going, it never really took off at the time.

Never stopped rubbing shoulders with interesting people, though -- according to the December 1997 issue of Vanity Fair, he was one of Gala Dalí's many boy-toys, and in the mid-Eighties he was involved with Tony Iommi on an album that was eventually released as a Black Sabbath project without his vocals. (When Jeff became a "born-again" television personality on TBN, he made much out of his time as the "lead singer of Black Sabbath," which led to a lot of controversy and backlash from fans of the band.)

He has largely carved out a career in the stridently right-wing evangelical circles cutting several Christian albums, one of which went platinum and two of which went gold. After his divorce from his first wife, though, he's kind of drifted aimlessly. A lot of involvement with really awful D-level film projects, balanced with his usual Christian music, and being one of those nebulous "I run an agency" types in California. His Facebook profile gives the overall impression of an alcoholic gun nut I wouldn't trust with my immortal soul if he was the last preacher on earth.

As for further theatrical roles, he claims recently to have been offered the title role in Webber's Phantom a while back, but allegedly 9/11 put an end to that. Smells like more B.S. to me -- I dunno why anyone would seek out someone whose last theater credits were in the Seventies for this role, no matter how good the audition was.

Updated On: 4/4/16 at 12:55 PM

[darquegk]

Posted: 4/4/16 at 2:22pm

The Fenholt Sabbath album was just released in the last decade after years in the vault.

[g.d.e.l.g.i.]

Posted: 4/4/16 at 2:30pm

It's been around for years as a bootleg, and quite frankly it is what it is: a demo that should never have seen release. Fenholt's an alright vocalist, but they were only ever demos, it was not a Black Sabbath project at the time (the band technically didn't exist), and they reveal exactly what the bass player on the album said of Jeff: "Fenholt came down, and Tony liked his voice somewhat, but once the band ventured off into new riffs and was jamming, Fenholt was completely lost and could not improvise at all. That was the end of him."