Chorus Member Joined: 7/12/18
As we all know by now Tim Rice and Andrew Lloyd Webber's JESUS CHRIST SUPERSTAR is about to get a flashy concert production at The Hollywood Bowl starring Emmy, Grammy, and Tony Winner (and Oscar nominee) Cynthia Erivo. But its rumored that this is going to be one of the most expensive productions that the Hollywood Bowl has ever done and as such they have brought in NBC Universal not only to produce but to stream this concert either live on NBC or Peacock as it happens or towards the end of the year as kind-of cross promotion for "Wicked: For Good" It's also rumored that the cast they have assembled around Cynthia is FANTASTIC: Leslie Odom Jr. (in his first musical since Hamilton) has been approached to play Judas, and I've also heard that both Oscar Isaac and Pedro Pascal have been approached to play Pilate. What do you guys think of this?
Broadway Legend Joined: 10/31/12
Where did you hear this?
Baloney. The concert is in August.
Chorus Member Joined: 7/12/18
Globefan said: "Where did you hear this?"
Sweaty Oracle
This would be just amazing. Insanely so. But it would create a social media firestorm, trust me. In todays political climate, I am being force fed anti LGBTQ crap on facebook. Recently there was a cutesy photo shoot of Cynthia with Janelle Monet (spelling?) they were posing for pics, laughing, and there was a primary pic of them kissing for the camera. It was cute.
The comments on the post were in the 10's of thousands and the anti gay and racist commentary ("ghetto", other slurs) were vile. If a black person, if a woman plays this role, I hope they have a strong backbone because the idiots will be enraged. I think Cynthia can handle it, but I don't know.
This is just my two cents.
malcs98 said: "As we all know by now Tim Rice and Andrew Lloyd Webber's JESUS CHRIST SUPERSTAR is about to get a flashy concert production at The Hollywood Bowl starring Emmy, Grammy, and Tony Winner (and Oscar nominee) Cynthia Erivo. But its rumored that this is going to be one of the most expensive productions that the Hollywood Bowl has ever done and as such they have brought in NBC Universal not only to produce but to stream this concert either live on NBC or Peacock as it happens or towards the end of the year as kind-of cross promotion for "Wicked: For Good" It's also rumored that the cast they have assembled around Cynthia is FANTASTIC:Leslie Odom Jr. (in his first musical since Hamilton) has been approachedto play Judas, and I've also heard that both Oscar Isaac and Pedro Pascal have been approached to play Pilate. What do you guys think of this?"
If it was true, it would be fantastic! It's not happening.
Updated On: 4/2/25 at 10:56 AMBroadway Legend Joined: 9/27/21
Why would this happen.
They already did Jesus Christ Superstar live like ten years ago with John Legend...you can go stream it right now
Broadway Legend Joined: 3/23/17
BoringBoredBoard40 said: "Why would this happen.
They already did Jesus Christ Superstar live like ten years ago with John Legend...you can go stream it right now"
Umm, maybe because it was, like 10 years ago and with a completely different person??
But that's just a guess...
Seven. Seven years ago. It'll be 10 in 2028.
Broadway Legend Joined: 5/28/05
The stir caused by the casting announcement of Erivo taking on the role of Jesus should be enough to tell anyone that this is too controversial for NBC to broadcast in our current political landscape. While most of those complaining live thousands of miles from LA and have never been to the Hollywood Bowl, the explosion of hate and negativity for NBC would be too much of a risk.
On the other hand, it is fully in keeping with NBC's last bold move of a black Jesus during the first administration.
I've been seeing a recurrence in social media and Reddit posts about the two Jesus-movie urban legends: the one in which he is a grindhouse slasher killing sinners, and the "gay porn about Jesus" rumor that's been around since the seventies.
I wonder if the decontextualized reports that "they're making Jesus a black lesbian" have led to resurgences of these older "think of the children" grievance bait?
Swing Joined: 4/16/25
I'm very excited to see the production of Jesus Christ Superstar starring Cynthia Erivo at the Hollywood Bowl, and the fact that there might be a TV broadcast adds to the excitement!
Videos