Ted Neeley in JCS review - May 27th 2007 (SPOILERS)

I just got back from this show, which started at 7, it was MAYBE 2 hours and 15 minutes including intermission, really really short.

I'll start this review off and say, I maybe harsh, but its what I thought about it, and if you dont agree, whatever.

When I first entered the theatre, I saw the stage and thought, 'SH*T the stage crew has left some scaffolding on the stage!" .. than realized that it was the set.

The show opened up with one of the worst choreographed slow motion fights I have ever seen on the stage, not to mention was quite pointless. I have seen highschool productions have better fight cheoreography than they did. (A little after this 2 women in row infront of me got up and walked out)

Speaking of highschool, I didnt know that blackouts, or bliding the audience to change scenes was still used other than highschool. (when I mean scene changes, I mean going black for people to WALK off stage, and yet you can still see them, because there was no scene changing the set was stationary)
Another means of transitioning was to use sheets of fabric, twice they were used. Once when Judas hangs himself (he puts the noose on, walks to the back of the stage just off a platform and a sheet comes down and they add sound effects .. the sheet drops) and also when Jesus ascends into heaven, he is lifted off the cross, than when he reaches the top the sheet comes down again and the audience sits there looks at a projection on a sheet for 1 minute, all the while knowing Ted is being lowered down back onto the stage, the sheet is than dropped)
I must say it wasnt innovative at all.

The dancing and blocking was lack luster, Sometimes it seemed like the cheorographer said "stand here and dance like you would in a bar" because thats what it looked like. The blocking itself was boring. When they would sing you would either stand in one place or sit on the edge of the stage. There was alot of exiting off the side of the set than walking right back on for another scene, or even better, walking on the platform at the back of the stage than all the way around again to the same positon in circles.

The overall concept went RIGHT over my head, in one scene you would think they were trying for a 70's hippy concept, with free love with what seemed to be hippy-ish costumes, and yet it changed in the next scene. The costumes didnt fit, and didnt go well with one an other. To further validate my point : King HEROD wore orange CROCS

And finnaly the singing, few positives and many negatives, mostly to deal with Ted Neeley.
I get it, hes from the movie BUT IT DOESNT CHANGE THAT HE IS OLD. He sounds like Johnny Cash or Willie Nelson and the whole time im sitting there watching I can hear in my head "I hurt myself today" over and over by Mr.Cash. You could hardly understand what he was singing and it wasn't entertaining to watch at all -- it was so hard for him to keep the notes, and his acting wasn't the greatest at all. I was so hoping to have an understudy and after seeing Chris Gleim as Peter who is the Jesus understudy I would have loved it even more. Chris was amazing as Peter and would have loved to see him as Jesus more than Ted. Chris sounded like Adam Pascal and had a flawless voice, the only chance I would ever see this show again would be if he was playing Jesus.

There was one other preformer who I dont know the name of, but his singing voice sounded like Froggy from the Little Rascals movie, but grown up and 40 times deeper, I saw people cringing as he sang.

The only other two standouts in this show is Tiffini Dodson as Mary Magdalene and Corey Glover as Judas. Both were able to hold their own, had amazing voices and were actually a pleasure to listen to.

I get that Ted is a big deal, but honestly, the price you pay for tickets to see this show, and not be able to sit there understand what hes saying, or even like his voice is not worth it. I find Ted to be one of the major negatives of this production... hes old, too old -- and not everyone knows who he is which makes people in the audience wonder why the hell a 60 year old man is playing Jesus.

If I was given tickets to see this again I probobly wouldn't go. It wasn't at all that great, it was very highschoolish.

The thing is, my city that I live in is only 120,000, sure its great that they came here, but I would rather them not have in the long run. It gives people who came to see this show the idea that this is as good as it gets, and it is most definitally not. The standing ovation wasn't necessarily earned for the production as a whole at the end of the night

They were here earlier this month and I saw the same production. You hit on many of the things I found wrong with the production, but I didn't see anything that couldn't be summed up in one thought - the entire show would do well with one good notes session from a third party in the house.

The slo-mo choreography in the overture made us laugh out loud (at a very inopportune moment. That part should be cut and re staged. Outside of that, I didn't see anything wrong outside of a cast that hasn't had any strong direction in a while and had descended into self-indulgence and a desire to bring weight and meaning to EVERY. SINGLE. WORD. with a source material that does not necessarily stand up to such scrutiny. Cleaning up the tempos and pointing out the moments of wildly unsupervised overacting would go a long way in making that show look like the slick production it advertised itself as being.

A few specific things I remember:

All of the actors, but especially the actor playing Pilate, need to sing in complete sentences without putting a period after every single word. For such a short production it felt interminable. Transfer the weight you are putting into the individual words into the sentences and phrasing and the inherent idea you are trying to convey rather than the individual words. It's exhausting.

In the performance I attended, Ted Neeley made an aside joke about how long he has been playing the role. It comes in between the Temple and The Beggars. "After all, I've tried for three years. Seems like thirty..." He turned his head and said, "...five". It was a way of showing that he didn't take himself too seriously in his position and that's good, but it was at a completely inappropriate moment in the show and was only distracting - especially considering the vast majority of the audience had no idea who he was. If he wanted to make a comment on his longevity in the role, there were other more appropriate moments in the show to do so.

Herod's Song. The staging and orchestration for that number were so exciting when they were first presented. We really sat up and took notice. Unfortunately, the rest of the number didn't "pop" the way it could have. All of the elements were present, but I felt the choreography and energy level didn't match the potential of that number.

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Ted Neeley is quite possibly the most kind and gracious person on Earth. He gathers all of the stage-doorers into one location and he makes it an individual point to really talk to every single one of them for however long they may want to talk to him. He doesn't just come out and sign, he asks personal questions in an effort to really get to know the person he is talking with. He spent more time listening than talking with the crowd in my town. (A personal side story - the girl I was stage-dooring with had recently completed her degree in theater administration. In her daily job she works with actors and celebrities as they come through the facility that she manages and she is very calm and professional in her dealings with celebrities. Her career path had been largely shaped by her father who was a fan of musicals and one of the first shows she'd ever seen was Ted Neeley in the movie version of JCS. She works with celebrities on a daily basis and was the most surprised of any of us when she suddenly burst into tears while talking to Ted Neeley. He put his arms around her and held her while her emotions were breaking around her and seemed to be legitimately feeling her emotions along with her. He held her for a long time and it was genuinely touching to witness.)

At one point in the post-show talk he asked us if we had any comments on the show itself. AS IF we were going to offer our notes in a lobby full of other fans. I feel a little badly that he asked for feedback so directly and I didn't say anything, but I'm not going to say anything with that many people standing around.

Maybe by some providence he reads this site and I can get some passive-aggressive affirmation by translating my ideas and answering his question in such an indirect manner.

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WHo directed and choreographed this tour?

The show is always short--nothing you can do about that (It's a perfect length I think)--my program from when I saw the Gale Edwards production on tour in Dublin says it's an hour and 50 mins with intermission and the movie which cut nothing really is about the same length.

E

WOw I havent' ehard of any other stateside stuff Arlene has done (I know her West End credits like Starlight Express of course) This is the same production that toured endlessly in the 90s right?

Is this considered Non-Equity? Part of me wants to see it because I really like the show, but I don't think I could sit through it.

either way, it wasnt that good at all.

This thread makes me sad. I saw Neeley when he toured the show in the early 90s and felt like it was a quality production all the way around.

I saw JCS with Ted Neeley when it was in San Francisco. I agree with some of the comments on here (especially King Herod's orange Crocs. What is up with that?). I think Ted is too old to be playing Jesus, but it seems like he really loves it, so why shouldn't he? I personally thought the slow motion opening was cool - it pulled me into the show.


Wonderwaiter, you're right: at the stage door he was so unbelievably kind and courteous. He made sure he knew how to spell our names, he talked to us, and he was extremely encouraging.

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Updated On: 5/28/07 at 07:52 PM

I saw the Tour in Columbia in November

Herod was Not Wearing Crocs then, Just a Suit
But I Heard that It changed

And I Loved Ted Neeley, and I Have Every Recording in English

He is the BEST Person who was ever Stepped into that Role and I thought that he was wonderful

Corey was good too

To bad you could not see Christine Rea as Mary
She was one of the Best Mary I Have EVER Heard

The Only Part of the Tour that Bothered me was the Hanging of Judas

And I Thought the Tour was WELL Worth $70,
and I would pay $170 to see it again

While this production is not flawless by any means, I was truly blown away by Ted's solid work. Yes, he's twice as old as Christ, but he's got this whole "christ-like" persona down pat AND his vocals are still strong. He simply adores this role.

I was expecting a "Sunday school" version direction-wise and certaintly not the Gayle Edwards, stormtrooper apostles, extreme... everything. That's not this version, for sure. So dont' expect it. But I thought the company was solid and the leads were credible. Glover works for it and impresses the crowd.

I forwarded my review and comments to 4 Broadway perfromers who all played in JCS at one time or another. They were not surprised that Ted still has "got it". At 64, Christ himself couldn't play Christ better, imo.

BWW review/interview ...for what it's worth

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Updated On: 5/29/07 at 03:15 PM

SPOILERS! JESUS DIES!


.... or DOES he?

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