The original Broadway production of Jesus Christ Superstar.

[Adair Haywind]

Posted: 4/22/14 at 9:40am

Did anyone see it? How was it? It seems like everyone's memories of the piece are in the most recent revivals and the tours that accompanied them.

[WOSQ]

Posted: 4/22/14 at 10:47am

It was wildly directed by Tom O'Horgan. The reviews were decidedly mixed, and it was not nominated for a Best Musical Tony. When I saw it I wasn't sure at all what O'Horgan was reaching for.

Later someone gave me an explanation that made some sense. O'Horgan envisioned the piece as being played on the floor of the ocean. Certainly the design followed that conceit, but I don't know what one had to do with the other. Find production photos and look at them with this in mind.

The two most recent productions were dull, and the latest one was earsplittingly loud as if the volume could cover gaps in the story.

The original production of Godspell covered some of the same ground and did it far more creatively. The original productions overlapped.

[Brick]

Posted: 4/22/14 at 10:57am

I've often wondered the same thing. Little seems to be said of the show before the film version. And that's especially interesting since the original Broadway production was directed by Tom O'Horgan, director the original production of HAIR.

Around the time of the 2008 revival of HAIR, there was some talk about O'Horgan, the little mention he's given for HAIR nowadays, and also his work on JC SUPESTAR. His production was said to be even more psychedelic and adventurous than HAIR was, including the use of festival-style puppetry and wild eye-grabbing visuals.

Somehow, I finally stumbled upon this clip from the 1972 Tony Awards featuring a medley from the show. And just from this one clip, I can see what I'd heard was right. While certainly looking horribly dated, it also looks like the best production I've ever seen of the show.
JC Superstar at 1972 Tonys

[jemjeb2]

Posted: 4/22/14 at 11:20am

I saw it and though memory fades, I do remember it was nonstop visually and the rock score was played LOUDLY. I also remember the severely raked stage which was very striking then. The movie was a disappointment after this lively show was such a knockout.

[Mr Roxy]

Posted: 4/22/14 at 11:24am

I remember Christ crucified on a triangle. Another thing I remembered was Pontius Pilate coming out in a Carmen Miranda headgear. His shoes looked like giant cinder blocks with straps

Would love to see it staged in period dress and done as an opera and not as a rock concert. It has never been done like that.


O. Horgan than went on to direct a string of flops Inner City (great show),Dude,Senator Joe.

Updated On: 4/22/14 at 11:24 AM

[Demitri2]

Posted: 4/22/14 at 11:32am

Brief memories. I remember Jesus pinned to a huge gold triangle during the crucifixion scene that extended out towards the audience. It was very impressive and moving. The three lead singers (Jesus, Judas and Mary Magdalene) were wonderful. Back then there were a lot of people picketing the theatre outside with signs and flyers stating the production was sacrilegious and offensive. During intermission my mother exited the ladies room and said she shared the same seat as Hermione Gingold who passed her on the way out.

[ARTc3]

Posted: 4/22/14 at 11:38am

It was a mess, but fascinating none-the-less. The costumes really stood out as they were over-the-top. The set wasn't much to speak of, but I do remember that the stage curtain became the stage deck. The show started with actors climbing up the walls of the curtain and sort of pushing it down to become a very steeply raked floor.

The show was amplified with corded mikes that were designed to look like vines - or perhaps seaweed based on an earlier post above. They were unruly and often got tangled.

Tom O'Horgan was at his peak as a Broadway director. In addition to Hair, there was also Dude (huge bomb, but also fascinating), and Inner City (another interesting, but ill fated musical). I also remember seeing something at The Public that was directed by him. It was a sort of sci-fi thing where the sun had ceased to shine, but I can't remember the name.

Updated On: 4/22/14 at 11:38 AM

[Reginald Tresilian]

Posted: 4/22/14 at 11:50am

I love this pic.

[Mr Roxy]

Posted: 4/22/14 at 12:06pm

Would love Inner City @ Encores.

There needs to be a bizarro like encores for shows like Dude and Rockabye Hamlet

[Jordan Catalano]

Posted: 4/22/14 at 12:06pm

I wish I could see what Roxy wrote but he's blocked.

[Unknown User]

Posted: 4/22/14 at 1:59pm

I saw the tour- I remember the corded microphones and the steeply raked stage. And who came up out of the floor and "wore" the stage deck- was it Jesus during "superstar"?

[Reginald Tresilian]

Posted: 4/22/14 at 2:16pm

Is that maybe what's happening in the TIME pic?

[PalJoey]

Posted: 4/22/14 at 2:29pm

The concept album came out in 1970, and I remember my sister playing it all the time and liking it, although not as much as she did.

But by the time it opened on Broadway, I had seen Company and Follies several times each, and I was hopelessly blase about anything non-Sondheim. I had seen Tom O'Horgan's production of Hair two years earlier and had loved that--especially when my friends and I went up on the stage at the end--but the Broadway experience of Jesus Christ Superstar didn't have the excitement of Hair or the excitement my sister had felt for the concept album.

I've since come to think that Tom O'Horgan was a wild visionary who lucked into doing the Broadway version of Hair after Gerald Freedman had directed the original production of Hair at the Public Theater. So all of the warm, touchy-feely "tribe" stuff had already been put into the cast and production of Hair, as well as whatever coherence there was to the storyline.

All O'Horgan did for Hair was add some wild visuals and the Zeitgeist made it a hit. And everything O'Horgan did after that was a weird visual mess.

[EricMontreal22]

Posted: 4/22/14 at 3:04pm

But O'Horgan seemed interested in touchy-feely stuff too--didn't he make the members at an audition or rehearsal lick honey off of each other?

Anyway, I believe someone explained on here that they actually were meant to be insects or something--like a society of insects if they had become more civilized like humans--which would explain the look, the crawling around, JCS' chrysalis type robe, etc.

Of course the British version (and Australian?) was more simple , despite being directed by Rocky Horror's Jim Sharman, and was a much bigger success running for years... (Sharman had previously directed the original Australian Hair.)

[Mr. Nowack]

Posted: 4/22/14 at 3:34pm

Here are some production photos

[Mr. Nowack]

Posted: 4/22/14 at 3:34pm

[Mr. Nowack]

Posted: 4/22/14 at 3:34pm

An expanded view of the TIME picture (also the cast album cover).

Updated On: 4/22/14 at 03:34 PM

[Mr. Nowack]

Posted: 4/22/14 at 3:34pm

Very odd headdresses!

[Mr. Nowack]

Posted: 4/22/14 at 3:35pm

Perhaps this is the aforementioned "carmen miranda" getup?

[Mr. Nowack]

Posted: 4/22/14 at 3:35pm

[Mr. Nowack]

Posted: 4/22/14 at 3:35pm

[Mr. Nowack]

Posted: 4/22/14 at 3:35pm

[Mr. Nowack]

Posted: 4/22/14 at 3:35pm

The triangle crucifixion.

[Mr. Nowack]

Posted: 4/22/14 at 3:35pm

Look at those platform heels!

[Mr. Nowack]

Posted: 4/22/14 at 3:35pm