The original Broadway production of Jesus Christ Superstar. — Page 2

I wrote about this on another thread once upon a time, but a few years back I went to the NYPL and looked at all the archival designs/drawings for the costume/scenic elements of the original Broadway production of JC SUPERSTAR, and they were, as to be imagined, wildly creative, stunning and rather bizarre.

According to the designers' notes, O'Horgan's concept was "single cell organisms" -- meaning that we had all evolved from (or perhaps still were) primitive life forms. All the designs reflected this -- most were crustacean-like, and in one of his more surreal touches, O'Horgan conceived the "Hosannah" sequence, not with palm fronds but with amoebas and jellyfish.

The other design factor that O'Horgan was influenced by was Tiffany Glass and its patterns (perhaps because many recalled butterfly/chrysalis patterns). During "Superstar" Ben Vereen descended on a huge bird with Tiffany glass designs.

The link below has some color pictures of the production...






Photos of JC Superstar from the Life archives.

Updated On: 4/22/14 at 03:43 PM

As O'Horgan put it in Elizabeth Wollman's The Theater Will Rock:

"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 [Superstar] 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."

Apparently "a further civilization of evolved insects" would resort to a curtain that doubled as the stage floor, laser beams, smoke and wind machines, dancing dwarfs, shuffling lepers, hooded demons, a golden triangle, intricate bridges descending from the ceiling, and incredible costumes appearing out of the floor.

Whatever you may like or dislike about the work, it's a simple, moving rock opera, the story of Christ's Passion told in the vernacular. Not a circus. The music and lyrics giving a new spin to this age-old story is where the appeal has always been. Not show-biz gimmickry. Still, I'd like to have seen it, just for the sheer spectacle.

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I'm sorry, but can we stop calling them "platform shoes". They are clearly modeled after Kothornoi, the raised sole shoes worn by ancient Greek actors to symbolize characters of great importance or "god" like status. Not to be nit-picky or anything :)

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I take it TR and ALW were not particularly taken with it

That's partly because O'Horgan wasn't their first choice. The producer, Robert Stigwood, kept him in mind because Hair was a hot property and kept offering, but O'Horgan said no, preferring to continue in the more intellectually stimulating field of Off-Off-Broadway. In fact, he even committed to a new Robert Patrick play at the time JCS was scheduled to begin production.

The authors' original choice, warily supported by Stiggie, was famed theater and opera director Frank Corsaro, who had previously helmed Tennessee Williams' The Night of the Iguana on Broadway, and had recently (circa 1970/71) staged several controversial multimedia operas for the NYCO. He was one of many who wrote Rice and Webber, care of Decca Records, in the wake of the original album's success, detailing his desire to stage the opera and some of his ideas.

Corsaro had a huge effect on the shape the production (and the show, as a result) eventually took. He chose the creative team (Robin Wagner designing sets, Randy Barcelo costumes, and Jules Fisher lights, all of whom came up with ideas based on Corsaro's concept that had to be scrapped and re-designed in three weeks when O'Horgan came in); he asked for alterations in the opera, including suggesting "Could We Start Again, Please" and lengthening the "Trial" scene's exchanges between Pilate and Jesus; he was also involved in much of the casting sessions for the pre-Broadway tour and eventual Broadway run, choosing many of the talents who would go on to become involved in the Broadway cast. It's a safe bet that O'Horgan would not have had so easy a job without Corsaro's substantial work in pre-production. But Corsaro got in a car wreck, and Stigwood, fearing that Corsaro's multimedia concept could not be executed without Corsaro in the driver's seat, desperately returned to O'Horgan, who named an absurd sum hoping to place himself out of the running, and was met with his demands, plus "conceived for the stage" credit and a piece of the authors' royalties, which Rice and Webber could not have been happy with.

(I understand that O'Horgan actually did the L.A. run as well, which played at the then-newly opened Universal Studios Amphitheatre, and given more time to prepare his own production, it was much better received by the critics, and ran throughout the summer.)

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Updated On: 4/23/14 at 06:56 PM

Let's not forget the religious picket line outside the theaters every performance or the famous Ben Vereen Judas kiss. The papers picked up on the homosexual tract and painted the production as a musical version of Sodom and Gomorrah.

I was a sophomore in high school who was a fan of the double album and concert tour and was blown away by the theatricality of it all. Having only seen 1776, Applause, Fiddler and Follies, Superstar spoke to me from all angles, especially introducing popular music / rock to the stage.

The epilogue with the mammoth wall falling back and becoming the stage floor and the representation of the development of religion leading up to a giant chalice being worshipped only to open and see inside the Christ head that appeared on the Time mag cover - That head figure rose from the chalice with the golden circus ten unfurling below to the now famous "Superstar" chords at the end of the prologue/overture. It was one if my first goose bump experiences.

Was pretty cool to see a star born in Ben Vereen too.

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Why didn't they just transfer the West End production? That one seems like it had a more sensical concept and design and it ran much longer than the Broadway production eventually did. Although, looking at at all the productions there have been on ibdb it looks like Superstar has simply never been successful in New York regardless of how it was staged.

Broadway came first in 1971, the West end production opened in 1972

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Jesus looks like he's defying gravity in that cover shot.

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Best, same basic design.

Didn't Herod arrive via a giant fish if I remember correctly? I saw a matinee in 1973, I was a senior in High School. Paid the God offal price of $18 for my center orchestra seat.

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Updated On: 4/22/14 at 11:02 PM

Some people mentioned here the raked stage, but does anyone remember that at the start of the show, the stage floor was actually raised to a vertical position to act as the "show curtain"? When the music started cast members starting climbing and crawling on the "wall" as it lowered down to become the floor.

Ehhh, I think there's a high camp sensibility going on here. Some of the men's costumes would have been a little risqué for that time and Pilate looks like something out of "Der Ring Gott Farblonjet."

There is a great book that covered the making of the album/show that has a wealth of pictures and information as well

Yes, I remember my Lutheran stepmother complaining about how "Jesus Christ Superstar" and "Godspell" were an insult to religious people. Because, I guess, she had special knowledge that nobody who believed in God or Jesus had ever been involved in a production of either show.