By Imogen
Link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1BseBCzOh6s
Available until: Sunday 4th April at about 7pm
Jesus Christ Superstar was one of the first musicals Sir Andrew Lloyd Webber put online for free and now he’s bringing it back to celebrate Easter. Not that Easter was exactly the best time for Jesus but there are great musicals on all sorts of weird subjects. Sir Andrew has also written musicals about cats hanging round a junk yard and trains having races with each other and that sounds so boring but they’re actually good musicals.
It’s a good musical as far as the music goes. Sir Andrew’s music is very varied. There’s dramatic music, there’s romantic music, there’s comedy music. There are also some really good lyrics from Tim Rice. The story isn’t bad either. Most crime dramas are really depressing and most religious stories are really boring but this one is fun.
Laurence Connor is the director and the production is seriously so ambitious. It must have been so difficult and expensive to put this together. It also looks quite dangerous as Mark Fisher’s set is basically a load of steps so there must have been all kinds of health and safety stuff. But it all went ahead and it looks really amazing on the stage. Kevan Allan’s choreography looks really good on the steps without looking like a comedy dance routine. The arena is huge but there’s a screen at the back of the stage which zooms in on the main characters so most people can probably see that even if they can’t see the stage very well. I wasn’t so sure about all the news reports at the start but it’s not too annoying.
The thing that stops this from being a five star musical is the characters. There isn’t very much character depth in this show. It is partly the actors but they haven’t exactly got much to go on. The only character who really comes across strongly is Judas Iscariot and when he’s the most likeable character I think something has probably gone wrong.
Tim Minchin is brilliant as Judas though. He has a great voice, he has a personality and he shows real emotion when he realises what he’s done. He’s emoting all the way through, reacting to everything and it really lifts the production but I really needed to see more from the other characters.
Ben Forster won Superstar (I think David Hunter should have won because he’s cute and he’s really talented but at least he’s got a good career) and he has the leading role of Jesus in this production. He’s very gorgeous and he really can sing, he has a seriously great voice but I don’t think he really brought Jesus across as a character. It’s not totally his fault as I said, they didn’t give him much to work with but I think it would have been possible to give him a bit more character.
Mary Magdalene and King Herod are played by celebrities and I think that’s a bad choice because they aren’t right for this production. Melanie is too old for Mary Magdalene so it seems a bit creepy and she sings like a popstar (which she is to be fair) and not like a real human character. I didn’t really feel her emotion in I Don’t Know How to Love Him and I really wanted more lyricism in the song to give a greater contrast with the rest of the music.
Chris Moyles as King Herod does well for a radio DJ but this is such an important role they really needed a proper musical theatre actor who could do full justice to the song and Herod’s character. And did we really need to see him in his pants? No we did not. This film was broadcast at 7pm and some people are eating then.
The best singing of the night for me came from Pete Gallagher as Caiaphas. I’m sure I’ve never heard of him but he’s one of the best basses I’ve ever heard and I’ve seen loads of operas. Such clarity and beauty of tone and he hits every note perfectly. Gerard Bentall who plays Annas is another great singer, not a typical countertenor (which might have sounded odd to be fair) but he hits the top notes really well.
This production of Jesus Christ Superstar isn’t
perfect emotionally but it’s got lots of drama and most of the singing is
great.
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