On 17th April 2024, I watched a stage performance of the opera Jesus Christ Superstar last night at the Congress Theatre Eastbourne.
I have seen Superstar live several times now, as well as seeing the film and listening to several versions of the album. I love it.
Once again I was captivated from the very first notes played on an electric guitar, that first melodic line (later used in the High Priest’s song) repeated and then modified and again repeated and then the dancers beginning and becoming gradually more frenzied until it culminates with the Superstar theme and the spotlight falls on Jesus. And that’s just the overture.
Now Judas takes central stage with ‘Heaven on Their Minds’, one of my favourite tracks, a critique of the direction of travel: “I remember when this whole thing began: No talk of God then, we called you a man.” and we segue into ‘What’s the Buzz’ and Mary Magdalene tells Jesus to take it easy and Judas jumps in again with “It seems to me a strange thing, mystifying, that a man like you should waste your time with women if her kind” (a stunning song) which angers Jesus: “Who are you, to despise her? Who are you to criticise her?”. The disciples hosanna Jesus into Jerusalem and the High Priests - Caiaphas in a voice dredged up from the very bottom of the scale, the sort of note that only elephants can appreciate properly, Annas is a high tenor - worry about what to do and end up deciding “this Jesus must die.” Simon Zelotes tries to persuade Jesus to use his followers to rebel against Rome - “Keep them yelling their devotions but add a touch of hate for Rome.” - but Jesus resists this temptation, and mourns “poor Jerusalem” in a song which segues straight into Pilate’s dream about meeting a Galilean, about the mob who “seemed to hate this man” and about hearing “thousands of millions crying for this man and then I heard them mentioning my name and leaving me the blame.” Jesus lays into the temple moneylenders and Mary Magdalene sings “I Don’t Know How to Love Him.” Finally, Judas goes to the High Priests and is persuaded to betray Jesus, asking only “Please don’t say I’m damned for all time.” At last we hit the interval. I am emotionally drained and it has only been 45 minutes.
The second half begins with the disciples getting drunk at the last supper. Jesus is saddened, believing they will forget him as soon as he is dead. He and Judas argue about the coming betrayal: “If you knew why I do it/ I don’t care why you do it.” Judas leaves and the remaining disciples fall asleep; Jesus, accompanying himself on an acoustic guitar, singsing what is by a very narrow margin my favourite song, argues, sometimes angrily, with God to release him from this fate: “You’re far too keen on where and how; you’re not so hot on why” but in the end accepts that he has to die: “God thy will be done, destroy your only son.” He’s arrested, persuades the disciples not to fight for him, and is taken away by the soldiers. Peter denies knowing him. Jesus is taken to Pilate who sends him on to Herod for that hilarious set piece song, ‘King of the Jews’, in which Herod asks Jesus to perform miracles: “Prove to me that you’re divine, change this water into wine.” After he is sent back to Pilate, Mary and Peter sing that delightful song: Could We Start Again Please. Judas confronts the High Priests and then, realising that he has been used by God as the fall guy in this tragedy, he reprises a verse of Mary Magdalene’s I don’t Know How to Love Him. This is a subtle little touch often missed by in this version Judas draws attention by singing the first few lines in an almost impossibly high falsetto. Judas doesn’t know how to love Jesus, especially since “he’s a man. He’s just a man. He is not a king, he’s just the same, as anyone I know. ... When he's cold and dead will he let me be? Does he love me too? Does he care for me?” To which the theological answer must surely be, yes. Since Jesus taught that we should love our enemies. But Judas has been vilified through the centuries. Judas hangs himself. Pilate attempts to placate the mob by flogging Jesus but in the end bows to pressure and orders that he be crucified. As the attach Jesus to the cross, Judas is reincarnated to sing Superstar. The final agony and death of Jesus are accompanied by instrumental atonal music and Jesus speaking with an intense light from behind him shining out into the auditorium, blinding the audience and reducing Jesus to a cruciform silhouette.
The auditorium was now profoundly silent. The applause didn’t begin until the curtain call. At which point many in the audience, including myself, stood up.
The dancing was unbelievably energetic, the set design was ingenious, the musicians were brilliant and the singing voices seemed to deny the fact that the singers were human. One point I especially loved, which I remembered from the Paul Nicholas version that I saw when I was thirteen, over fifty years ago, was that the singers shared microphones and sometimes, when arguing, snatched them from one another. This show was a perfect blend of words and music and choreography and it inspired some wonderful performances.
Superstar.
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