When Andrew Lloyd Webber and Tim Rice first wrote Jesus Christ Superstar, it wasn鈥檛 intended as a Broadway musical. The 1970 concept album was a rock opera depicting the last week of Jesus of Nazareth鈥檚 life. But when the album from the British songwriting team topped the U.S. Billboard Pop Album charts, unauthorized concerts materialized across America. Lloyd Webber and Rice had to mount their own version to hold on to the license for the performance material, and Broadway came knocking. But on April 1, Jesus Christ Superstar Live in Concert returns to its rock roots.
鈥淸Andrew and Tim] knew our concept was to go back to that stripped down rawness that they had in the concept album,鈥� says Marc Platt, one of the executive producers of NBC鈥檚 live musical event.
Raw. Visceral. Edgy. These words guided this production team back to the Superstar Rice and Lloyd Webber always envisioned鈥攂ack to a rock concert. 鈥淭his is going to be reckless TV,鈥� says director David Leveaux. 鈥淥rganized reckless TV. There is a useful, disciplined madness in the whole creation and our job is to send that entire voltage through a television screen.鈥�
鈥淭here is an innate cultural energy with this show,鈥� says Brandon Victor Dixon, who plays Judas.
Read: WATCH BRANDON VICTOR DIXON SING IN THIS SNEAK PEEK OF JESUS CHRIST SUPERSTAR LIVE IN CONCERT
Leveaux鈥檚 live audience of 1,500 will no doubt amp up and embody that energy. 鈥淗aving an audience makes it more alive,鈥� says Platt. The concert audience鈥攕ome in an actual mosh pit鈥攑lay a character in the show, interacting with the actors, becoming the crowd of Jesus鈥� followers.
鈥淏eing a concert performer, the audience is why you showed up,鈥� says Sara Bareilles, Superstar鈥檚 Mary Magdalene. 鈥淚t will be nice to actually help distract from the idea that there are cameras at all鈥攋ust play to the crowd and hopefully that will transcend.鈥�
Performers like Bareilles, Legend, Dixon, and Alice Cooper as King Herod, all bring their own personas and sounds to the role. Music supervisor and longtime collaborator of Lloyd Webber Nigel Wright acknowledges the malleability of Jesus Christ Superstar that helps these performers feel comfortable, as well. 鈥淲ith Andrew鈥檚 stuff, normally it鈥檚 written the way Andrew writes it and you don鈥檛 change it. This show is written so you can interpret it and, depending on the musicians and singers, there鈥檚 flexibility,鈥� he says.
Still, there are signs when that plasticity has been stretched too far. 鈥淭here are certain things [like] in 鈥楪esthemane鈥� where the vocal matches the orchestra exactly, and the actual joy of it is hearing somebody sing those notes with the orchestra with them,鈥� says Wright. 鈥淚f they don鈥檛 [match] they鈥檝e gone too far [in interpreting].鈥�
The score Wright has been charged with protecting is Leveaux鈥檚 foundation. 鈥淭he entire thing is emotionally told through [the] music that Andrew created and Tim Rice鈥檚 incredible wit,鈥� Leveaux continues. 鈥淭he whole thing is a musical enterprise and so our musicians become players.鈥�
Superstar is the first of the live musicals to incorporate live musicians into the broadcast鈥�32 of them to be exact. Television director Alex Rudzinski wants the band to become the 鈥渂eating heart of the show.鈥� (Expect an epic opening close-up of the iconic electric guitar and interactions between actors and musicians.) Choreographer Camille A. Brown draws on dances, like the Charleston and New Orleans鈥� Second Line tradition, to weave a movement language for actors and musicians among Jason Ardizzone-West鈥檚 playground set.
鈥淲e came to the design part architecture, part scenery, part live event, part concert stage,鈥� says Ardizzone-West, who leans into the grit of rock n roll. 鈥淚 think of an opera set structure that normalizes this broken, decrepit, formerly sacred chapel鈥攔uined by time, and war, and human destruction鈥攁nd Brooklyn 2018 pieced together for one night only.鈥�
Every ingredient harkens back to Lloyd Webber and Rice鈥檚 intent, while pushing this new medium of musical theatre forward and hitting all the right notes. As Dixon says, 鈥淚 think it鈥檚 going to translate better than any of the ones they鈥檝e done before.鈥�
Ruthie Fierberg is the Senior Features Editor of 半岛体育 covering all things theatre and co-hosting the Opening Night Red Carpet livestreams on 半岛体育's Facebook. Follow her on Twitter @RuthiesATrain, on Instagram @ruthiefierceberg, or via .
