Paul Nolan as Jesus in Jesus Christ Superstar
Jesus Christ Superstar, currently playing at the Stratford Festival and now extended to La Jolla Playhouse in San Diego (and if all ‘The Buzz’ is correct) a Broadway run, certainly is creating all ‘The Buzz’ this summer at Stratford.
The Webber/Rice musical started off as the famous concept album before its first staging on Broadway in 1971 and is based very loosely on the Gospels’ account of the last week of Jesus’ life, beginning with the preparation for the arrival of Jesus in Jerusalem and ending with his crucifixion. But it is quite a ‘Strange Thing, Mystifying’, from this theatre goers’ perspective.
From the opening, over-amplified base note booming out over the rolling ticker-tape date and time announcements, one definitely feels Director Des McAnuff’s ample and sometimes heavy-handed blocking and concept overlay on what now seems to be his forté: The Rock Musical. While I admire this shrewd concept and slick staging, there is an odd, almost cold, non-relationship between Paul Nolan’s Jesus and his followers and most strikingly with the audience. The famous 4th wall cannot be cracked.
McAnuff rightly focuses on the relationship triangle between Jesus, Mary Magdalene, (an overly sincere and earnest Chilina Kennedy) and Josh Young’s explosive, magnetic and very sexy Judas, giving us underscored, longing looks into each other’s private moments from various vantage points on the set. And while the famous Superstar score is updated musically and incredibly well sung, the main tingles of McAnuff’s Superstar are in the last 15 minutes of the show, when Nolan’s very human and vulnerable Jesus is crucified: the experience leaves you totally taken by surprise by the abruptness of the act.
Robert Brill’s sets are all soaring ladders and catwalks to heaven (see McAnuff’s Jersey Boys) and when the previously mentioned electronic ticker-tape explodes in a sea of silent, moving biblical references, you are left with the sense of a human man done in by the weight of 2,000 years of cruel history.
Strikingly, Brent Carver’s Pontius Pilate makes his two-scene character extraordinarily multi-layered, basing the entire character on ‘Pilate’s Dream” which is slowly and hauntingly sung in Carver’s Jacques Brel style. As he counts the thirty-nine bloody strokes, Pilate pleads with Jesus to defend himself, Carver gives a frustrated, achingly human performance, begging Christ to reconsider, leaving us with a sense of looming, impending doom as Pilate is rolled away, realizing that his dream is about to come frighteningly true.
Superstar has been extended to November 6 at Stratfordand if you want to find out ‘What’s The Buzz’ in person, call 1-800-567- 1600 or visit stratfordfestival.ca
Stratford-well, My Friends
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Good Stuff. I love this Man.