Jesus Christ Superstar - A Review

Jesus Christ Superstar, Playlovers, Friday, 19 April 2002, 8pm at Subiaco Theatre Centre

Having thrown a couple of humourous fishing lines on the back of the review master and got a couple of bites from various fishes out there and a suggestion that I go and see the show and write a review (thanks for the email Jackie) I parted with my $36.60 and went last night.

Perhaps I am lucky in that I have never seen JCS in its entirety, I have never been to the Subiaco Theatre and most of the cast are unknown to me. Offsetting that potential objectivity, I started my love of theatre in musicals at Roleystone (back in the Mike Butler, Mary Webb days) with Oliver, Pajama Game, Grease, Prodigal, Oklahoma and so back comes some of the subjectivity again.

It is difficult enough to go into a show after reading so many passionately positive accounts, knowing that you need to review it, and I knew that I should not have opened Amanda's review this morning before I had written this.

Until then I had been sitting here wondering whether I had been to the same show, but the date and the time of the JCS she saw was the same as mine so I had.

So is it me, did I have a good day at the office. Was the meal OK before hand, did I drink too much, was it because I was on my own for a change or the thought of having to catch a cab home afterwards or that I lack the vocabulary of these other reviewers?

You almost didn't see this review, but I figure reviewers are many and varied and approach their tasks in an equal number of different ways and this communication is electronic and matter transfer of spears and daggers isn't possible yet and you can't attach them to emails so here goes in note form as honest thoughts and observations came to me from GO to WO.

GO
Nice intimate theatre - too small for JCS.
Set a bit chunky and imposing and makes theatre seem even smaller but I suppose it has to support a large cast.
Great! a live band - real musicals use real music.
Glad to see the theatre full, the rights cost and theatre hire must have been huge - probably the reason for the high ticket cost. Brave decision - hope they (Playlovers) come out on top.
Nice program - Ah professionally done - probably another high cost but only a couple of dollars!
Let's read this - who do I know here - what songs - who did what...
I wonder what the overture's like. Ah no overture - straight into it.

WO
Wonderful soloist voices - great harmonies and beautiful snatches of acapella
The softer ballads were haunting and filled the intimate space of the theatre with those harmonies, soft breath and purity of note.
The chunky power chords, when unaccompanied, were great.
The fierce rock rhythms and songs, essential to the ebb and flow of this musical, in the main were far too much for the theatre with a significant resonance and reverb.
I was initially surprised at the need for individual miking in such a small theatre, but given the loudness of the music, I can see why. I think that a number of fixed mikes around the front of the stage up high would have been better. It would have benefited all cast and cut down the occasional feedback. Their 'fill in' effect would also have retained the directional aspect. I was sitting on the side and to see someone sing in front of me and the sound coming from my left on occasion was strange.
The colour and glamour and beauty and precision and energy of the whole production was wonderful.

That moment when after glancing away briefly and turning back to see a vision of 'glamourous chicks' and an apparition with the coloured hair and the suit of mirrors walking down the stairs!!! I was instantly back as 'Teen Angel' in Grease and almost started to sing 'Beauty School Dropout'. It was great.

I was very impressed by the extra dimension and depth that the lead roles added to their characters, so often lacking in musicals. Judas, a man torn between internal masters, the love within Mary Magdalene, the frustrations and confusion within Pontius Pilate, a man torn between political masters, the humble simplicity and mental torment of Jesus, a normal guy in an abnormal situation.

On that note and purely as an observation, although a 'normal guy' there was nothing in his first scenes that made me see Jesus as 'special' or 'different' with his followers eyes. I really don't know if that is a problem with script, character, direction or the enormity of such a task.

On the whole I thoroughly enjoyed it and, from very early on, was wishing I was in it. Congratulations Alex and everyone.

Michael