50th anniversary tour of 'Jesus Christ Superstar' sandblasts the old classic to reveal its true shine
Photo by Matthew Murphy.
While waiting outside the Cadillac Palace for the doors to open, a pull quote on one of the posters caught my attention: "Not your grandmother's Jesus Christ Superstar."
This being the fiftieth-anniversary tour of Tim Rice and Andrew Lloyd Webber's seminal career-making rock opera, of course our grandmothers have at least heard of it. I was more struck by the implication that Jesus Christ Superstar could ever have been rendered "safe enough" for the blue-haired crowd. This is of course in keeping with the natural progression of art—the revolutionary becomes the reassuring—but it's no less regrettable.
As long as Superstar's source material is going to exert influence, the opera should never lose its diamond edge. Thankfully, Timothy Sheader's production doesn't so much dust off the vinyl record as much as sandblast away the gimmickry and excess feel-good baggage that has accumulated over fifty years. It is guaranteed to comfort the afflicted and afflict the comforted.
Originally conceived for Regent's Park Open Air Theatre in London, the production had played Chicago's Civic Opera House in 2018, wherein, if it no longer shook any trees, it definitely shook the rafters. (Our review of that go-around can be found here.) The direction and design remains the same, and perhaps more than any production of Superstar that I've seen most successfully navigates the strange blend of literalness, metaphor, anachronism, and sheer rock concert that Rice and Lloyd Webber cooked up to recontextualize Jesus' Passion. Stony faces of Roman statues stand next to neon crosses, all wrapped in miles of mic cords and slathered in tons of golden glitter; all very sensuous and sinuous, the latter emphasized in Drew McOnie's dances.
In any production, it all comes down to the central trio—Jesus, Judas, and Mary Magdalene—and the Word of the Lord (Lloyd Webber, that is) is in good hands here. Aaron LaVigne's Jesus is armed with a thousand-yard stare of spiritual paralysis; Omar Lopez-Cepero's Judas, a thousand-yard stare of calamitous foresight; and both have voices that can probably reach much farther given half the chance. Jenna Rubaii's Mary, the voice of an innocent in the mother of all cruxes, also reminds us that Tim Rice's typical lyrical flippancy is equally matched by his smart heart.
Listening again, it's also a marvel that Lloyd Webber's music could've ever been construed as "safe." The set pieces with his earworm melodies are truly spaced out between a whole lot of (intentional) musical coarseness: irregular meter, clashing tones, booming basses, something like a desert hallucination.
But desert sand can smooth as much as coarsen. Timothy Sheader's Superstar offers both to entice the next generation into this immortal tale.
Jesus Christ Superstar runs through July 31st at the Cadillac Palace Theatre, 151 W. Randolph St. For tickets or more information, please click here or call (800) 775-2000.