[We are into the Resurrection Season so here’s a resurrected post from t 2012, reposted every Holy Week celebration. You’ll understand why.—Admin1.]
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JCS – “Jesus Christ Superstar”
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Andrew Lloyd Webber is such a musical genius whose contribution to musical theater includes Evita, Cats, The Phantom of the Opera, and two biblically-based musicals Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat and his classic rock opera Jesus Christ Superstar.
When JCS first appeared on broadway in 1970 and immediately became a huge success particularly among the ‘flower children’, I refused to see its local college campus production because as a closed-minded Catholic then, I thought it was sacrilegious to turn the crucified Savior into a rock-singing cult hero surrounded by hippies. I hadn’t yet realized how effective it was to resort to evangelism via entertainment; I mean, if you can’t convince the masses to go to mass, you can bring your mass to the masses; much like what they’re doing at the malls today, making it convenient to attend mass while ‘malling.’ Better yet, if you can’t keep your congregants from falling asleep at church service, liven up your service with audio-visual aids—dancers, singers, bands–and just watch the masses flock to your revivals, or end up with a televised service so your flock can enjoy the comforts of home and feel they have “churched” on Sunday!
About 1973 the broadway musical was immortalized on film and was directed by Norman Jewison (often mistaken for being Jewish because of his surname although he was a Protestant and a Canadian).
By 1975 when I was fast deteriorating into a nominal Catholic and happened to be a graduate student in fine arts, majoring in dance at SMU in Dallas, TX, JCS was shown in the local movie theater. I went to see it initially to watch the choreography; then I went back to rewatch the choreography, the 2nd time around I found myself listening to the rock music; went back a 3rd time and started listening intently to the lyrics; but truth to tell, the real reason I kept going back was because I was smitten with the actor-singer who played Jesus—Ted Neeley. I fell in love with Jesus because of Ted Neeley, or perhaps I fell in love with Ted Neeley who I imagined would have been exactly what Jesus would have looked like. I left my catholic faith and became an evangelical Christian after that and was in love with Ted Neeley’s Jesus eversince.
Little did I realize I was an idolater! I praised the Lord for bringing Jesus into my life through Ted Neeley. Each time the movie would be resurrected for showing on “Holy Week” or Easter, I would go see my idol, never missing a year.
Come 1996, I was a mother of three teenage sons who I wanted to expose to musical theater. I figured their best introduction would be what else, my favorite rock opera! Ipods and portable CD players were already affordable and my boys easily took to JCS in eardrum-splitting volume through earphones. It so happened during a family vacation visit to my husband’s kin in North Carolina, the summer production of JCS would be shown in Greensboro, NC; Ted Neeley was the star, so off I went with sons in tow. We went backstage after the performance, Ted always met with his fans and gave all the adoring female fans (of differing ages) a hug. I got mine plus an autographed souvenir program.
Fast forward to June 2007, Ted Neeley was to make his farewell JCS performance in San Francisco, CA. By then, my grown-up sons had been exposed to a lot of broadway musicals and did develop the same passion for live theater as I had, so since we lived nearby in wine country, Santa Rosa, CA at the time, we all went to see the show one last time. [I know, this is beginning to sound like a tour of the U.S. of A.; in fact I was certain at the time there was a Divine Hand arranging all these “coincidences” in my spiritual wandering]. Of course we did line up to see Ted again backstage. I had a chance to tell him how many times I had seen his movie, how I saw him perform in Greensboro with my sons; we all had our picture taken with him and of course, I got my looonnnnnng linnnnngerinnnnnng hug (picture proof frozen in time). By then, we both had obviously aged; he didn’t sing as well as he did in his movie debut (vocal chords about to retire), but had Jesus lived to age 60-something, he’d have grown older just as handsomely as my stage matinee idol. It felt like I’ve had a 4-decade albeit one-sided love affair with this actor who best personalized and humanized Jesus for me.
What is the point of this confession?
As an evangelical Christian, I recounted this as my testimony many a time, that I came to love Jesus as my Lord and Savior because of Ted Neeley through whom I gradually started seeing a very human Jesus; his divinity was never a problem for me, his humanity was.
Andrew Lloyd Webber had depicted him as a puzzled and reluctant messiah, one who didn’t understand his divine mission, who enjoyed the attention of his followers and adoring crowds but felt overwhelmed by lepers and the more difficult part of his ministry (all the demands for miracles on the spot!).
When he eventually gives in to the Father’s will, the lyricist gives him the striking line “alright, I’ll die, watch me die . . . take me now, before I change my mind.”
Image from www.steelopus.com
Webber explained in one of his interviews that JCS was not so much about Jesus as it was about Judas being used by God to fulfill a betrayer’s role, like a pawn in the hands of the divine puppeteer. I was mystified at how man makes choices and yet plays right into the drama scripted by God Himself but I clearly understood why a God who becomes human is more appealing to us, because we can more easily relate to him when he looks like one of us and might even be as cute and can sing like Ted Neeley. We lovestruck women age only on the outside; as my own mother confessed when she was pushing 80, she had always felt 26 and had crushes through each decade of her life on Elvis Presley, Bruce Lee, Neil Diamond and Edmund Purdom [lip-sync-ing Mario Lanza’s voice] in the Student Prince, what a strange lineup!
What is even more strange which I didn’t expect is this: when I finally discovered the historical Jesus was only human and not divine, I suddenly got over Ted Neeley and I doubt I will go to another showing of JCS!
Now the tables have turned . . . I don’t have a problem with Jesus’ humanity, it’s his divinity I no longer accept.
The lyrics of JCS (placed in the mouth of Judas the betrayer who did make it to HIPPIE- HEAVEN) make more sense to me now; no doubt Andrew Lloyd Webber was way ahead of me in spiritual discernment or skepticism or plain common sense:
“Jesus Christ, Jesus Christ, who are you, what have you sacrificed? Jesus Christ Superstar, Do you think you’re what they say you are?”
