Andrew Lloyd Webber
Jesus Christ Superstar

THE REVIEW

Can a slight fever lead you to write a delirious review about the fabulous '70s? Or rather, about a work that has marked, for better or for worse, many subsequent musical productions? Can a slight fever lead you to recall the "planetary tsunami" that struck millions of young people and left them there, sitting, shocked, in a cinema seat, for all the shows scheduled that evening?

Well, that's not a question I can answer. Perhaps I can say in my personal "defense" that I did my research and on the "coolest site on the internet", this story is not told, except in a reduced version, relegated to the exclusive 1970 musical work: what's more, that 2002 story didn't end with... and they lived happily ever after..., but with words used as blows to the teeth of those who, with disregard for danger, dared to review you-know-what "Jesus Christ Superstar" the album, for vinyl lovers, with that "poor" Ian Gillan... 

The album, released in 1970, was enormously successful, so much so that Andrew Lloyd Webber and Tom Rice decided to adapt it for the stage, which debuted on Broadway on December 12, 1971 and the following year in London, where it remained on the bill for eight consecutive years. Then, a film adaptation was made of the musical in 1973, directed by Norman Jewison, starring Ted Neely, Carl Anderson, and  Yvonne Elliman.

Who knows what captivating, new story with an unimaginable ending this clever person decided to tell: come on! I'm told it's a 2000-year-old story, imagine that it tells the last days of Jesus Christ's life: no less! Yet there must be something that, beyond the story, which is certainly not original nor new, attracted a horde of rowdy and rather irreverent young people into a cinema... for hours, I'd say more than one returned to the box office the next day, and the day after that, and the day after that...

Hooray, after careful investigation, I discovered the reason, actually I remembered, because... I Was There! of course, but it's the musical style, with  a predominance of  rock, so much so that the musical is often referred to as a "rock opera" as had already happened with Tommy by the Who and with a personal note, but strictly documented, for  our Orfeo9, which debuted at Teatro Sistina, in Rome on January 23, 1970, ten months before Tommy: did you know that Tito Schipa Jr is absolutely the first author in the world to stage a rock opera?

But let's not get distracted: Jesus Christ Superstar is probably the most famous rock opera from 1970 to the present day! The plot is known, although Jesus is presented to us in his more human aspect (only in 1988 will we see Jesus in his human and not divine guise, in the beautiful film,  The Last Temptation of Christ,  by Martin Scorsese); Judas is black and becomes the victim, not the traitor, with a fate that befalls him like a boulder; Mary Magdalene is perhaps represented in the most classic way!

Unlike other cinematic adaptations of musicals, JCS is entirely sung, there are no spoken parts, except for brief phrases uttered between one piece and another.

And now...  you can't ask me to talk to you about the music, the voices, the choirs, the choreography, the settings, the cinematography because they can't be described in a review like this: the reviewer has a fever and could be non-objective, but ...if you really insist...: the voices are perfect, the music etches grooves into your soul, the image of the crucifixion, with all the silence that follows, leaves a bitter taste in your mouth because until the end you hoped that the ending would be different and then, finally,  to many, it seemed  that on that cross the whole '68 movement ended and this, for those who were there, made those music pieces, in some way,  represent the soundtrack of their lives!