Just when you think he's out...

[gvendo2005]

Posted: 10/22/11 at 4:03pm

...they pull him back in! Got this in my inbox today.

---------------------

The Egyptian Theatre Company presents

TED NEELEY
in
JESUS CHRIST SUPERSTAR

Directed by Daniel Simons
LIVE at the Egyptian Theatre, Park City, Utah
Dates: December 15-23, 26-31

Ted Neeley has played the role of Jesus on stage thousands of times and on screen in the original film version of Superstar directed by Norman Jewison.

For tickets, click link below.
If he sees his shadow, he goes back in the tomb for six more weeks of winter

[justoldbill]

Posted: 10/22/11 at 9:45pm

Jesus Christ Superstar! He's turned into Cornelia Otis Skinner!

[My Oh My]

Posted: 10/23/11 at 2:12am

Wow. I remember seeing him in the 1993 national tour and feeling reaaaally lucky for having caught him! LOL.

Had I known he'd be appearing in it almost continuously 20 years later, I'd have waited. I was a broke mutha at that time, mowing lawns and washing cars for tix money! XD

[bwayphreak234]

Posted: 10/23/11 at 2:17am

Good god almighty. He needs to call it quits. I saw him last year and he was beyond terrible. I am not saying he wasn't great back in his day, but he needs to stop trying to perform this role. He looks, acts, and sounds way too old.

[SondheimFan5]

Posted: 10/23/11 at 3:21am

Who does he think he is, Carol Channing???

At this rate, he;ll be in depends at age 90 still playing Jesus.

[PalJoey]

Posted: 10/23/11 at 11:18am

How long till the Resurrection Tour?

[Phyllis Rogers Stone]

Posted: 10/23/11 at 11:25am

2000 years and counting. Every once in a while a small group of devoted fans says it's gonna happen any minute, but we're still waiting.

[JustAGuy]

Posted: 10/23/11 at 11:53am

Neeley is 68. Jesus was supposedly around 32 or 33 when he was crucified. Sounds like some totally believable casting to me.

Talk about needing the willing suspension of disbelief.

[gvendo2005]

Posted: 10/23/11 at 11:55am

To be fair to Teddie, I mentioned his solo cabaret-style gig coming up in January, which is supposed to turn into a tour. My guess is he's having a little trouble convincing people he's still got it, and maybe lacked a little financing. So he went back to what's been his day job for so long to make a little coin, and then do his solo bit. It's a recession. Can't fault the man for doing something he clearly knows how to do.

[ClapYo'Hands]

Posted: 10/23/11 at 12:53pm

Is this guy *actually* Jesus?

[hyperbole_and_a_half]

Posted: 10/23/11 at 12:57pm

If we're going to (rightfully) lambaste Jennifer Holliday for basing her entire existence around one breakthrough performance 20 years ago, we must also crucify Ted Neeley for his Geriatric Christ Superstar ridiculousness.

Maybe if we start an online petition, Andrew Lloyd Webber will write a musical about Methuselah for Mr. Neeley?

[gvendo2005]

Posted: 10/23/11 at 1:54pm

If we're crucifying Jennifer Holliday and Ted Neeley, why not Carol Channing? (Heaven forbid Dollypop have a hernia!) Maybe if we start an online petition, you'll have a nice cup of shut the f**k up. How about that?

[JustAGuy]

Posted: 10/23/11 at 2:23pm

"If we're going to (rightfully) lambaste Jennifer Holliday for basing her entire existence around one breakthrough performance 20 years ago,...

Make that 30 years ago.

[AC126748]

Posted: 10/23/11 at 2:26pm

Lots of performers have based a career around a signature performance. Jennifer Holliday. Ted Neeley. Cathy Rigby. Carol Channing. Topol. John Owen-Jones and J. Mark McVey seem to always be playing Valjean in some production of LES MIS. Howard McGillin and Hugh Panaro play The Phantom constantly. Erika Miklosa, an operatic soprano, basically sings The Queen of the Night and nothing else.

The difference between Holliday and some of these other people is that Holliday seems to really think she is the ONLY person who can do justice to the role of Effie White. I've never heard any of the other people I've named make similar claims.

[hyperbole_and_a_half]

Posted: 10/23/11 at 3:23pm

I don't think dragging Carol Channing into this mess of a thread is particularly instructive since Dolly Levi can be older without gravely impacting Hello, Dolly!, whereas a septuagenarian playing the same role and little else for more than four decades -- when the character he is playing is now supposed to be less than half his age -- is more than a little preposterous, particularly because I'm sure most productions aren't "aging up" the ensemble to compensate for the crypt keeper in their midst. (Actually, I would totally go see Ted Neeley as Jesus opposite Sally Struthers as Mary Magdalene -- quick, someone email the Algonquit Playhouse!).
Updated On: 10/23/11 at 03:23 PM

[gvendo2005]

Posted: 10/23/11 at 5:34pm

Alright, I never thought I'd pull this out as a serious argument, but here we go...

There is in fact justification for the continued casting of Neeley in this role aside from the fact that he's still got it vocally. It can be found in church writings, to be specific St. Irenaeus of Lyons, Against Heresies, volume 2 (emphasis mine):

"The Thirty aeons are not typified by the fact that Christ was baptized in his 30th year: He did NOT suffer in the twelfth month after his baptism, but was MORE THAN FIFTY YEARS OLD WHEN HE DIED.

[...]

From the 40th and 50th year a man begins to decline towards old age, which our Lord possessed while He still fulfilled the office of a Teacher, even as the Gospel and all the elders testify; those who were conversant in Asia with John, the disciple of the Lord, affirming that John conveyed to them that information. And he remained among them up to the times of Trajan."

So let's summarize. According to the word of a respected Church Father:

1. Jesus was more than 50 when he died.
2. His public ministry continued for at least 10 years.
3. Jesus was seen alive (with his disciple John and others) in Asia, up to the time of the emperor Trajan. (Trajan's reign began in 98 A.D., by which time Jesus would have been just over 100 years old.)

All of the above makes sense; a man who was only 30 would not have received as much respect as a rabbi in that time and place. To reach that peak of wisdom, and be generally accepted as a teacher, he'd have to have been older, over 50, when he started his public ministry.

By that logic, as long as Ted Neeley doesn't go senile or wind up in a wheel chair, we've still got a good long time for him to go.

[Bettyboy72]

Posted: 10/23/11 at 6:17pm

Next up at The Egyptian Theatre Company:

Chita Rivera as Sweet Charity!

[AC126748]

Posted: 10/23/11 at 6:20pm

Chita did play Reno Sweeney at age 67.

[Mister Matt]

Posted: 10/23/11 at 7:49pm

Little Orphan Annie was created in 1924 by Harold Gray, who died in 1968, but the strip was continued with a combination of repeats and new material from other artists until it was canceled in 2010. So it makes perfect sense Andrea McArdle could continue to tour in the title role of Annie for the rest of her natural life considering Annie Warbucks was in her mid-90s by the time she was finally laid to rest.

[gvendo2005]

Posted: 10/23/11 at 8:17pm

^ Hardy har har. Annie was portrayed as an eternal youth, whereas there are two benchmarks for Christ's age in the Bible. The first is in the Gospel of Luke, where it is stated that Jesus was "about thirty years of age" at the time of his baptism.

The second time is in the Gospel of John, which is something St. Irenaeus pointed out as support for his point. Irenaeus quotes scripture, which we reference as John 8:57, to suggest that Jesus ministered while in his forties. In this passage, Jesus' opponents want to argue that Jesus has not seen Abraham, because Jesus is too young. Jesus' opponents argue that Jesus is not yet fifty years old. Irenaeus argues that if Jesus was in his thirties, his opponents would've argued that he was not yet forty years old, since that would make him even younger. Irenaeus' argument is that they would not weaken their own argument by adding years to Jesus' age.

Annie has no such benchmarks. Therefore, your satirical argument is invalid.