The original Broadway production of Jesus Christ Superstar.- Page 2

[Michael Bennett]

Posted: 4/22/14 at 3:43pm

I wrote about this on another thread once upon a time, but a few years back I went to the NYPL and looked at all the archival designs/drawings for the costume/scenic elements of the original Broadway production of JC SUPERSTAR, and they were, as to be imagined, wildly creative, stunning and rather bizarre.

According to the designers' notes, O'Horgan's concept was "single cell organisms" -- meaning that we had all evolved from (or perhaps still were) primitive life forms. All the designs reflected this -- most were crustacean-like, and in one of his more surreal touches, O'Horgan conceived the "Hosannah" sequence, not with palm fronds but with amoebas and jellyfish.

The other design factor that O'Horgan was influenced by was Tiffany Glass and its patterns (perhaps because many recalled butterfly/chrysalis patterns). During "Superstar" Ben Vereen descended on a huge bird with Tiffany glass designs.

The link below has some color pictures of the production...






Photos of JC Superstar from the Life archives. Updated On: 4/22/14 at 03:43 PM

[Mr. Nowack]

Posted: 4/22/14 at 3:49pm

Such bizarre designs! I never knew there were color photos front the production other than the TIME and cast album cover.

Updated On: 4/22/14 at 03:49 PM

[g.d.e.l.g.i.]

Posted: 4/22/14 at 3:55pm

As O'Horgan put it in Elizabeth Wollman's The Theater Will Rock:

"I had gone to the Museum of Natural History, and there was a whole thing about insects when I was in the process of putting [Superstar] together. So I thought, maybe I would do this piece as if a further civilization of evolved insects looked back at this primitive society's myth and decided to make a version of it. I don't think anybody ever got that. But if you look at the costumes, for instance, Judas is resurrected as a butterfly, and Christ comes up out of the ground in a chrysalis, and it breaks open and becomes a great moth."

Apparently "a further civilization of evolved insects" would resort to a curtain that doubled as the stage floor, laser beams, smoke and wind machines, dancing dwarfs, shuffling lepers, hooded demons, a golden triangle, intricate bridges descending from the ceiling, and incredible costumes appearing out of the floor.

Whatever you may like or dislike about the work, it's a simple, moving rock opera, the story of Christ's Passion told in the vernacular. Not a circus. The music and lyrics giving a new spin to this age-old story is where the appeal has always been. Not show-biz gimmickry. Still, I'd like to have seen it, just for the sheer spectacle.

[EricMontreal22]

Posted: 4/22/14 at 4:11pm

Thanks GD! I thought it must have been you who quoted that several months back, but I didn't want to presumptuous.

And great to see some of those photos I hadn't seen before. I admit, the whole design aesthetic is both beautiful and sorta repulsive to me, but crustaceans creep me out.

It is interesting from my POV--and this is probably unfair to say since I obviously wasn't there, that the show didn't really have lasting impact. I take it TR and ALW were not particularly taken with it (hence using Sharman elsewhere) and while it had a respectable year and a half or so run, considering what a true phenomenon sales of the album and concert tours had been particularly in North America, and how damn elaborate and expensive the production looks, it does always surprise me the production had far less impact than I'd expect. Then again, JCS always seems to work better for me as a record (or the film,) after seeing four professional productions live.

[Acting4Food]

Posted: 4/22/14 at 4:16pm

I'm sorry, but can we stop calling them "platform shoes". They are clearly modeled after Kothornoi, the raised sole shoes worn by ancient Greek actors to symbolize characters of great importance or "god" like status. Not to be nit-picky or anything :)

[CarlosAlberto]

Posted: 4/22/14 at 4:27pm

Those designs are fascinating!

[g.d.e.l.g.i.]

Posted: 4/22/14 at 6:56pm

I take it TR and ALW were not particularly taken with it

That's partly because O'Horgan wasn't their first choice. The producer, Robert Stigwood, kept him in mind because Hair was a hot property and kept offering, but O'Horgan said no, preferring to continue in the more intellectually stimulating field of Off-Off-Broadway. In fact, he even committed to a new Robert Patrick play at the time JCS was scheduled to begin production.

The authors' original choice, warily supported by Stiggie, was famed theater and opera director Frank Corsaro, who had previously helmed Tennessee Williams' The Night of the Iguana on Broadway, and had recently (circa 1970/71) staged several controversial multimedia operas for the NYCO. He was one of many who wrote Rice and Webber, care of Decca Records, in the wake of the original album's success, detailing his desire to stage the opera and some of his ideas.

Corsaro had a huge effect on the shape the production (and the show, as a result) eventually took. He chose the creative team (Robin Wagner designing sets, Randy Barcelo costumes, and Jules Fisher lights, all of whom came up with ideas based on Corsaro's concept that had to be scrapped and re-designed in three weeks when O'Horgan came in); he asked for alterations in the opera, including suggesting "Could We Start Again, Please" and lengthening the "Trial" scene's exchanges between Pilate and Jesus; he was also involved in much of the casting sessions for the pre-Broadway tour and eventual Broadway run, choosing many of the talents who would go on to become involved in the Broadway cast. It's a safe bet that O'Horgan would not have had so easy a job without Corsaro's substantial work in pre-production. But Corsaro got in a car wreck, and Stigwood, fearing that Corsaro's multimedia concept could not be executed without Corsaro in the driver's seat, desperately returned to O'Horgan, who named an absurd sum hoping to place himself out of the running, and was met with his demands, plus "conceived for the stage" credit and a piece of the authors' royalties, which Rice and Webber could not have been happy with.

(I understand that O'Horgan actually did the L.A. run as well, which played at the then-newly opened Universal Studios Amphitheatre, and given more time to prepare his own production, it was much better received by the critics, and ran throughout the summer.)

Updated On: 4/23/14 at 06:56 PM

[EricMontreal22]

Posted: 4/22/14 at 7:30pm

I forgot about the Corsaro connection, though I'm pretty sure I've read it (probably from you ) before. He would have been a potentially great choice I believe. That's too bad he wasn't involved--I wonder how much of, say, Wagner's designs were changed. It's interesting because, while Wagner did do Hair, JCS' designs are quite different from what I come to think of Wagner's (granted, quite diverse) work.

Jim Sharman between his work on culty shows (even if JCS was pre Rocky Horror I believe) and legit opera made more sense.

[Up In One]

Posted: 4/22/14 at 7:48pm

Let's not forget the religious picket line outside the theaters every performance or the famous Ben Vereen Judas kiss. The papers picked up on the homosexual tract and painted the production as a musical version of Sodom and Gomorrah.

I was a sophomore in high school who was a fan of the double album and concert tour and was blown away by the theatricality of it all. Having only seen 1776, Applause, Fiddler and Follies, Superstar spoke to me from all angles, especially introducing popular music / rock to the stage.

The epilogue with the mammoth wall falling back and becoming the stage floor and the representation of the development of religion leading up to a giant chalice being worshipped only to open and see inside the Christ head that appeared on the Time mag cover - That head figure rose from the chalice with the golden circus ten unfurling below to the now famous "Superstar" chords at the end of the prologue/overture. It was one if my first goose bump experiences.

Was pretty cool to see a star born in Ben Vereen too.

[theatregeek6]

Posted: 4/22/14 at 8:40pm

The first thing i always remember is the 'vine' corded microphones. Had never seen a show using mikes. The Pilate costume was over the top and the crucifix action was, as stated before , done on a triangle.

It was loud and brash. And although very imperfect a show that was different from what I had seen before. And it made me much more open to other types of musical theatre

[CATSNYrevival]

Posted: 4/22/14 at 8:49pm

Why didn't they just transfer the West End production? That one seems like it had a more sensical concept and design and it ran much longer than the Broadway production eventually did. Although, looking at at all the productions there have been on ibdb it looks like Superstar has simply never been successful in New York regardless of how it was staged.

[Mr. Nowack]

Posted: 4/22/14 at 9:01pm

I would love to see a "straight" production in terms of design. The rock concert style that seems to usually be applied seems sort of corny for me, although I guess it fits the material.

Before I had seen the movie and had just heard the concept album I imagined it that way (Sort of like "Jesus Of Nazareth"), but now I always imagine it as the film when I listen to it.

[Up In One]

Posted: 4/22/14 at 9:28pm

Broadway came first in 1971, the West end production opened in 1972

[EricMontreal22]

Posted: 4/22/14 at 9:30pm

The Sharman production was, more or less, "straight" though some rock trappings maybe impossible to avoid.

CATS, the album had been a (significantly) bigger success in the US so I think Stigwood as anxious to open it there--the London production came 2 or so years later. I suppose they could have transfered the show back there from London, but after a run of 700 something performances, there probably was little desire.

[best12bars]

Posted: 4/22/14 at 9:53pm

Jesus looks like he's defying gravity in that cover shot.

[Gothampc]

Posted: 4/22/14 at 9:58pm

And the clip that Bric posted shows where Julie Taymor stole all her ideas for The Lion King.

[SNAFU]

Posted: 4/22/14 at 11:02pm

Best, same basic design.

Didn't Herod arrive via a giant fish if I remember correctly? I saw a matinee in 1973, I was a senior in High School. Paid the God offal price of $18 for my center orchestra seat.

Updated On: 4/22/14 at 11:02 PM

[SporkGoddess]

Posted: 4/23/14 at 12:38am

Before I had seen the movie and had just heard the concept album I imagined it that way (Sort of like "Jesus Of Nazareth"), but now I always imagine it as the film when I listen to it.

Every single community and high school theatre production of JCS that I've seen has staged it that way. I agree that giving it a rock concert feel can come across as corny. I really like how the movie did it, combining the "traditional" with the modern.

I'd never seen pictures from the original Broadway production. Wow, I can't even imagine seeing that onstage.

[eperkins]

Posted: 4/23/14 at 9:42am

Some people mentioned here the raked stage, but does anyone remember that at the start of the show, the stage floor was actually raised to a vertical position to act as the "show curtain"? When the music started cast members starting climbing and crawling on the "wall" as it lowered down to become the floor.

[CarlosAlberto]

Posted: 4/23/14 at 10:19am

@ eperkins: If you read carefully through this thread you will see it's been mentioned by three different posters.

ARTc3: The set wasn't much to speak of, but I do remember that the stage curtain became the stage deck

g.d.e.l.g.i.: Apparently "a further civilization of evolved insects" would resort to a curtain that doubled as the stage floor,

Up In One: The epilogue with the mammoth wall falling back and becoming the stage floor

[mrsyaj]

Posted: 4/23/14 at 10:43am

Ehhh, I think there's a high camp sensibility going on here. Some of the men's costumes would have been a little risqué for that time and Pilate looks like something out of "Der Ring Gott Farblonjet."

[eperkins]

Posted: 4/23/14 at 10:56am

Erk! Well, I guess I didn't read the other posts very closely! But that was a vivid memory for me.

[metropolis10111]

Posted: 4/23/14 at 10:59am

There is a great book that covered the making of the album/show that has a wealth of pictures and information as well

[g.d.e.l.g.i.]

Posted: 4/23/14 at 12:47pm

^ And, as it's out of print, you can sign up at Jesus Christ Superstar Zone to view it in the Database section. (More specifically, go to "Database," then scroll down to "Books," then select "The Show," and you'll find the whole thing there.)

Jesus Christ Superstar Zone

Updated On: 4/23/14 at 12:47 PM

[mrsyaj]

Posted: 4/23/14 at 1:20pm

Yes, I remember my Lutheran stepmother complaining about how "Jesus Christ Superstar" and "Godspell" were an insult to religious people. Because, I guess, she had special knowledge that nobody who believed in God or Jesus had ever been involved in a production of either show.