JESUS CHRIST SUPERSTAR LIVE Discussion Thread

[MVintheheartland]

ZellMorrowsPledge said: "I was in the audience last night. I haven’t been able to see the show yet on tv but I really hope it transferred well. The energy was INSANE. Being in that pit was indescribable, and the fact that they let us keep our phones was a plus. I could write an entire essay on my experience, which was amazing from start to finish since I checked in up until I left Marcy Armory, but thanks to 1iota and NBC for the opportunity!"

I would love to read your account of the experience!

[fashionguru_23]

I have never been able to get into Superstar before. Have seen both film versions, and haven't been able to like this show. With last night's show, I was finally able to figure out why people love this show. I thought it was great! Although, I agree with a previous poster, that could they have no tried something else for Alice Cooper? The biggest connection to rock music, has the most musical theatre/vaudeville sound to his song? 

I could hear pieces of music that reminded me of "Evita", (which I know comes later in ALW's career). Also, I didn't think of it as a concert, as much as it was a live performance in front of people. When I was thinking concert I was thinking more of the Les Mis concerts where even though the two characters are singing to each other they are looking straight out into the audience, not connecting with the person beside them.

I feel the same way after watching this the way I felt after seeing the Company in Concert with Patti LuPone and NPH. I knew I was missing out on something, and I think an amazing, interesting cast has a lot to do with both.

[JennH]

My quibbles with this paled to what this whole thing is. It was exactly what this show should always have been and always be forever more. A rocking concert. Sadly I didn't see too much, as I was in the back of the Pit on house right (more or less) and am also short...so that was problematic. What I would have given to have been in the front Pit...

[Lot666]

disneybroadwayfan22 said: "I don't know who Jin Ha is, but he's great."

Jin Ha played Song Liling in Julie Taymor's 2017 revival of M. Butterfly on Broadway.

 

[Lot666]

darquegk said: "Ben Daniels is a fantastic Pilate- if you’re not watching the Exorcist on Fox, you should be. He plays a defrocked gay alcoholic priest operating as a freelance exorcist, jealous that his successor appears to be the chosen one and not him."

I so wanted to see him do it with Alfonso Herrera.

[DigificWriter]

Why can't the full soundtrack be available NOW?

I want to relive the brilliance of this cast vocally, and it's frustrating that we have to wait until Friday.

[Babe_Williams]

DigificWriter said: "Why can't the full soundtrack be available NOW?

I want to relive the brilliance of this cast vocally, and it's frustrating that we have to wait until Friday."

I know it. It was prerecorded so a terrible blunder for them not to have it available right now. I am dying to listen to it again. 

[curel1]

Early ratings are in!

http://deadline.com/2018/04/jesus-christ-superstar-live-in-concert-ratings-american-idol-the-passion-1202356749/

I'm gonna guess around 10 million viewers

[DigificWriter]

Babe_Williams said: "DigificWriter said: "Why can't the full soundtrack be available NOW?

I want to relive the brilliance of this cast vocally, and it's frustrating that we have to wait until Friday."

I know it. It was prerecorded so a terrible blunder for them not to have it available right now. I am dying to listen to it again."

I just found out that the individual song performances from the broadcast as aired are available on NBC's YouTube channel, but it's still not quite the same as being able to go out and pick up the score in one fell swoop, especially if you were bothered by the sound quality during the broadcast version (I wasn't).

[dramamama611]

I'm surprised this didn't do better...smack dab in the middle: better than Hairspray & Peter Pan  but lower than Sound of Music and The Wiz.  (And it was worlds better than all of them!)

[curel1]

http://tvbythenumbers.zap2it.com/daily-ratings/tv-ratings-sunday-april-1-2018/

9.36 million viewers! Great number but I wonder it would have done on a non-holiday, I feel like a lot of people were busy to watch it. I bet the number will rise with people watching recordings or online in the next few days

[linus84]

It almost seems like what people really want to see is a live concert vs a musical. I wonder how many who watched last night actually knew that this was a Broadway show. With today's attention spans, it really seems like NBC has to steer towards material that is high energy, mostly music without a lot of book, and most importantly-something that can be cast with pop stars/celebrities

[broadwaysfguy]

man, ive still got next day buzz from how great this production was....

will be scheduling another viewing this evening from the dvr...

congrats to everyone involved ...and the viewer numbers are very solid for a holiday where lots of people have had a long day or weekend already......

rooting for a concert version of this to tour the US soon!

BVD's phone is probably blowing up with offers today

 

[Owen22]

Well, it was up against American Idol which has come back fairly strong this new season. They pull the same basic type of viewers. But most of these viewers will have DVR'd one or the other, so I'm pretty sure when added in JC Superstar's ratings will uptick.

[Miles2Go2]

A link to full reviews:

http://www.playbill.com/article/what-did-critics-think-of-nbcs-jesus-christ-superstar-live-in-concert-starring-john-legend

[bk]

Fascinated by this thread.  This had nothing to do with the way every other one of these has been filmed, and yet it's being compared to those as if it was from the same gene pool, which it wasn't.  This was a staged concert presentation, not anything like Grease or the other shows done live for TV.  It was what it was and some loved it, some didn't.  But it cannot be lumped in with the others.

[greensgreens]

Also, I haven't seen anyone mention this yet... But I think David Leveaux really redeemed himself with this production's direction. It was theatrical, relevant, but not overdone or too high concept. Obvs. some of the credit also goes to whomever directed this for television. It must've been really difficult to make choices about what to focus on at certain points and the staging/filming of that closing scene was truly a miracle!

[darquegk]

I get that the crossover between Alice Cooper aficionados and musical theatre enthusiasts may be limited, but people who say "why did they throw a silly vaudeville number to Alice Cooper" are missing the boat in a big way.

Though Cooper's biggest reputation today stands for his hair-metal period when he was a pop superstar, throughout his entire career there has been a broad streak of vaudeville and intentionally corny musical theatre. The "King Herod's Song" style is extremely in keeping with 1970s Alice in particular, who alternated garage-rock with "theatrical" bits like "Some Folks," "I'm the Coolest" and a few memorable appearances with the Muppets.

[Joviedamian]

I have to say that this reminded me of a "Great Performances" broadcast when they do it on PBS. Well executed all around (except for the annoying audience for a good 1/2 hour into the broadcast).

[kec]

chernjam said: "if you really want to gasp at a "Gethsemane" check out Lin-Manuel Miranda's video on this site

British singer Michael Ball also does an amazing version of Gethsemane.  

 

 

[JennH]

darquegk said: "I get that the crossover between Alice Cooper aficionados and musical theatre enthusiasts may be limited, but people who say "why did they throw a silly vaudeville number to Alice Cooper" are missing the boat in a big way.

Though Cooper's biggest reputation today stands for his hair-metal period when he was a pop superstar, throughout his entire career there has been a broad streak of vaudeville and intentionally corny musical theatre. The "King Herod's Song" style is extremely in keeping with 1970s Alice in particular, who alternated garage-rock with "theatrical" bits like "Some Folks," "I'm the Coolest" and a few memorable appearances with the Muppets."

PRECISELY. Among many other boat misses when it comes to certain criticisms of this show throughout the years.

Even my parents who lean conservative, like JCS as a piece very much but were trepidatious about this presentation...not because they're far right leaning crazies who think anything secular is sacrilegious, but because they've seen a couple productions in the past that missed the mark of what it could be as a piece of art, they just couldn't explain WHY until last night. They told me this morning, they LOVED this one, and now have a true understanding of what this piece was originally supposed to be and SHOULD be from now on and I quote "We'll possibly never see another production again because this was just the BEST of the best..." They're pretty much right. This bar is set quite high and other productions of JCS as well as other live broadcasts of, well...anything, will have a hard time matching this. This one actually embraced it's overly rocking, theatrical nature by it's creative team and it shows. This was the best live broadcast for sure, and to think I wasn't all that excited about it at first when it first announced because of the "on the nose/how unoriginal" nature of doing  a JCS live broadcast on Easter...I was very wrong.

 

[nmlhats]

I know I could look this up, but where did that "Can We Start Again" song even come from? It was not part of the original 1970 JCS rock opera concept album (which is still the best recording!). If it was in some original draft and then cut, it was clearly for a good reason. Or was it a new Oscar-bait song composed for the film?

[chernjam]

nmlhats said: "I know I could look this up, but where did that "Can We Start Again" song even come from? It was not part of the original 1970 JCS rock opera concept album (which is still the best recording!). If it was in some original draft and then cut, it was clearly for a good reason. Or was it a new Oscar-bait song composed for the film?"

 

 I'm pretty sure it was an addition with the film...

 

[LYLS3637]

chernjam said: "nmlhats said: "I know I could look this up, but where did that "Can We Start Again" song even come from? It was not part of the original 1970 JCS rock opera concept album (which is still the best recording!). If it was in some original draft and then cut, it was clearly for a good reason. Or was it a new Oscar-bait song composed for the film?"



I'm pretty sure it was an addition with the film..."

 

It was actually added for the Broadway production and was included on the Broadway cast recording in 1971.

[DigificWriter]

As others have said, "Could We Start Again, Please?" was written for the Broadway premiere of the show, and, personally, I wouldn't want to listen to any version of the score that omitted it because I think it's a great song.