Program from the play
I have never seen the movie Jesus Christ Superstar. In all honesty the reason I have not seen the movie is because I wasn’t sure I wanted an interpretation of Jesus Christ from the 60’s. However, we received a gift card for Christmas to a local playhouse and the best play showing was Jesus Christ Super Star. So we reserved tickets and saw it Saturday night.
I must say that the actors were unbelievable, the man who played Caiaphas, Liam O’Daniel-Munger, has performed with the chorus of the Kentucky Opera and he stole the show when he was on the stage. The actor, who played Judas, Nir Chalamish, made me question if Judas was predestined to initiate the death of Christ. His turmoil and voice made my heart churn. Brett Travis, who played Jesus, captured Christ in his human compassion and anguish in the garden. It was like nothing I have ever seen at this playhouse before. My husband and I have shared a love for many Broadway series our favorite is Les Mis which we saw three weeks ago. This performance, its choreography, lighting and music truly was as grand as a Broadway series musical. We were so impressed. It was so well done that at intermission we discussed details about the scriptures and the journey of Christ, it provoked deep conversation for us.
As always is the case it was painful to witness the interpretation of the crucifixion. They took him down off of the cross and his apostles held him and then the stage lights went off and the playhouse lights went up. I sat in my chair saying “This can’t be the end. It’s not the end. Don’t they know this is not the ending?” Completely convinced they would return to the stage I watched as audience members bewildered and befuddled left the building. Finally I stopped someone who worked with the crew and asked “Is that it?” He replied “Yes, that’s how it ends.” My husband and I exchanged glances and in a daze we walked through the unexpected snow of March to the van. I looked to him and said “They just missed the entire purpose of the life of Christ. Don’t they know it’s not about his life as much as it is about the Resurrection?” In a heated voice I said “And this is why I never watched this movie before!”
It took awhile for me to calm down. But when I had my wits about me I started to ponder the different ideas the play had mustered in my soul. We talked about Pilate and his choice, Judas and his damnation, Herod and Mary Magdalene. It was definitely worth seeing. However, it was like the best book you ever read and the ending was the worst possible scenario! But I know the truth.
Christ was beaten, whipped, bruised, humiliated and crucified for our sins. But he did not die in vain. Three days later he rose from the dead to be seated at the right hand of His father. Before He left he visited those lost apostles in that upper room and said “Peace be with you”- John 20:19. He sent the Holy Spirit as an advocate for us to know God’s presence remains. He ascended body and soul to God. He threw open the gates of heaven, so that we might join him in eternal life. He taught us the ultimate forgiveness when Jesus said “Father forgive them they know not what they do”- Luke 23:34. He lived a life for God and died a tortured death all for each and every one of us that has lived, will live and is living now. He was the reason that God created the universe. So that God could come as Man to fully teach us, love us and bring us back to God once more. I know these facts not as I know faith but as I know I exist, I breathe, I live and I will hold that truth when I die as well.
You see they didn’t get it right in that play. I know the end. I know the truth. Jesus Christ is not a superstar but is God in human form. He died for us and rose from the dead in the resurrection and that my friends alone is not the last act of this play for it goes on forever. “I am the alpha and the omega, the first and the last the beginning and the end” Revelations 22:13. He has no beginning and no ending. “And behold, I will be with you always until the end of the age.” – Matthew 26:20
You see my friends the play is never over!
Amen, sister! I too have never seen the movie. Not sure if I ever will. Very nice reflection.
It’s a Passion. No one complains that the Bach _St. John Passion_ ends with the burial of Jesus. If we always jump right to the resurrection, then we don’t stop to consider how much Jesus really suffered for us. Many Christians want to think like the Passion and Crucifixion were nothing; Jesus just brushed it all off, but He didn’t: he endured infinite suffering because He is God, and He is infinite and omniscient and eternal, and only infinite suffering could atone for the infinite suffering in Hell owed by humanity.
The second point most people miss about _Superstar_ is that it’s really supposed to be about Judas, not about Jesus, and it’s written from Judas’s perspective, and Judas didn’t witness the resurrection.
Yes, lyricist Tim Rice is an atheist, and his views filter through (I once read a critic who said, “In the cynical world of Tim Rice, Jesus doesn’t rise from the dead but Eva Peron does”), but composer Andrew Lloyd Webber is a believer. They say that, when writing _Superstar_, they used no source material but the Gospels and Fulton Sheen’s _Life of Christ_, and most of the characterizations and themes actually come from Sheen.
There is no more fruitful way for a Christian to pray than to meditate on Jesus’ Passion, especially when it brings the gift of tears. As St. Louis de Montfort writes:
“St. Augustine assures us that there is no spiritual exercise more fruitful or more useful than the frequent reflection on the sufferings of our Lord. Blessed Albert the Great, who had St. Thomas Aquinas as his student, learned in a revelation that by simply thinking of or meditating on the passion of Jesus Christ, a Christian gains more merit than if he had fasted on bread and water every Friday for a year, or had beaten himself with the discipline once a week til blood flowed, or had recited the whole Book of Psalms every day. “
There’s no resurrection in “Godspell” either. I’ve no idea about its writer Stephen Shwartz’s beliefs but I remember him saying that the show was “more about community than religion” and was meant to appeal to many audiences (including non-Christian) by showing Jesus’ message rather than any hard religious ‘truth’.
Superstar is just as opaque. While Christian composer Lloyd Webber explained the ending as his desire for the audience to leave feeling the intensity of Christ’s death and not a rejection of his divinity, atheist book-writer and lyricist Tim Rice’s questioning and often cynical words plus the all-important lack of a resurrection scene are difficult to view as anything other than a complete rejection of that divinity. But either interpretation works in the theatre.
I was brought up in a Christian household but by the time I saw both of these shows aged ten, I had huge doubts about the claims of every religion. However, the fact is that both “Godspell” and Superstar actually had the effect of delaying my eventual atheism. By focusing on Christ’s humanity (in Godspell, his quaint hippie humanity!) rather than anything non-scientific, the profundity of his many inclusive, compassionate and peaceful philosophies rang much louder and clearer than any hell and damnation sermons.
But it was this latter fire and brimstone type of sermonizing (packed with stories of genocidal behaviour totally incompatible with a loving creator) plus the crediting of the invention of the concept of eternal torture to Christ himself (in the Matthew gospel) which spurred me on to further investigate, contemplate and ultimately reject (and if necessary openly oppose) what I now perceive as primitive totalitarian control dogma. If my decision had been based on the musicals alone, it would have led to a far less categorical conclusion.
My main point is that I think you can watch and enjoy “Superstar” (such great song-writing) as a believer or an atheist. In either case it’s possible (especially for Christians to whom ‘faith’ is key) to just fill in the gaps as you see fit.
Peace. And love!