Carousel Dinner Theatre’s “Jesus Christ Superstar” is the kind of failure Samuel Beckett would cheer.
It is a spectacular and ambitious failure. But it is not ambivalent, which makes it even a commendable and oddly entertaining failure. If you are going to fail, as Beckett would say, this is the way to go down.
Carousel’s young, 15-person cast is made up of very talented singers (when they aren’t shrieking), but this staging is misguided from prologue to parking lot.
Most obviously wrong is the snarky, inane portrayal of Judas by Kevin Sims, who looks, sounds and acts nothing like, say, Ben Vereen. But you gotta give this kid credit. He took over just four days before opening night after Kennedy Pugh, an actor highly regarded from Arvada to Pueblo, was hospitalized with a viral upper respiratory infection that got into his bloodstream. So Sims is off the hook.
The same cannot be said of nearly every other aspect of a production that, if you happen to love “JCS” and Carousel (as I do), will deeply test your affection for both.
Maybe it’s those seizure-inducing lights, that ear-splitting volume or the screaming voices that can’t possibly last two weeks. Maybe it’s the garish ’70s costumes that look like they came from a drapery outlet. Maybe it’s that complex yet bizarrely vague set that provides absolutely no context or meaning. Seriously, we could be looking at a sewer, a playground, a Japanese art gallery or maybe even the deck of the Starship Enterprise – at once.
After a first act with no political overtones, audiences might fairly wonder what it means that the Last Supper is lifted from “The Da Vinci Code.” Or why the Roman guards are wearing gas masks. Or why the Savior-taunting King Herod is none other than George Bush – a twist that makes absolutely no ideological sense.
Now I’m just guessing here, but audiences might be a bit put off that director Kurt Terrio’s Judas does not commit suicide here. No, his Judas is wholly unwilling to die, so Terrio has two apostles murder him instead. Really. If that doesn’t do the trick, I’ll bet my St. Christopher biker clip that most audiences won’t much like seeing the apostles dump Jesus’ newly dead body into a fiery pit that can only be interpreted as him burning in hell. With all those gospels, who knew Jesus’ final days were still so open to new interpretation?
Yet what really makes this “JCS” a failure with a capital F is the complete lack of character conveyed in Judas, Mary Magdalene and an utterly banal Jesus (Colin Harrington). The voices are fine, but there is no attempt to mine the considerable complexity and depth of the friendship Jesus and Judas shared.
“JCS” was scandalous and subversive when it bowed in 1971, in part because Andrew Lloyd Webber had Judas return from the dead to sing the musical’s showstopping title song – while a dead Jesus stayed dead. Webber created a petulant Jesus and an utterly sympathetic Judas who agonizes in his deep moral quandary. Imagine your childhood pal and best friend suddenly being paraded as a rebel deity. What would you do if his hubris could only lead to his certain death?
It is essential we see the deep love driving these friends and their choices, but here it’s nonexistent from the start. Judas doesn’t even sing the opening “Heaven on their Minds” to Jesus. He sings crucial lines such as “They’ll hurt you if they think you’ve lied” to the audience.
As Magdalene, poor, lovely Emily Van Fleet goes utterly undirected. Still, she steals the show, not with the signature “I Don’t Know How to Love Him,” but rather with the excellent Kyle Smith (as Peter) on the deeply moving duet “Could We Start Again Please?” But Van Fleet is no more a tormented prostitute here than Shirley Temple.
Other support characters can hold their staffs high, among them Seth Caikowski as a pretty fair Pilate and growling Eric Parrish as dastardly Caia phas. The three Soul Girls reign Supreme-like on the title song. The band is pretty kicking at times. And let’s see … the new chairs are really comfy.
But seriously, the only one who can really hold his head high after this one is the chef.
Theater critic John Moore can be reached at 303-954-1056 or at jmoore@denverpost.com
“Jesus Christ Superstar”
MUSICAL|Carousel Dinner Theater, 3509 S. Mason St., Fort Collins|Starring Kennedy Pugh, Colin Harrington and Emily Van Fleet|THROUGH SEPT. 30|7:45 p.m. Thursdays-Saturdays, 1:45 Sundays (dinner 90 minutes before)|2 hours, 30 minutes |$34-$38 |970-225-2555
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“ALMOST HEAVEN” Grand Lake’s Rocky Mountain Repertory Theatre is the first local company to mount the John Denver tribute revue that was birthed at the Denver Center Theatre Company. 8 p.m. Fridays and Saturdays, plus some Thursdays and Sundays, through Sept. 23 at 1025 Grand Ave. $15-$20 (970-627-3421, rockymountainrep.com).
“PURE PIAF” After a nearly sold-out run at Lannie’s Clocktower, Alex Ryer brings her cabaret and character study of France’s Little Sparrow, Edith Piaf, to Littleton’s Town Hall Arts Center, 2450 W. Main St. 7:30 p.m. today and Saturday, 2 p.m. Sunday. Tickets $12-$25 (303-794-2787).
-John Moore
ONLINE EXCLUSIVE
RUNNING LINES WITH …
SIERRA BOGGESS: The star of the new Las Vegas production of “Phantom of the Opera” is also a 2000 grad of George Washington High School. She talks with Denver Post theater critic John Moore. listen at denverpost.com/theater