Ted Neeley has played Jesus since the early ’70s. He’s pictured here in the recent tour of “Jesus Christ Superstar” that played the Buell Theatre for two shows on Sunday. Photo: courtesey of Joan Marcus.
I wouldn’t necessarily call myself a closeted musical theater fiend.
I’ve often written of my penchant for a solidly-staged musical with little worry about what that means for my credibility as a rock critic. It’s all music, right?
For the most part, yeah.
Certain musicals are obvious infatuations for me, and is one of them. The rock opera introduced in 1970 is a classic musical feast centered on Jesus’ struggles throughout the last few weeks of his life.
“Jesus Christ Superstar” fits better into a rock club than it would in a church — or a theater, for that matter. Its classic rock-kissed music by Andrew Lloyd Webber is a thoroughly odd and refreshing way to tell the so-called greatest story ever told.
A Judas Iscariot who matches his spite with a flaringly soulful voice? A Jesus Christ who coos like Joe Cocker and screeches like Ronnie James Dio? How could we not love this musical?
The bare-bones production of “Superstar” that played the on Sunday (two shows) was a sparse touring production indeed. The show took its credibility from its star, Ted Neeley — the long-respected Jesus from past Broadway productions and Norman Jewison’s film of the musical — and not its orchestra, which was mostly canned.
But at least the producers cast some amazing singers to make up for the lack of original orchestration.
Neeley, of course, is a classic. At 64, Neeley is nearly twice the age Jesus supposedly was when he was crucified. And even though he was more than twice the age of most of his fellow actors, his voice was solid enough during the matinee show on Sunday to keep the faith.
Neeley’s Jesus is a kind and confused Jesus, and he was particularly winning with the celebratory “What’s the Buzz” and the typically troubling number “Gethsemane.” He’s not as strong with his upper register as he was in the ’70s, but he still cuts a convincing, waiflike figure as Jesus Christ.
As Jesus’ foil, Judas, Corey Glover put forward an impressive vocal show. Beforehand, his name was a bit of a punchline in the excited and packed crowd. Glover is best known for fronting the Grammy-winning band Living Colour, and while he wasn’t much of an actor, his voice gave each of Judas’ songs new life.
Glover’s out-of-breath take on “Damned For All Time” was giant and anxious — the perfect, high-volume follow-up to the classic Top 10 ballad “I Don’t Know How to Love Him,” which was wonderfully managed by Tiffini Dodson’s knowing, loving Mary Magdalene.
Dodson was a treat as Magdalene. Her “Could We Start Again, Please?” — sang with Nate Aylworth as Peter — was a delicate mixture of sadness and frustration. It wasn’t as focused on the solo performers as previous tours’ takes on the song, rather it was a company-wide collaboration. And it was a nice choice.
The other standout moment from the musical was “Simon Zealotes.” It’s already one of the show’s best numbers, but Matthew G. Myers was on fire as Simon and had a lot of fun with the song. Sadly Simon’s elongated “Amen” that traditionally comes at the end of the song was cut here — an unfortunate move, given Myers’ jubilant baritone.
While the producer didn’t skimp on the talent, they took other shortcuts. This musical is traditionally performed on a sparse stage, but this take — set against a couple staircases leading to a bridge — was entirely thin.
The set didn’t detract from production itself, but their small budget became all the more obvious in the scenes involving Jesus’ many followers, or in Act II, his many detractors. This is one of the many musicals that requires an extremely large cast in order to make those group scenes believable, but they often lacked that menacing group mentality and therefore fell flat.
