JC Superstar

from Meg Hale
BG--

The Gospel According to Rock

Last week, BioFlyer Productions put on Andrew Lloyd Webber's immortal classic "Jesus Christ Superstar" at Diana Wortham Theater. I'm told that I saw the best of the performances, the one on Good Friday, it's closing night. This means that I did not witness (but did hear about) the performance where Jesus freed his hand from the cross it was nailed to, to adjust the crown of thorns atop his head, before reattaching it to the cross. Of course, it only made matters worse when the crown fell around his neck like Prince John's crown in Disney's "Robin Hood." Okay, so I didn't see it happen, but you have to pass a story like that along.

BioFlyer is the production company owned and operated by Paul 'Rock' Eblen. For "Jesus Christ Superstar," Eblen served as the show's producer, director, and... yes, you guessed it - Jesus.

It takes a certain amount of ego to think yourself qualified to direct an Andrew Lloyd Webber piece; it is flat out disillusioned to think that you can keep up with Jesus' character's vocal range for this show, when you can barely hit anything above Middle C.

Every singer knows the fun role in "Jesus Christ Superstar" is Judas. He gets all the big numbers that open and close the show, all the pieces with the good beats and opportunities to wail. And let's face it, we're all looking for an excuse to wear leather or tassles. Steven Brooks kicks serious biblical butt in this role. He has a great belt-voice, a range that goes on for days and has a lot of fun with the part.

Mary Kathryn Lyerly also rocked supremely in the role of Mary Magdalene. She has this very sweet, demure voice and then, really blasts it out during her solo, “I Don’t Know How to Love Him.”

This makes it all the more frustrating to see Eblen, stepping down an octave, mid-song, because he simply cannot hit the high notes. The high-notes, incidentally, are the only fun things about the Jesus role. Whenever he has a solo, the generally rocking nature of the play stops and takes on an introspective, more ballad-type tone. If you’re not (as an audience) being impressed by the range of the actor playing Jesus, there isn’t a whole lot else to pay attention to.

Honestly, this is the first production of “Jesus Christ Superstar” I’ve seen where I found Jesus to be whiny. It was like watching Eeyore get crucified. That would make Tigger Judas, Rabbit would be Pontius Pilate… but I digress.

My point is that I know that the Jesus part in this play is hard as hell to sing. Most singers can’t do it. Though Eblen has a passable voice, he could not pull it off.

The rest of the cast is a group of very talented actors and singers. Tristan Tagar as Pilot and Ricky Webb as Simon also were able to show off their voices. Paul Trani as King Herod got a great response from the audience, though his costume was Dr. Frankenfurter from “The Rocky Horror Picture Show.” I like seeing random men in thigh-highs too, but let’s call it what it is - unoriginal

A lot of the vocal abilities of the cast were played down by microphone difficulties. Only a few times did the soloists mic come on for the first word of their solo, instead of 2 lines into it. Some singers in the chorus had microphones and some didn’t, which is never wise.

The multimedia was just a bad idea all around. Shots of gargoyles and demons, with a claw coming across the screen during Judas’ songs, paintings of Jesus next to photos of Martin Luther King during the crucifixion… the whole thing was one big head-tilt for me.

In short, I felt that the show was good, but that all decisions made were ultimately wrong.