Jesus Christ Superstar is one of those shows - it has a cult status, it is contentious without being irreverent, and slammed and lauded by both critics and clergy in equal measure! Written by what was at the time the up-coming 'dream-team' of Andrew Lloyd-Webber and Tim Rice on the back of their huge and unexpected success of another Biblical musical, Joseph And The Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat, and before they turned their creative inspiration towards Argentina's Evita, this is a Rock Opera - [a term coined specifically to describe works such as this. Essentially operatic, as there is no dialogue and the narrative is through-sung, but composed in a popular musical idiom such as Rock music] - which defines the genre, and whether you are religious or not, believe that there is any veracity in the gospel or not, it is essentially a story - and a very re-tellable and dramatic story which lends itself to theatrical performance.
Award-winning amateur company Whitefield AODS's production is both traditional and modern at one at the same time. Despite choosing to costume the production in modern dress, the costumes chosen were done so using well-worn traditional ideas and methods. The Jews and disciples wore old nondescript clothing, whilst Judas wore black and Jesus, white. The Kings and officials wore smart almost military suits in grey whilst the guards wore long black leather trench-coat style garb with sunglasses and truncheons! It was therefore not as modern as perhaps they would have liked it to have been!
The same went for the set. A multi-layered series of smallish platforms either side of a curtain, all bedecked in torn hessian. Behind the hessian curtain - a large cross of multi-coloured lights which was used extremely effectively. I saw a very similar design to this in the 1980s and my mother starred in a college production of a Nativity Play in the 1950s which utilised a very similar stage design!
That being said however, the newness or originality of set and costumes is not really so important. What is important is to make sure that design ideas are consistent throughout, and that the story / narrative is clear and understandable. They were and it was. In fact, having seen many other productions of this musical in the past, the actual story sometimes does tend to get lost in the melee of rock and music - not here. A five year old child could have given me the story which is exactly how it should have been!
The chorus were strong and used well, and their singing was excellent. After all, this is not a stroll in the park musically, it is exceptionally difficult technically and vocally, not just for the principals who are regularly required to screech-sing using their falsetto registers, but also for the chorus who have some rather tricky passages to negotiate too!
Sam Bate - a pleasing and hugely watchable actor - took the lead role of Jesus. His characterisation was for me, spot on! Playing the role with a real sense of impending tragedy, his fiery outbursts controlled and real, whilst he also showed true tenderness with Mary Magdalene. His solo immediately prior to his arrest was quite simply incredible! It left a very large lump in my throat.
Playing opposite him as Judas, and for many reasons perhaps the more difficult of the two parts, was Chris Wagstaff. a hugely talented young man whom I have seen many times on the stages of Greater Manchester. For me, his interpretation of Judas was a little too samey. It started too strong and obvious and so by the time of his betrayal, there was nowhere for his character to go. Otherwise though, a hugely creditable performance.
Katherine Reynolds' Mary Magdalene was passionate and heartfelt, and provided a nice secure and unflappable base for the two men to springboard from, and the statesmen, Kings, and Kings' dirty-work-doers were all superbly chosen. Jack Forrest's Pontius Pilate really came into his own during the denouement, and his characterisation was hit firmly and squarely on the head. Lovely. I didn't understand why King Herod (Martin Kelly) was so evil and obviously murderous, nor indeed why he was made up to look like The Joker from 'Batman'. Stuart Davis' deep bass voice came in very handy for Caiaphas and the slight effeteness and sprightliness of tenor Jeff Harpin as Annas complemented him wonderfully and I loved his interpretation.
Sarah Osmond's musical direction was secure and on pointe; sadly though it was sometimes a little too loud and we lost some of the singing. The same was also true for the mic levels this evening. Several of the opening phrases of soloists were far too quiet and we only started to hear them after the first couple of bars had already passed. Lighting (Rob Armstrong) was creative and dramatic, working well, especially during the final sequences with the cross.
Gemma Sales' choreography I felt most unfortunately was not really quite hitting the mark in this show. There were really only three 'dances' in the show, and the first two, for me, didn't work at all. Coming as they do in between down-beat and hard-hitting narrative, the dances [Hosanna and the one immediately after during the Simon Zealotes sequence] seemed to come from another place altogether - from Musical Theatre certainly but a completely different genre, where comedy and jazz-hands are the order of the day.- in situe here, they seemed strangely out of place, especially when sandwiched between Mal and Mark Woods' tight and no-nonsense directing.
All in all though, this was a mightily enjoyable and intelligently produced show, which showcased a talented and creative society who are not afraid to go that extra mile in striving for excellence! Beautifully crafted and solid entertainment with a rock music score and a story-line to pull at the heartstrings!
Reviewer - Matthew Dougall
on - 3/10/18
No comments:
Post a Comment