Throwback Edition: Superstar

This is maybe the first review I ever wrote (with the intention of writing a review.) This is what got me eventually to get published in the Edmonds Beacon and to keep on writing after that. I can hardly believe I hadn't transferred this to here yet. Here it is, form 3/24/2013, on a production of Jesus Christ Superstar. 

So this is my first foray into theater criticism, in public anyway. Look out Frank Rich, whoever at the New Yorker and all y’all.

I saw Jesus Christ Superstar at Burien Little Theater tonight. First, let me say tomorrow (Sunday, March 24 at 2:00 pm) is the last chance to see it. You should. Here’s why. 

I grew up listening to the original recording on vinyl, the one with Murray Head, Ian Gillan and all the rest, over and over. I loved it. BLT did it justice and opened new layers of meaning. 

The show as presented at BLT is about failure of leadership: the failure to lead; the failure to be led; and the inevitable failure to live up to expectations. Director Steve Cooper draws this out especially through the care he spends on the ensemble pieces, What’s the Buzz, Hosanna, Trial by Pilate and others.

Jesus won’t be what Judas wants him to be. Jesus can never be what the apostles want him to be. Jesus can’t be soothed (nor Judas) by Mary’s vain hope that “everything’s alright, yes everything’s fine.” They are going to play it out, and you know it. Finally, as far as we know when the show ends, Jesus can’t be what God means him to be either.

Pilate learns what Caiaphas learned long ago, apparently. When the time comes for Pilate to lead, he fails. The crowd wins.

Spiritual leadership having failed and political leadership having failed, the show ends in misery and death with the crowd carrying dead Jesus through the center aisle and out the back of the house. This is you, audience. You did this!

Among the cast, Ashley Coates stands out as Mary. She nails each of her songs and creates a well-developed, coherent character. She brings a tragic-comic element as well in Act One with Everything’s Alright. The character attempts, serially to soothe both Jesus and Judas. She can’t help it. She’s trying; and she fails.

Not only has leadership failed, well-intentioned followers fail to impact events as well. It is not surprising Biblically, historically, nor theatrically that nothing can stop each character from playing out her fate.

I say “her” because the cast is all women. Even so, Cooper did not change a single “he” to a “she” nor did he do anything else to draw your attention to the casting. You might think he missed an opportunity to make a statement of some kind. He lets the actors act, the show entertains and that is statement enough.