Cynthia Erivo, a noted theatrical divinity, redeemed the title of “Jesus Christ Superstar” at the Hollywood Bowl last weekend in a magnetic, heaven-sent performance that established God the Savior as a queer Black woman, as many of us suspected might be the case all along.
Divine dispensation allowed me to catch the final performance of this revival of Andrew Lloyd Webber and Tim Rice’s 1971 breakout musical. I returned from vacation just in time to join the pilgrimaging hordes carting cumbersome picnic baskets and enough wine for a few dozen Sicilian weddings. The vast number of attendees caused bottlenecks at entry points, prompting one wag to crack, “What is this, the Second Coming?”
The headliners, Erivo as Jesus and Adam Lambert as Judascertainly have sizable fan bases. But so too does the subject of this Greatest Story Ever Told, a messiah whose following has few equals in the history of the world. Suffice it to say, it was a supercharged evening, comparable more to a rock concert than one of the Bowl’s forays into the musical theater past.
The hard-charging exuberance was appropriate for a production that went back to the concept album roots of a rock opera that, like other countercultural musicals of the period — such as “Hair” and “Godspell” — preached peace and love while rebelling against oppression and conformity. “Jesus Christ Superstar” reminds us that Lloyd Webber wasn’t always a symbol of the bourgeois establishment.
Yes, the composer behind “Cats,” “The Phantom of the Opera” and “Sunset Boulevard” had an early revolutionary streak, challenging authority and testing social taboos. What made “Jesus Christ Superstar” controversial wasn’t simply the depiction of Jesus of Nazareth as a man with vulnerabilities and doubts. It was the blast of guitars and vocal shrieks that accompanied the telling of his last days and crucifixion in a manner more akin to the Who’s “Tommy” than the church organ interludes of a traditional Sunday service.
Cynthia Erivo delivered a heaven-sent performance in “Jesus Christ Superstar” at the Hollywood Bowl last weekend.
(Farah Sosa)
Director and choreographer Sergio Trujillo leaned into the concert nature of “Jesus Christ Superstar.” The metallic scaffolding staging, the mythic scale of projections and the rhythmic flow of cast members, moving from one musical number to the next, freed the production from literal illustration.
The religious meaning of the story was communicated through the intensity of the performances. Erivo and Lambert are incapable of ever giving less than 100% when translating emotion into song. But the human drama was most evident in the handling of duets, the musical give and take that showcases the richness of all that lies between lyrics.
The conflict between Erivo’s all-seeing, all-feeling Jesus and Lambert’s competitive yet remorseful Judas was thrillingly brought to life in their different yet wholly compatible musical styles. In “Strange Thing Mystifying” and “The Last Supper,” Lambert, a Freddie Mercury style-rocker, and Erivo, a musical theater phenomenon who can pierce the heavens with her mighty voice, revealed a Judas who can’t account for all his actions and a Jesus who understands the larger destiny that is both sorrowfully and triumphantly unfolding.
Phillipa Soo provided sublime support in a cast that had considerable Broadway depth.
(Farah Sosa)
Phillipa Soo’s Mary Magdalene brought a probing, tentative and profound intimacy in her adoration of Erivo’s Jesus. In her exquisite rendition of “I Don’t Know How to Love Him,” the tenderness between Mary Magdalene and Jesus, at once earthy and ethereal, deepened the expressive range of the love between them.
Soo, best known for her graceful lead performance in “Hamilton,” provided sublime support in a cast that had considerable Broadway depth. Raúl Esparza, whom I can still hear singing “Being Alive” from the 2006 Broadway revival of “Company,” played Pontius Pilate with lip-smacking political villainy. Josh Gad, who missed Friday’s performance because of illness but was in sharp comic form Sunday, turned King Herod into a Miami-style mobster, dressed in a gold lamé getup that would be just perfect for New Year’s Day brunch at Mar-a-Lago.
Raul Esparza as Pontius and Cynthia Erivo as Jesus in “Jesus Christ Superstar.”
(Farah Sosa)
The acting company distinguished itself primarily through its galvanic singing. Music director and conductor Stephen Oremus maintained the production’s high musical standards, bringing out the extensive palette of a rock score with quicksilver moods.
One could feel Erivo, a generous performer who understands that listening can be as powerful as belting, building up trust in her less experienced musical theater castmates. The way she registered Lambert’s bravura moments bolstered not only his confidence in his non-singing moments but also the miracle of her own fully realized performance.
Ultimately, Jesus’ spiritual journey is a solitary one. In “Gethsemane,” the path of suffering becomes clear, and Erivo’s transcendence was all the more worshipped by the audience for being painfully achieved. Unmistakably modern yet incontestably timeless, abstract yet never disembodied and pure of heart yet alive to the natural shocks that flesh is heir to, this portrayal of Jesus with piercings, acrylic nails and tattoos met us in an ecumenical place where all are welcome in their bodily realities and immortal longings.
Lloyd Webber is undergoing a renaissance at the moment. Fearlessly inventive director Jamie Lloyd has given new impressions of “Sunset Blvd.,” which won the Tony for best musical revival this year, and “Evita,” which is currently the talk of London’s West End.
Trujillo’s production of “Jesus Christ Superstar” deserves not just a longer life but more time for the actors to investigate their momentous relationships with one another. The drama that occurs when Erivo’s Jesus and Soo’s Mary Magdalene interact should provide the model for all the cast members to lay bare their messy human conflicts. “Jesus Christ Superstar” depends as much upon its interpersonal drama as its rock god swagger — as Erivo, in a Bowl performance that won’t soon be forgotten, proved once and for all.
