"'Superstar' is a big epic rock musical about one of the greatest stories ever told," declared Jim Peck, Chair of Muhlenberg College's Department of Theatre and Dance in a press release for his production of ‘Jesus Christ Superstar’, the Andrew Lloyd Webber-Tim Rice 1970s concept-album turned rock opera now in performance at Muhlenberg Summer Music Theatre.
"In the way that a really great rock concert makes you feel like you're part of something big and cosmic,” Peck continued, “I think a great production of this show should work the crowd into a sort of oceanic sense of being in touch with something in the universe."
Although Muhlenberg Summer Music Theatre’s ‘JCS’ is indeed a big, epic, rock musical, the biggest thing we could sense was that the character of Judas is a very bad man to diss.
And the second biggest thing we sensed was that, although almost everything about the production was competent and compelling, the crowd was never worked into anything approaching oceanic.
More like… the Dead Sea'
How could this be' Musical about the last seven days of Christ on earth. Tim Averill’s workable, two-story set. John McKernon’s breathtaking light and sound. Strong and confident vocals. A swarm of gifted dancers! What more could anyone want'
As a pleasantly restrained five-piece rock band under the leadership of Vince Di Mura concluded its overture, the curtain opened to reveal Jesus Christ himself preaching to twenty bobble-headed dancers who would weave, wiggle, and writhe through Charles O. Anderson's choreographed displays of suffering and outrage much of the next two hours at Paul C. Empie Theatre of Baker Center for the Arts.
Judas appeared, and he came full-throated, belting out the opening number, ‘Heaven on Their Minds’ his performance, like all the show’s marvelous singers’, marred only by the microphones curling around their cheeks, the kind that resemble that thing in Kyle MacLachlan's's nose in the old scifi movie ‘Dune’.
Judas was Kennedy Kanagawa, and he wasn’t the Judas of your mother’s New Testament because whatever her Judas’ feelings for Jesus may have been, the Judas of ‘JCS’ makes it quite clear that they were less about thirty pieces of silver and far more about unrequited love.
In fact, a very strong case could be made that ‘JCS’ is the ultimate “break-up” story.
And that notion was reinforced by the uncanny physical and vocal similarities between Kanagawa and Neil Sedaka, the ageless pop rocker of the 60s and 70s whose biggest hit song warned, “Don't take your love away from me/Don't you leave my heart in misery/If you go then I'll be blue.”
Well, say what you will about Judas, you can’t say he didn’t warn Jesus.
“Cause breaking up is hard to do!”
Dan Cara’s ‘Jesus’ had his own issues. Although his vocal gymnastics were Olympic quality and his Pepsodent smile cast a halo around him wherever he happened to glide on stage, he certainly didn’t resemble what we’ve come to think of as a superstar.
That may be less his fault, of course, and more the result of our modern penchant for applying the term so liberally to performance-enhanced athletes and entertainers, and not applying it at all to scientists, saints, and saviors.
Jessie Macbeth’s contained portrayal of Mary Magdalene and her lovely interpretation of ‘I Don’t Know How to Love Him’ were certainly of high order, possibly the best of the evening.
Ed Bara’s Caiaphas and Josh Shapiro’s Annas anchored the production every time its worker-bee dancers threatened to run it aground.
And Josh Neth’s Pontius Pilate, at least initially, helped keep the show on course with his brief but effective ‘Pilate’s Dream’.
So, how can we justify suggesting that this show simply did not connect' The most important reason is that the intensity with which it was staged simply wouldn’t allow it.
This was good theater, very good theater, in the sense that all its component parts were exercised to their limits.
However, for whatever reason, it probably violated as egregiously as any show in memory the sacred contract between performer and audience.
I’m a true believer in the notion that the audience plays a critical role in the success of any live performance.
And that role is more complex than merely sitting there and letting itself be entertained. It involves engagement and synergy and all kinds of psychic exchange, and it may be overlooked only at great peril to any production.
A lifetime ago, I attended Franz Lehar’s ‘Die Lustige Witwe’ in Vienna and was astonished to see that, after every musical number, the performers bounded downstage as the audience applauded and cheered. The orchestra stood and bowed. The conducter bowed. The singers bowed and blew kisses, hugged one another, bowed again, and waved in gratitude before returning to character and resuming the show. My God, I thought, just look at us, performers and patrons alike showing appreciation and understanding of the grand collaboration in the making of performance.
‘JCS’ never allowed its audience to draw so much as a breath between the end of one song and the start of the next.
As a result, that audience did not render a single, solitary clap until deep into the second act when, denied far too long their paid-in-full privilege to express themselves, they literally stopped the music to applaud as Bill Mutimer’s Herod finished his very amusing song and prance, 'King Herrod's Song', up and down the stairs.
For a formerly Very Big Man, Mutimer’s toe-testing-the-bath-water dance steps were impressively the most dainty and artful in the entire show. And the audience refused to let the opera proceed until it had shown its appreciation to him for it.
I must emphasize one final time that this is a production that has all the elements to create a very rich and entertaining show. It just needs to let the audience in on it.
‘Jesus Christ Superstar’ continues its run through July 28, 2013.
For ticket information, call 484-664-3333 or visit www.muhlenberg.edu/smt