Jesus Christ Superstar -- (Movie Clip) I Don't Know How To Love Him You will receive an email shortly to confirm your email address. Jesus Christ Superstar -- (Movie Clip) I Don't Know How To Love Him title details and video sharing options now playing Jesus Christ Superstar -- (Movie Clip) I Don't Know How To Love Him Title character Ted Neely asleep, Yvonne Elliman (as Mary Magdalene) with a hit song in the desert night, from Andrew Lloyd Weber and Tim Rice's Jesus Christ Superstar, 1973, directed by Norman Jewison. View the TCMDb entry for Jesus Christ Superstar (1973) share video Jesus Christ Superstar -- (Movie Clip) I... Title character Ted Neely asleep, Yvonne Elliman (as Mary... Jesus Christ Superstar -- (Movie Clip) I Don't Know How To Love Him Title character Ted Neely asleep, Yvonne Elliman (as Mary Magdalene) with a hit song in the desert night, from Andrew Lloyd Weber and Tim Rice's Jesus Christ Superstar, 1973, directed by Norman Jewison.> Jesus Christ Superstar -- (Movie Clip) Heaven On...

First musical number featuring Carl Anderson as "Judas,"... Jesus Christ Superstar -- (Movie Clip) Heaven On Their Minds First musical number featuring Carl Anderson as "Judas," looking upon Ted Neely (title character) and flock, from the Andrew Lloyd Weber and Tim Rice musical Jesus Christ Superstar, 1973.> Is the rock opera Jesus Christ Superstar biblical? Is the rock opera Jesus Christ Superstar biblical? Subscribe to our Question of the Week : Question: "Is the rock opera Jesus Christ Superstar biblical?" Answer: The rock opera Jesus Christ Superstar by Andrew Lloyd Webber and Tim Rice and the movie of the same name, directed by Norman Jewison, tell the story of the final days of Jesus. The opera’s theme deals with fame and how popularity can deceive and corrupt. Superficially at least, Jesus Christ Superstar contains many elements of the biblical narrative: Jesus has disciples, and He teaches. The priests Caiaphas and Annas, out of jealousy and fear, foment a plot to destroy Jesus. Mary Magdalene and other women serve Him. Judas plans to betray Him. Jesus enters Jerusalem amid celebration, cleanses the temple, and eats a meal with His disciples.

After He prays in a garden, He is arrested, taken before several officials, and beaten. Peter denies knowing the Lord, and Judas hangs himself. Jesus is crucified. None of this conflicts with the biblical record. Upon closer inspection, however, the biblical failings of Jesus Christ Superstar become apparent. When a story is retold, a certain amount of interpretation is required. The author’s ideas, presuppositions, and opinions are injected. In this retelling of Jesus’ passion, the character and motivations of both Jesus and Judas are re-imagined and reinterpreted. Judas has the first song. In it, he complains that Jesus has been caught up in His own fame and rages over the fact that Jesus won’t listen to him. Judas calls Jesus’ followers “blind,” accuses them of twisting Jesus’ words, and expresses a desire to “strip away the myth from the man.” Considering these words come from Judas, we might be prone to dismiss them as a villain’s distortion.

However, the insistence that Jesus is “just a man” is repeated later by Mary Magdalene in one of the opera’s most famous songs, “I Don’t Know How to Love Him.” In the next scene, Judas objects to Mary’s proximity to Jesus. He warns Jesus of the scandal that will erupt if Jesus is not more careful. Later, when Mary anoints Jesus, Judas objects again, reminding Jesus that their mission is to the poor. Jesus’ response is for Judas to “enjoy the good” while he has it. Throughout this scene, we have the contrast of Mary’s telling Jesus to “close your eyes,” versus Judas’s trying to open His eyes to the needs of society; as Mary sings, “Relax,” Judas urges action on behalf of the poor. No mention is made of Judas’s greed and thievery (John 12:6). When Jesus enters Jerusalem, there is a celebration of His being a “superstar.” Interestingly, Jesus only rides on the donkey for a short time. When he enters the city, He walks with the crowd until he sits down with some children. Also, unlike the biblical account, the praise is not quite spontaneous.

Jesus initiates the singing at one point, and He even commands the crowd to “sing me your songs.” He briefly teaches about the Kingdom of God, saying, “You can win it.” The next scene has Jesus surrounded by adoring multitudes. There is a mention of salvation and a belief in God as the crowd offers Him their devotion and a kingdom. Judas looks on in disgust and disbelief. Jesus ends the celebration by speaking of death, which He says can only be conquered by dying. There is no mention of Jesus as the Life and no prediction of His resurrection. In a later scene, Jesus is surrounded by people who need healing. No one is healed; rather, an overwhelmed Jesus cries out, “There’s too many of you. There’s too little of me. Leave me alone!” When Judas meets with the Jewish council to betray Jesus, he makes it clear that he is only trying to “save” Jesus, who has let His own popularity spiral out of control. He takes the money they offer him unwillingly. During the Last Supper, the disciples dream of lasting fame. Jesus bitterly accuses His disciples about not caring about Him: “For all you care, this wine could be my blood!

For all you care, this bread could be my body!” He tells them to remember Him when they eat, but then He says, “I must be mad, thinking you’ll remember me!” Judas leaves to complete the betrayal, because Jesus tells him he must. Jesus’ prayer in the garden is very telling. He admits that He has changed, that He is no longer inspired. Now He’s only “sad and tired.” After three years of trying to serve God, Jesus has lost His original vision. Considering becoming a martyr, Jesus selfishly asks, “Will I be more noticed? What will be my reward?” This statement is in direct contrast to Judas’s unselfishness in not wanting a reward for his betrayal. At the end of His prayer, Jesus finally submits to God’s plan—sort of. The song ends with an equivocation: “Take me now, before I change my mind.” When Jesus is arrested, His disciples talk of fighting for Him. Jesus rebukes them with these words: “Stick to fishing from now on.” This is as close to the Great Commission as the opera ever gets.

Pilate repeatedly calls Jesus “Someone Christ,” a name which emphasizes the fact that Jesus is a nobody—a fact which Jesus is desperately attempting to change through His martyrdom. Through the various trials, Judas keeps close by, wanting to see what will happen. Judas then returns the money to the priests, again expressing his wish to “save” Jesus. In Pilate’s second interview with Jesus, he asks Jesus if He is a king. Jesus’ answer is fuzzy at best: “I have no kingdom. In this world, I’m through. There may be a kingdom for me somewhere, if you only knew” (see John 18:36-37 for Jesus’ real answer). When the mob cries out for His crucifixion, Pilate delivers a series of accusations against Jesus: “He’s mad, ought to be locked up . . . he’s a sad little man, not a king or god . . . he’s misguided, thinks he’s important . . . a misguided martyr . . .

a misguided puppet.” (What Pilate actually said was, “I find no basis for a charge against him” [John 18:38].) After Jesus is whipped, the music immediately (and significantly) shifts into the “Superstar” theme. This is a way of saying that the martyrdom has begun, and Jesus has won His fame. This idea is stressed in Judas’s final song, in which he mentions both Buddha and Mohammed but says that Jesus has more appeal because of how He died. The opera ends with Jesus’ crucifixion. There is no resurrection. To summarize the theme of Jesus Christ Superstar, Jesus was not divine but was a fascinating and magnetic man of good intentions who let things get out of control. Overwhelmed by His own fame, He desired to return to a simpler, more sincere life, but He couldn’t. Of the disciples, only Judas recognized what was happening. He hated what Jesus had become but still loved Him and wanted to help Him. Jesus saw only one way out of His predicament: to die as a martyr; then, perhaps, some of His good teaching might be remembered. Of course, this is not biblical.

Jesus is more than just a man; He is the Son of God (John 10:30). Jesus never lost sight of His mission to seek and save the lost (Luke 19:10), which required His sacrificial death on the cross as payment for our sin (1 Peter 3:18). Jesus did not just die; He rose again (1 Peter 1:3). Jesus Christ Superstar is more than a popular opera that happens to get some facts wrong. It is an attempt to rewrite history. It makes the traitor Judas Iscariot a victim and reduces the Lord Jesus Christ to a burnt-out celebrity who is in over His head. Inside JC Superstar by Scott Miller background and analysis by Scott Miller We made him a type of Everyman. Judas did not think of himself as a traitor. He did what he did, not because he was basically evil, but because he was intelligent. He could se Christ becoming something he considered harmful to the Jews. Judas felt that they been persecuted enough. As far as what Christ was saying, general principles of how human beings should live together ï¿½ Judas approved of this.

What Judas was worried about was that as Christ got bigger and bigger and more popular, people began switching their attentions from what Christ was saying to Christ himself. They were saying that Jesus is God, here is the new Messiah, and Judas was terrified because, a.) he didnï¿½t agree with it ï¿½ he thought Christ was getting out of control and it was affecting Him, and b.) Judas reckoned that if the movement got too big and people began worshipping Christ as a god, the Romans who were occupying Israel would come down and clobber them. ï¿½ Superstar lyricist Tim Rice The play represents a confused and commercial portrait of Christ ï¿½ a Christ that does not rise from the dead. Of course, the Christ the authors present would not have risen from the dead. They are not men of faith, and their statements only serve to undermine the scriptures. I have not seen the show, and my objections are based on what friends who have seen it tell me.

ï¿½ Minister Dennis Miller, Calvary Baptist Church Tim Rice and Andrew Lloyd Webberï¿½s Jesus Christ Superstar set the world buzzing when it first appeared on vinyl in 1970 and on Broadway in 1971. The executives at MCA Records were terrified by it. In reaction to the single "Superstar," one MCA exec said, "A song like that will offend everyone." Another said, "If we put that record out, every churchman in the country will stone us." It made one secretary cry, who said, "Itï¿½s sad when a company like Decca [owned by MCA] has to make money by making fun of Jesus!" Later on, the filmï¿½s director Norman Jewison would say, "My hope is that audiences will take this for what it is ï¿½ an opera, not history. These kids are trying to take Jesus off the stained-glass windows and get him down on the street.

Some people are not going to like that." As author Robert Short put it, "It is a complete misunderstanding to view Jesus Christ Superstar as an expression of anyoneï¿½s answerï¿½ Its purpose is, first, to put to Jesus the question we have today about the meaning of life, and second, to put this question in our own way of putting it." Tim Rice did with this story the same thing that clergy across America do every Sunday morning: remove it from its distant past and foreign culture and give it resonance and relevance to the issues and obstacles we face every day. But today, Jesus Christ Superstar has been dumbed down, made palatable and comfortable, robbed of the rebellious, smartass attitude that originally made music and theatre history. Nearly forty years after its creation, it is time to return the piece to its rebel roots and allow Riceï¿½s aggressive text to offend, stun, shock, and disturb once again. Whether youï¿½re a Christian or not, this is an important side to an important story in world history, and itï¿½s a side rarely told anywhere else.

In setting the story of Judasï¿½ betrayal of Jesus for the modern stage, lyricist Tim Rice approached the story as political history instead of revealed scripture, and Jesus as radical political activist (mirroring the times) rather than as the son of God. This Jesus does not point the way to God half as much as he points the way toward living a moral, engaged life, and thatï¿½s why politics takes center stage here instead of religion. After all, politics is how humans decide collective morality, questions of how to live morally in a community (of whatever size) and of which values will be shared by that community. Conversely, religion dictates those answers to humans, rather than allowing them to explore and form their own morality.

Rice says he was first inspired by the lyric from Bob Dylan, song, "With God on Our Side": "I canï¿½t think for you, youï¿½ll have to decide, did Judas Iscariot have God on his side?" Rice was quoted at the time saying, "We need to humanize Christ, because for me, I find Jesus as portrayed in the Gospels as a God as a very unrealistic figureï¿½ The same is true, on the other hand, for Judas who is portrayed just as a sort of cardboard cut-out figure of evil." Strangely, the bulk of American and British critics complained repeatedly that this was not a proper retelling of the Biblical story of Christ, and the respected British director Peter Hall said, "I think Jesus Christ Superstar says nothing about Christ and nothing for or against religion." Of course, they were exactly right, but they hadnï¿½t understood that this was the creatorsï¿½ intention all along. Rice and Lloyd Webber never intended to tell the "Biblical" story but instead an alternative story of famous events; and whatï¿½s more, they were telling the story of Judas, not Jesus.

With Superstar Rice and Lloyd Webber broke new ground in several ways. First, the idea of rock opera was still brand new; though The Whoï¿½s Tommy had already been released, no rock opera had been staged. Second, the idea that rock and roll was an acceptable ï¿½ even a preferable ï¿½ language with which to tell this story was quite radical. And perhaps most important to us today, the choice to focus the show on Judas rather than on Jesus lifted the show out of the category of mere cultural rebellion and into the realm of legitimate intellectual and artistic endeavor. This was a show not about Jesusï¿½ teachings, his divinity, his suffering on the cross, or his resurrection; this was a story that asked a simple question: Why did Judas feel he needed to betray Jesus? As the quote above shows us, Rice delved deep into all these characters, infusing them with personality, psychology, and ideology that the more simplistic storytelling style of the Bible never offered. Other dramatizations of this story fail because thereï¿½s no tension, no surprises, nothing unknown ï¿½ we all know this story too well.

But Rice told us a new story and that choice gave us back the dramatic elements that makes a good story; the politics of this story, the complicated relationship between Judas and Jesus, and so many other elements gave us back the tension, the surprises, and the unknowns that keep us involved in the story. And Riceï¿½s story also gave us an active Judas and Jesus, rather than the passive, inherently undramatic characters the Bible gives us, unable to change fate, tossed around by the winds of divine providence. An active character is always more dramatic than a passive one. This show dramatized not just what happened, but why it happened. The show opened with Judasï¿½ warnings of disaster (in "Heaven on Their Minds") and ended with Judasï¿½ I-Told-You-So song, "Superstar." This is Judasï¿½ story; he is the only central character who changes, who learns, who goes on a journey. Jesus is the same at the beginning of the story as he is at the end. He canï¿½t be the protagonist.

The showï¿½s title song was released as a single before MCA recorded the whole opera (to see if it would be a commercial disaster), but no one knew when they first heard it that this was Judas speaking, and more specifically, that it was Judas scolding Jesus. They also didnï¿½t know that this lyric would become the central point of the entire show and the answer to the storyï¿½s central question: Why did Judas betray Jesus? Like the single, the title of the opera is snide, sarcastic, angry, representing Judasï¿½ point of view, the idea that Jesus had become a "superstar," a shallow, hyped personality worshipped merely for the hype like many pop stars of the 1960s and 70s and today. The title Jesus Christ Superstar embodies the reason for Judasï¿½ betrayal ï¿½ the "superstardom," the hype, the baggage became more important than the very important philosophical message Jesus wanted to convey, a message Judas believed in. To Judas, Jesus lost his stature as philosopher when he gained his status as superstar.

The show never suggested that Jesus wasnï¿½t divine, but neither did it reinforce the view that he was. This was not an entirely bizarre approach ï¿½ though the canonical Christian gospels stress Jesusï¿½ divinity, the Gnostic gospels (including the Gospel of Thomas, the Gospel of Mary, and others) came from a different strand of early Christianity in which Christians believed fully in the wisdom and philosophy of Jesus but never even mentioned the idea that he was God. Likewise in Superstar that issue was off the table, irrelevant to the story Rice was telling. Everyone already knows the story of Jesus as the Son of God. This was the other, rarely examined side of the story of Jesus, an "ordinary guy" who became an unlikely star. It is that ordinariness that gives the story resonance and life but it also outraged Christians. Most people think of Jesus as a religious icon, but the people who lived and worked around him saw him as just another guy. Despite what most of us think, Jesus was not a carpenter in the sense of a trained artisan ï¿½ the Greek word used to describe him (and his father) in the Gospels is tekton, meaning anyone who makes things with his hands.

The modern equivalent might be a construction worker or day laborer. Jesusï¿½ family was one without land, putting them extremely low on the economic ladder. But Superstar was also the story of Jesus the social revolutionary, political insurgent, radical philosopher, apocalyptic prophet, a speaker of truth to power that terrified the religious and secular authorities. His ascendancy from such humble roots makes him even more of a puzzle and therefore more dangerous to the priests. Today, most productions of Jesus Christ Superstar are far blander than Rice intended, comfortably reinforcing mainstream beliefs. But this show was meant to be a call to political action, a reminder that all the great political and human rights movements in world history all found their roots in the very radical political agenda of Jesus and Judas. Not surprisingly, this approach was considered blasphemous by mainstream Christians. Many of the show's critics believed that the story of Jesus should not be set to rock music. Of course, there are two problems with this position. First, merely because a music style is popular doesn't mean it can't treat serious subjects; Bach's music was popular in its time, yet no one today would complain that Bach's Passions are irreverent.

Though the King James Bible seems old and formal and therefore reverent to us today, when it was written its language was contemporary. Unfortunately, many people today equate seriousness and import with antiquity. The second problem with the stand against Superstar is that Jesus himself was a major rebel of his time; he fought against the establishment, the high priests, the Pharisees, and the government. What better way to tell his story than with the musical language of rebellion? Keeping the story of Jesus and his views in antique forms takes the teeth out of his activism. There's no reason why people should not celebrate their beliefs in the language and music of their lives. Today, Superstar doesn't seem nearly as controversial because rock and roll is now the music of adults, and guitars are now allowed in mass; but imagine the uproar if the Catholic church began allowing rap music as part of the liturgyï¿½ Another source of consternation came during the Last Supper scene, when Jesus sings, "For all you care about, this wine could be my blood. For all you care this bread could be my body." This was an extremely radical new approach to these words, but not an entire unsupported interpretation.

The earliest copies of the Book of Luke describe the Last Supper very differently from what later, less authentic texts say and what most Bibles say today. In the original text of Luke, Jesus says "Take this and drink it among yourselves, for I say to you that I will not drink from the fruit of the vine from now on, until the kingdom of God comes." And after breaking the bread he says, "This is my body. But behold, the hand of the one who betrays me is with me at the table." There is no mention of his body or blood being sacrificed for the salvation of believers. That idea is nowhere to be found in the original Bible texts ï¿½ not surprisingly, since it implied ritual vampirism and cannibalism, both pagan rituals. But that also means that, according to the earliest manuscripts, Jesusï¿½ death on the cross is not what provides salvation to believers. Superstar was making an entirely other point, that these men and women thought about what Jesus meant in their lives as little as they thought about what food or wine they put in their bodies ï¿½ not complete apathy, but only minimal consideration. This was an accusation, not a clue to eternal salvation.

The greatest objection from the religious critics was that the show did not include the resurrection. Rice told an interviewer that he did not believe Jesus was the son of God, but for him, that made the story all the more amazing. Another bone of contention was the song "I Only Want to Say" that Jesus sings in the Garden of Gethsemane. Though Jesus has some doubt in the biblical version of the story, those doubts are articulated so completely and so intensely in the show that they sounded to some like more blasphemy. Critics also found the relationship between Jesus and Mary Magdalene uncomfortably sexual. They were right ï¿½ her physical attraction to Jesus is strongly implied; after all, when the show was written, people still thought Mary was a prostitute (we know now thatï¿½s a misreading enshrined by Pope Gregory). Another complaint was the periodic humor in the show, though it was minimal. The drunken apostles at the Last Supper and King Herod's frighteningly wacky song and dance did not amuse some people.

Rice and Lloyd Webber both felt the story of Christ, especially the crucifixion, had been too much romanticized into a beautiful, graceful event, instead of the brutal, savage act that it had been. To re-open our eyes to the horror and tragedy of the story, they decided they needed to shock the audience. The Virgin Birth In 1971, no one expected the next big Broadway musical would be based on the Bible. And they certainly didnï¿½t expect it to be based on a pop album about Judas and Jesus. After all, the youth movement of the sixties had been about newfound spirituality but also about a rejection of institutionalized religion. Their drug use was not just an escape; it was also a means to help them find the spirituality they believed their parents had lost in the meaningless hypocrisy of organized religion in the 1950s. In 1967, Father James Kavanaugh had published his book A Modern Priest Looks at His Outdated Church.

Looking at their parents and the rest of the "older generation," they saw evidence that mainstream religions had reduced religious experience, the act of living through faith, to nothing more than symbols and metaphors, subverting and short-circuiting the religious experience itself. They believed that mainstream religious traditions and rituals got in the way of true faith and the search for ultimate truths. The language of the King James Bible was as remote from their lives as it could be, full of thees and thous, strange grammar and sentence structure; sure, young people thought, this dusty old relic doesnï¿½t relate to my life in the tumultuous 1970s. Riceï¿½s intentionally slangy, often unpoetic language in Superstar was a direct reaction to these feelings, to put blood and flesh back on these cardboard characters (much like the musical 1776 did for our Founding Fathers), to make them accessible to modern audiences.

The opening images of the film version of Superstar created stunning visuals metaphors for this cultural tumult, panning across actual ruins in Israel, literally showing us the crumbling edifice of organized religion; and there in the middle of the ruins, the camera reveals modern-day scaffolding, the hint of a coming "reconstruction" of the philosophy of Jesus for modern times; and finally, the camera revels a busload of The Younger Generation coming toward us in the distance. And all this in one shot. Because more young Americans than ever before were attending college in the 1960s and 70s ï¿½ and while there studying other world religions ï¿½ they were finding that the Christian creation/Genesis story, the sacrifice/crucifixion and resurrection of Jesus Christ, the miracles performed by Jesus, and most of the rest of the central stories of Christianity had shown up in other world religions long before the birth of Christianity. Though this did not automatically discount all of Christianity for them, it did throw its claims of absolute and unique truth into question. As a result, many young adults began exploring the older Eastern religions.

In the song "Superstar," Judas speaks for these young people as he grills Jesus: Tell me what you think about your friends at the top. Who dï¿½you think besides yourselfï¿½s the pick of the crop? Buddha, was he whereï¿½s it at, is he where you are? Could Mahomet move a mountain or was that just PR? That, more than anything else, is why the single sold so well all over the world. Judas asks what so many people still ask today: how can so many different religions all claim to have the only truth? And why should we believe that the Bibleï¿½s truth is necessarily more true than the other truths? Or more pointedly, why should we believe in any religion at all? John Lennon said in an interview with Londonï¿½s Evening Standard, "Christianity will go. It will vanish and shrink. I neednï¿½t argue about that; Iï¿½m right and will be proved right. Weï¿½re more popular than Jesus right now. I donï¿½t know which will go first, rock ï¿½nï¿½ roll or Christianity.

Jesus was all right, but his disciples were thick and ordinary. Itï¿½s them twisting it that ruins it for me." Rice, Lloyd Webber, and their various directors were trying to find new meaning in the rubble of Jesusï¿½ moral philosophy. Christianity was in crisis (as it remains today), and far from mocking it or capitalizing on its woes, Jesus Christ Superstar was a legitimate, artful response to the crisis. In fact, the apostles in Rice and Lloyd Webberï¿½s story were like much of the Western worldï¿½s youth in the early 70s, questioning, thirsting for a more substantial, less arbitrary, more participatory philosophy of life. Judas and his angry anthem became a rallying cry for youth all over America and Europe. On the jacket of the original single, "Superstar," the record company printed a quote from Martin Sullivan, the Dean of St. Paulï¿½s in London, "There are some people who may be shocked by this record. I ask them to listen to it and think again. It is a desperate cry. Who are you, Jesus Christ? is the urgent enquiry, and a very proper one at that.

The record probes some answers and make some comparisons." When the single was released, many U.S. radio stations played the record, then followed it was a discussion group. In October 1970 they released the full-length, double-album rock opera ï¿½ not the first of its kind; Tommy gets that distinction ï¿½ but certainly a landmark. By February, the single reached the top of the American charts. Some stations played the entire double album without commercial interruption. The Vaticanï¿½s own radio station played the album, even though the official Vatican newspaper didnï¿½t like it. Ministers began using the lyric as a basis for their sermons. Unauthorized touring companies sprang up all over America, performing the show in concert, usually in churches.

Thomas Willis wrote in the Chicago Tribune, "I am neither a theologian nor a rock critic but if Jesus Christ Superstar isnï¿½t the most important religious music of the year ï¿½ and one of two or three significant recordings of the decade ï¿½ I am sadly mistaken." Derek Jewell in Londonï¿½s Sunday Times called it "every bit as valid as (and to me, more moving than) Handelï¿½s Messiah. This is a work on a heroic scale, masterfully conceived, honestly done, and overflowing with splendid music and apt language." The now $700,000 show opened on Broadway at the Mark Hellinger Theatre on October 12, 1971 with an unprecedented advance of two million dollars, and under the flamboyant, over-the-top direction of Hairï¿½s skipper, Tom Oï¿½Horgan. Sadly, Oï¿½Horganï¿½s outrageous sensory-assaulting production wasnï¿½t what the young writers wanted.

They and producer Robert Stigwood had wanted to stage the piece more simply, perhaps using projections and television screens to underline Tim Riceï¿½s themes of celebrity and stardom. He first hired Frank Corsaro, a veteran theatre director who been working in opera. Corsaro seemed perfect for the project. But Corsaro was in a severe auto accident and was unable to do the show. Oï¿½Horgan replaced him, and no one involved ï¿½ Stigwood, Rice, or Lloyd Webber ï¿½ was particularly happy with the way the show turned out. It started its run selling out every night, but the enthusiasm diminished quickly and the show never made it to its second birthday. Clive Barnes wrote in the New York Times, "Nothing could convince me that any show that has sold two-and-one-half million copies of its album before the opening night is anything like all bad. But I must also confess to experiencing some disappointment when Jesus Christ Superstar opened last night. It all rather resembled oneï¿½s first sight of the Empire State Building.

Not at all uninteresting, but somewhat unsurprising and of minimal artistic value." He went on to criticize Oï¿½Horganï¿½s production: "Once he startled us with small things, now he startles us with big things. This time, the things got too big. For me, the real disappointment came not in the music, but in the conception. There is a coyness in its contemporaneity, a sneaky pleasure in the boldness of its anachronisms, a special undefined air of smugness in its daring." In The Daily News, Robert Crane interviewed people after seeing Superstar, and one Catholic housewife from Queens said, "My heart is beating, I am moved more than I am by a sermon in church, It enlightens the scriptures for me." As it often does, life imitated art with Superstar, with the leads and the writers thrust unexpectedly into superstar status themselves, actually living (in a small way) the struggles Jesus deals with in the show. Rice said in one interview, "Itï¿½s all a bit incredible.

I has all gotten a bit out of hand ï¿½ the orgy, the Superstar buttons and pocket calendars, the pickets, the T-shirts, the pirated concert versions touring around purporting to be the real Superstarï¿½" Yvonne Elliman (Mary) tells a story in the book Rock Opera about a young girl who came backstage to ask "if I would come visit a friend of hers in the hospital. She just wanted me to go and touch her." Jeff Fenholt (Jesus) would get letters from women considering becoming nuns, wanting his advice, as well as letters asking for miracle cures, from women asking him to find their lost husbands. He got one letter that said it was from "the real Judas." Jesus Christ Superstar ran on Broadway for 720 performances. Ben Vereen as Judas was nominated for a Tony Award, and nominations were had for best score, scenic design, costumes, and lighting (all lost to Follies). Superstar won nothing.

The show did not receive nominations for best musical or best director, though three of the four nominees for best musical were rock shows (Two Gentlemen of Verona, Grease, and Ainï¿½t Supposed to Die a Natural Death). In London, the show was staged more simply and more honestly by Jim Sharman, who would soon be helping to birth The Rocky Horror Show. It opened in London in 1972 and ran for eight years and 3,358 performances, breaking all West End records. Soon it was playing in Australia, Germany, France, Scandinavia, Japan, Brazil, Mexico, Spain, and other countries. In 1972, producer Robert Stigwood opened an outdoor production of the show in Hollywood starring the understudies from the Broadway production, Ted Neely and Carl Anderson ï¿½ both of whom would go on to star in the film. Today many people don't like Lloyd Webber's work, but the composer of Superstar is a different Lloyd Webber from the one who wrote Phantom of the Opera. When he began his career thirty years ago, he wrote in the rock and roll idiom, a musical language he knew and loved.

No one can deny that he can still write a breathtaking melody, but his harmonic vocabulary is limited. Consequently, he excelled in the relatively simple, repetitive language of rock and roll with Superstar, but when he tries today to write in a more classical, more sophisticated style, his limitations show through. What seems driving and primal in Superstar sounds merely repetitious in the classical European sound of Phantom or the pseudo-jazz style of Sunset Boulevard. His writing ability hasn't diminished, but when he changed styles, our expectations changed as well, and he couldn't meet them. His critics believe that, unlike other theatre writers, Lloyd Webber has not grown as a composer over time. Luckily, we can still enjoy Jesus Christ Superstar and Evita, both set on the cynical, literate, and provocative lyrics of Tim Rice. Poor Old Judas Rice and Lloyd Webber began with the idea of writing a musical about Judas, in which Jesus was only a minor character. Though that's not exactly what they ended up with, Judas still emerged as the protagonist, more important and complex than Jesus.

The showï¿½s title is Judasï¿½ own words, Judasï¿½ point of view, Judasï¿½ criticism of Jesus. Judas is in an impossible situation; there is no easy way out. Tim Rice wrote, "We made him an everyman. Judas did not think of himself as a traitor. He did what he did, not because he was basically evil, but because he was intelligent. He could see Christ becoming something he considered harmful to the Jews. Judas felt they had been persecuted enough." Judas is the most fully drawn character in the show, certainly more so than Jesus. Judas is passionate, fiery, impatient, smart as hell and a real control freak. Judas clearly does not believe Jesus is the son of God and says so explicitly in the showï¿½s first song. Judas and Tim Rice both stake out their positions early on, to offer the audience a clear context and road map for the story theyï¿½re about to see. Itï¿½s important to remember that at that time there was dozens of men constantly claiming to be the Messiah, each with his own devout followers who believed utterly in their teacher.

Judas thinks this movement has accidentally evolved into one of those. He believes this turn of events is contrary to Jesusï¿½ intentions, but thatï¿½s less clear to us; does Jesus believe he is the Messiah? And more importantly, is he? This story will never answer that question, putting us in Judasï¿½ shoes. We donï¿½t know whatï¿½s in Jesusï¿½ head any better than Judas does. It leaves Jesus as a difficult character to define, but it makes the story infinitely richer, more complex, more human. But Judasï¿½ other concern is for his people. He knows that the minute Jesus becomes famous, the authorities will clamp down on him. He may be killed ï¿½ they all may be killed. The perspective of the Jews, they were an occupied nation under the tyranny of Rome. Judas sees Jesus lessons of love and peace and brotherhood as a path straight to the gallows. Again, he describes these concerns explicitly in the showï¿½s first song, a real masterpiece of economical, character-driven exposition. The dichotomy between Judas and Jesus is a fascinating one.

Judas is the practical one, concerned with image, message, public opinion, money, etc. Jesus is concerned only with the Message. Interestingly, the relationship between Judas and Jesus mirrors the relationship between the showï¿½s twin antagonists, Annas and Caiaphas. Like Judas, Annas is the practical one, trying to see the obstacles ahead, worrying about public opinion; while Caiaphas is utterly single-minded, just like Jesus. That central relationship shows us a mammoth tug-of-war between pragmatism, represented by Judas, and ideas, represented by Jesus. Each of them is missing what the other has. Judas finds himself constantly frustrated and confused by Jesus' refusal to look at the practical side of their situation, as verbalized in "Heaven On Their Minds," "Superstar," and the fragment of "Superstar" at the end of the Last Supper. They fight because they both care passionately about the cause and about each other. There are three main arguments that break out between them, during "Strange Thing Mystifying," "Everything's Alright," and at the Last Supper ï¿½ the second two set to the same music.

Judas acts as a kind of business agent and PR man, concerned over the political message they're sending out, at the perceived inconsistencies in Jesus' teachings, and the money wasted on Mary's ointments and oils. He believes in Jesus' philosophy, in his ability to lead, but not in his methods and his choices. The lyric to the chorus of the title song originally just repeated "Jesus Christ" every time the melody repeated. But before recording it, Tim Rice wanted to give the lyric some variety. The word superstar was just beginning to be widely used, mostly to refer to rock and pop stars. Rice changed the second repeat of the chorus to include the word superstar because that's what Christ was, a superstar of his time, widely popular, complete with his own groupies who cared more about his star status then about his message. He was thronged when he went out in public, and like many rock stars today, he was considered dangerous and corrupting by the establishment. Jesus had a new message for the people, and they embraced it (for a while, at least). Despite his intentions to the contrary, he became a controversial political figure as well as a spiritual leader.

The songs "Hosanna" and "Simon Zealotes" point out to Jesus the tens of thousands of followers who are hanging on his every word. Simon wants Jesus to use his power to bring about a rebellion against Rome; but Jesus doesn't want to be a political figure. From the biblical perspective, an important question is ignored: why was Jesus so "big," so successful, so influential? From the point of view of the Bible, the answer is that he was divine; but from a purely historical, sociological angle, there's more to it. Like our country today, the people wanted a new message, a change, relief from the tyranny of Rome. (Many scholars believe the Book of Revelation isnï¿½t about the end of the world at all; it was a thinly disguised promise to the Jews that Rome would soon fall and their persecution would end.) Jesus came at the right time with the right message, just as the Religious Right did in the 1994 U.S. congressional elections. As Jesus grew to adulthood, Galilee was in turmoil. The region had been conquered by Rome and Herod Antipas had been installed as a regional governor or sorts.

But the Jews suffered under the weight of incredible taxation, both from Rome itself and also from Herod, who taxed the Jews so heavily in order to build new cities. Meanwhile, the rich got richer while the poor got poorer. The Zealotes emerged as a secret group of vigilantes, insurgents, revolutionaries, guerilla warriors, never hesitating to use violence, rising up to protest their oppression by Rome and its surrogates. Like Americans today, most Jews of the early first century wanted an alternative to the violence, corruption, and economic strangle-hold under which they were straining. Jesusï¿½ message was one of peace, of morality and fairness; but also, a message of complete social upheaval. More and more, it was what the people wanted. But it made him dangerous. And Co-Starring... Other central characters in the story are never fully drawn in the Bible, but Rice had to thoroughly characterize them in the musical in order for us to understand them and their relationship to Jesus and Judas. Because secondary characters get very little "dialogue" in the Bible, those questions aren't really answered; but in Superstar, we see Mary as a complete, living person.

She just wants to comfort Jesus and help him relax; the only way she knows how to do that is by soothing him physically. She bathes him in ointments and oils, rubs his feet, massages his head and shoulders. There was a reason so many women traveled with Jesus, that we donï¿½t always understand today. At that time, women had virtually no rights, were not allowed to interact with men in most situations, could not discuss the events of the day, offer opinions; women didnï¿½t matter. But Jesus is different from other men. He and his followers treated women as nearly full equals ï¿½ they ate together, discussed politics together, his women disciples performed their poetry at feasts, and in the most radical departure from the norm, the women were welcomed alongside men as serious students worthy of an education. No wonder so many women found themselves amongst Jesusï¿½ closest followers, and no wonder there were always several rich women around to finance the movement. This was a movement worth financing. On a personal level, Jesus treats Mary with real respect, with genuine love, something almost unheard of. He appreciates her efforts.

As she sings in "I Don't Know How to Love Him," this throws her completely. How does she respond to his treatment of her? Her first impulse is to return that affection physically, but she knows that's not appropriate. She doesn't know how to express love without physical forms of affection; she literally does not know how to love this man. Judas hates her because he sees Mary and her relationship with Jesus as a PR liability. He also seems at times to be jealous of her. He is a man full of frustration, and one of the ways that anger manifests itself is in jealousy against the one other person to whom Jesus is that close. Mary cares about the movement but she cares about Jesus more; in contrast, Judas cares very much about his friend Jesus, but he cares about the movement more. At least in the world of Superstar, Judas and Mary dance a spiritual, emotional tug-of-war over Jesus throughout the entire story. Pontius Pilate, the Roman governor, is a fascinating character, and is another person Rice and Lloyd Webber discussed writing a musical about, again with Jesus as a minor character.

(They also briefly tried a show about Kennedy and the Cuban Missile Crisis.) As the Roman prefect of Judea, Pilate commanded Roman military units, authorized construction projects, arranged for the collection of imperial taxes, and decided civil and criminal cases. According to a "Famous Trials" website from the University of Missouri ï¿½ Kansas City Law School: During his ten years as prefect, Pilate's tenure was associated with "briberies, insults, robberies, outrages, wanton injustices, constantly repeated executions without trial, and ceaseless and grievous cruelty." Given what is known about Pilate's concern with crowd control, it is hard to imagine that he would not have willingly acceded to a request from high Jewish officials to deal harshly with anyone who proclaimed himself "King of the Jews." Pilate undoubtedly knew that past messianic claims had led to civil unrest. It seems likely that he would have been eager to end the potential threat to the existing order presented by the subversive theology of Jesus. The form of execution used ï¿½ -crucifixion ï¿½ establishes that Jesus was condemned as a violator of Roman, not Jewish, law.

Like Judas, Pilate finds himself in a no-win situation in this story. The region is in turmoil. Several Jewish insurgencies have already been put down, thousands executed by the state. Jerusalem is straining under the weight of thousands of pilgrims whoï¿½ve come to the temple for Passover week. In the past, this had led to violent political uprisings. Pilate needs to keep a lid on the unrest this year. And then this Jesus thing is dropped in his lapï¿½ The song "Pilate's Dream" paints a subtle portrait of Pilate as a politician trying desperately to avoid controversy, and more than anything, responsibility. He's not a bad person as much as heï¿½s a modern politician (at least, as Rice has written him) ï¿½ amoral more than immoral, more interested in preserving his power than anything else, always looking to his own future and his climb up that political ladder. In his dream he sees all that will happen, and knows that despite his efforts to the contrary, he will end up being blamed for Jesus' death. He may even have an inkling that once Jesus dies, the whole thing will get ever bigger.

In the midst of the hassles of Passover week, he is told that the priests have convicted Jesus of blasphemy. And since they have no authority to put him to death as they would like, they send Jesus to Pilate for execution. Pilate tries to pass the buck by sending Jesus to Herod; since Jesus is a Jew, he falls under Herod's jurisdiction, but Herod sends him right back. Pilate doesn't really understand why Jesus is worth so much fuss; but the crowd has now turned on their leader and demands his crucifixion. Pilate even tries to convince the crowd that Jesus isn't worth their hatred. But there is legitimate reason for Pilateï¿½s fear ï¿½ if the mob now demanding Jesusï¿½ death decides theyï¿½re unhappy with Pilateï¿½s decision, there could be yet another uprising in the city. And then thereï¿½s Caiaphas and Annas.

Again according to the UMKC website: Joseph Caiaphas was the high priest of Jerusalem and the chief religious authority in the land, with important responsibilities including controlling the Temple treasury, managing the Temple police and other personnel, performing religious rituals, and ï¿½ central to the passion story ï¿½ serving as president of the Sanhedrin, the Jewish council and court that considered the case of Jesus. Caiaphas was the son-in-law of Annas, high priest from 6 to 15 C.E. and head of a family that would control the high priesthood for most of the first century. It is possible that Annas, as a high priest emeritus, might have served at the side of Caiaphas in the Sanhedrin called to resolve the fate of Jesus. Although little is known of Caiaphas, historians infer from his eighteen years as high priest that he must have worked well with Roman authority. For ten years, Caiaphas served with Roman prefect Pontius Pilate and the two presumably had a close relationship. It is likely that Caiaphas and Pilate had standing arrangements for how to deal with subversive persons such as Jesus.

High priests, including Caiaphas, were both respected and despised by the Jewish population. Many Jews suspected the high priests of taking bribes or practicing other forms of corruption. Unlike other Temple priests, Caiaphas lived in Jerusalem's Upper City, a wealthy section inhabited by the cityï¿½s powers-that-be. The Friendly Villagers As in many musicals, the crowd ï¿½ ï¿½the friendly villagers" ï¿½ is a character in and of itself. In almost all musicals (for example, Brigadoon, The Music Man, Carousel, Sweeney Todd, Rocky Horror, Bat Boy, Hair.), the protagonist must either learn to assimilate himself into the crowd/townspeople or be removed from the community. In Brigadoon, Tommy assimilates. So does Harold Hill in The Music Man. In Carousel, Billy can't so he dies. Neither Sweeney nor Frank N. Furter can, so they both die. In Superstar, Jesus can't assimilate, can't join the mainstream, so he must be removed ï¿½ by capital punishment. Judas must be removed as well.

But there are two sets of "friendly villagers" in this story ï¿½ the apostles and the Jews at large. The apostles are a motley crew, uneducated, unskilled laborers, so average of intelligence that Jesus had to create all those farming parables to communicate complex ideas. These were common men and women. (And yes, Jesus did have women apostles and he had a lot more than twelve.) But the larger group of "friendly villagers," the Jewish mob, becomes one of the antagonists, actively demanding Jesusï¿½ death. The crowd begins the show as Jesus' followers (singing "Hosanna"), a group whose loyalty the priests don't want to lose. The crowd is in the middle of a tug-of-war between the priests and Jesus. They ask Jesus to be healed, to be cured, to be fed; yet once the priests have condemned him as a blasphemer, the crowd turns on Jesus and demands Pilate crucify him. As it still does today, public opinion can swing quickly and unexpectedly from one extreme to the other.

A contemporary example would be the American public who in 1992 ousted a Republican president in favor of a Democrat, then in 1994 gave control of Congress to the Republicans. And now a reversal of that may be coming in 2006. The loyalties of the masses can change with the wind and this phenomenon was just as dangerous and unpredictable then as it is now. The change of the crowd's position is seen through a series of songs: "Hosanna" and "Simon Zealotes" (all devout followers), "The Temple" (the moneylenders opposing him and the sick asking for healing), "The Arrest" (the people turning fickle, taunting him), "Pilate and Christ" (turning against him), and finally "Trial by Pilate" (demanding his death). How to Succeed Like Rice and Lloyd Webber's later rock opera Evita, Jesus Christ Superstar follows two main themes. The first is success and the power that comes with it. As the show opens, Jesus has found great success in his ministry. He is reaching tens of thousands of people with his ideas and they are following him.

Though his goal is not power, he finds himself becoming powerful enough to make the priests very nervous. The priests have great success and power as well. Their position in the church brings with it not only substantial wealth but also political power, which is now being threatened by Jesus. If people listen to Jesusï¿½ radical ideas about having a personal relationship with God, about redistribution of wealth, about turning the other cheek, they will stop listening to the priests and the social order will come a-tumbling downï¿½ Without followers, the church loses all its power ï¿½ and its money. As with any political struggle, including the current political landscape in America, there is a great battle fought for the hearts and minds of the masses. As the show opens Jesus is winning, but before the show is over, fortunes are reversed and Jesus ultimately loses the battle. Herod and Pilate are also men of great power; and Pilate represents the inescapable responsibility that goes with power. The other main theme in the show is choice and the removal of choice by the forces of politics and public opinion. Throughout the show, characters make choices that will greatly affect the outcome of events.

Jesus chooses to keep Mary by his side, despite her image, despite the fact that women were supposed to wear veils in public and were not to be spoken to (check Leviticus for the ugly truth); and this is one of the things that drives a wedge between Jesus and Judas. In fact, some Biblical and art historians believe the figure on Jesusï¿½ right side in DaVinciï¿½s famous Last Supper is not John, as always believed, but Mary (take a close look some time). Judas repeatedly makes the choice to ignore the mistakes he knows Jesus is making and to stay with him anyway. Jesus' choices keep getting him deeper and deeper in trouble until finally, Judas must choose to betray him to the priests to stop the train from careening off the tracks. Does Judas in fact have a choice or is he trapped into the events as they unfolded? If Judas had not betrayed Jesus, Jesus' role as martyr would've been subverted. Jesus knows from the beginning that Judas may betray him, that his ideas may be too radical, too dangerous even for his closest, most trusted friend.

In the Garden of Gethsemane, Jesus has serious doubts about what's he gotten into and he considers whether or not he can choose to stop, to get out while he's still alive. He decides that the choice is not his. After Jesus' arrest, Peter chooses self-preservation over loyalty as he denies Jesus; but again, Jesus thought this might happen. Pilate tries to avoid making any choice at all regarding Jesus, but in the end the choice is forced upon him by the priests, by Herod, and by the crowd. Everyone wants Jesus taken care of, yet no one wants to be the one who takes action. Jesus Rocks The music of Superstar is relatively conventional both harmonically and melodically, but there is still a richness of melody there, with obvious roots in Puccini, Bill Haley, Richard Rodgers, even some Leonard Bernstein; and thereï¿½s also the cockiness of youth in both the music and lyrics. Rice and Lloyd Webber could not have written this show when they were forty. This material had to have the tang of youthful arrogance and rebellion to give voice to the radical, young activists Jesus and Judas.

There is nothing in the score too complicated, nothing that requires much of the listener, but the music holds our interest nonetheless. Lloyd Webber doesn't use literal reprises ï¿½ repeated songs with the same or similar lyrics ï¿½ except for a couple of fragments in Act II. Instead, he re-uses music with entirely new lyrics (a device known as contrafactum). This works in much the same way as reprises, connecting characters or events by giving them the same music. He doesn't really develop musical themes or motifs, choosing instead to repeat them exactly or almost exactly. Though it's not as sophisticated as other theatre scores, his use of contrafactum is interesting, and in most cases, dramatically motivated. This would not be the case with any of his scores after Evita. The first eight songs in the show introduce eight melodies which will be used again and again throughout the score. The show starts with "Heaven on Their Minds," introducing Judas, his relationship with Jesus, his doubts about Jesus' approach, and even some information about Jesus' growing ministry. The song establishes Judas as the central character, dramatically, an intelligent and perceptive man whose concerns are legitimate ones.

The repeated ostinato vamp in the bass will later accompany the thirty-nine lashes and we will see that Judas was right all along about the dangers ahead. The next song, "What's the Buzz?" introduces the apostles and their collective character ï¿½ curious, questioning, impatient, and basically ineffectual; they want to know whatï¿½s up only because they want to be a part of the movement. Quite noticeably, they donï¿½t ask why things are happening or why their movement matters. Theyï¿½re far more interested in itinerary than in philosophy. Jesus sings for the first time here, treating the apostles more like children than adult students of his teachings. In effect, heï¿½s teaching them to be more Zen-like, to focus on where they are, not where they may be down the road. The next song in the scene dramatizes Jesus and Judas' first confrontation, "Strange Thing Mystifying," in which Judas directly challenges Jesus' actions, specifically with regard to Mary Magdalene. Judas is the PR guy, and Jesus fooling around with an unmarried woman is not the public face they want to put on this movement.

And since Judas is already worried about being arrested, heï¿½d rather not give the authorities any more reasons to do so. To Judas, this is a modern-day political campaign. To Jesus, heï¿½s nothing more than a philosopher who honestly believes his ideas can help people live better lives. These two friends are not working toward the same goals. But there seems to be more here. This argument between these two devoted friends over this woman hints at deeper issues. When Jesus sings to Judas, "Leave her, leave her, sheï¿½s with me nowï¿½" it almost sounds like Mary had been with Judas before. There is some Biblical evidence to suggest that the real Mary Magdalene may have had money, and therefore real independence, and that may have financed much of the movement. Her independence seems to be confirmed by the Bibleï¿½s mention that "seven demons" had previously been driven out of her ï¿½ itï¿½s not hard to imagine this was a reaction to her independence.

And her established ï¿½ even favored ï¿½ place in Jesusï¿½ movement leaves open the possibility, if sheï¿½s been around for a while, that Judas may have been with her. This is only the first of several fights the two friends will have. Mary sings her first song, "Everything's Alright," clearly defining her character, the balance and calm she brings to this combative group of friends, as well as her relationship with both Jesus and Judas. Also, recent Biblical scholarship adds a new wrinkle to Maryï¿½s lyric: Sleep and I will soothe you, Calm you, and anoint youï¿½ . . .

Question: Which character sings the song “I don’t know how to love him” in the musical Jesus Christ Superstar?
Answer: MARY MAGDELENE