Jesus Christ Superstar: A Man’s Role In A Divine Play

“Every time I look at you, I don’t understand. Why’d you let the things you did get so out of hand?”

I would hear these lyrics on the albums that we had collected, CDs which we would play in the car or on stereos. My naive self assumed that it was an opening number for a play about the Crucifixion and the consequences for trying to keep the peace. Actually, no, it’s a finale for a musical where it ends in a great death, and a question about why the Crucifixion had to happen, what purpose did it serve.

I’ve never actually heard the soundtrack in full or the film. Then I saw a recording that a Broadway charity streamed, to help those out-of-work. The stage musical is quite intense and ends on a rather dour note. My mouth dropped and I kind of went, “What? That’s it?” I had to listen to the music again to let it register.

The Show Must Go On premiered a 2012 recording of Jesus Christ Superstar set in modern times, where the authorities follow Jesus’s social media in the hopes of preventing the Romans from having a reason to wipe them all out. The guards wear riot gear masks and have round plastic shields that remind one of the modern protests. This recording is also on Amazon Prime for those interested in purchasing. Watching it has been eye-opening about why devout Christians accused it of being…