Anyone else catch NBC’s telecast of a live performance of “Jesus Christ, Superstar?” You can watch highlights Here
I happened upon it about fifteen minutes in and found the production distracting, confusing and disconcertingly modernized, so I watched the whole thing through to the end
I basically agree with everything in this Variety review (especially Alice Cooper stealing the show as King Herod). More
From the original version the only part I could stand to watch was the King Herod part. It’s like a Bruce Campbell Evil Dead 1 where it is so bad that it becomes funny. But, its as if they took an entire Evil Dead worth of bad and crammed it into 3 minutes but the funny is only 1.5 minutes of funny because it takes you time to adjust to it and then you are left over all with as sense of needing to take a shower.
I could see Alice Cooper doing a better job. Maybe there is still a reason to go to youtube after all. I found 2001 clip of Rick Mayall doing Herod and it worked better but would have been better if Nigel Palmer would have been playing the Savoir.
Thanks for watching it Doc, so we didn’t have to.
The long stretches for commercials was the most annoying aspect of the whole thing. That and the tattooed slacker, lowlifes that made up the supporting cast. Very distracting.
Alice Cooper was good as an enjoyable reprieve from the obsessively hipster version of Jerusalem.
No thanks!
If memory serves, I believe Archie Bunker put it best when the original came out. ‘I knew Jesus Christ before he was a superstar, meathead.’
It’s been a while.
I made it about 5 minutes in and quit. I didn’t see anyone that looked like Jesus and I always thought Sammy Davis Junior was the only black Jew.
Alice Cooper, yes. Great characterization of Herod. The rest, no, includung John Legend, *yawn* were no talent SJW, C3 church heretical producers and millennials hacks (old term for bad acting). Couldn’t take more than a half hour. Only good thing, it might perk the interest of the Antifa generation who mostly have no clue about Jesus.
I was almost thirteen when the movie, “Jesus Christ, Superstar,” came out. My family had just moved, and so had joined a new Episcopal congregation. The priest who oversaw my confirmation the previous year KNEW the faith. The new guy, Father Steve, seemed lost. My parents sent me along with the youth group and Father Steve to see said movie. Afterword, as the group sat in a circle, (12 step fashion,) Father Steve asked what the group thought of the “Jesus Christ, Superstar.” No one else had anything to offer, so I pointed out that the movie had obviously been made by nonbelievers. Father Steve was nonplussed by my nonbelievers comment and tried to debate me on the issue. I just went along with his rant, then later told my parents that if I was required to go to youth group it would have to be at another church.
I watched it ! this was by far my favorite scene
https://www.liveleak.com/view?t=sVCHw_1522487202
“I happened upon it about fifteen minutes in and found the production distracting, confusing ..”
Thank you. Agreed.
It was NBC – THEY could screw up a free cup of coffee… 🙄
I’ve always thought JCS to be very sacrilegious, so I have never seen it. But if it helps young people who have no idea who Jesus is gain an interest, than alright.
With you @chuffed. Me neither. Never saw it. I’m not particularly religious, and have sinned quite a bit, but have always tried to keep the lightning strike target off my back.
Don’t mock God. It ain’t good.
I watched the classics on TCM
The Greatest Story Ever Told
Ben Hur
King of Kings.
I enjoyed it for the music. But I thought John Legend was the worst singer of the group.
I never understood the tank (how in the world does a tank show up in JC Superstar) in watching Jesus Christ Superstar, someone tell me what that was all about. Didn’t care for JC Superstar, nor Godspell either. But it was also the era of songs like Are You On The Top 40 Of Your Lordy, Lordy, Lordy by Sha Na Na, Jesus Is just Alright With Me by the Doobie Brothers and Dropkick Me Jesus Through The Goalpost Of Life by Bobby Bare, a truly awful country song that a Pastor friend of mine hates with a passion.
And who can Forget Janis Joplin singing Oh Lord, Won’t You Buy Me A Mercedes Benz. The 70’s, you had to be there to experience it for what it was worth.
And Kinky Friedman singing They Don’t Make Jews Like Jesus Anymore, a song which I kinda liked in a tongue and cheek type of way.
I watched it thought it was pretty good although the Klingon leather costumes the priests used was kind of over the top. It followed the original pretty closely. Alice Cooper was pretty good and so was the guy that played Judas. The commercials were a bit distracting but some of them had the bottom corner of the screen with a backstage camera and that was interesting.