I saw Jesus Christ Superstar again, and it was really moving again, so I’m posting again!
If you’re going to see the production currently on at the London Palladium (I think it’s also doing a UK tour after the West End run), read this post after, NOT before! I’m going to be mentioning things specific to this production, so spoiler warning even if you know the musical.
It’s by the same company as the tour production I saw (which I posted about here, you might want to read the old post first) and a lot of the staging was similar, but it was different enough that I wanted to make a new post.
• OK, so the first person I’m shouting out is Charley Warburton (Mob Leader/Ensemble). She was the first person on stage, and a lead dancer in most ensemble songs, and captured my attention from the very beginning. She and the two leads were my favourites.
• Speaking of the two leads, we had the alternate Judas (Billy Nevers, who usually plays Simon) and he was amazing!! His scenes broke my heart SO MANY TIMES, I’ll go into more detail as we go, but for now I’ll reiterate something I said in my other post: alternates/understudies should be appreciated more!
• Sam Ryder was brilliant as Jesus!! He’s mostly known for Eurovision and pop songs, but I’d NEVER have known from his performance that this was his first musical! It’s a really different skill, and he’s learned it to the point where it looks natural.
• Side note: I’ve heard some people who saw him earlier in the run say his acting wasn’t quite there. If this is your perspective, I strongly encourage you to go again if you can. He must have learned over the course of the run, he was so good in the role, I can’t imagine him not being amazing at it.
• They used golden glitter to represent the ointment, and later used it again for the extravagance in the temple scene. It was very pretty, but also backed up Judas’s point about how expensive the ointment was.
• Bob Harms (Caiaphas, amazing and intimidating bass voice) needs to do Hadestown right now! (Well, maybe not right now, because I don’t want him to leave JCS!) And Matty J (Annas) has a really impressive higher range! Both their voices are impressive individually, but the contrast between them really brought out their opposite strengths.
• The first moment that broke me was during Hosanna. Judas sung some of the ensemble’s part with them, but during the last two choruses, he stopped singing, broke out of the crowd, and he and Jesus hugged. When the ensemble sung “would you die for me” to Jesus, Judas reacted and pulled away. He was really scared by that thought.
• This seemed to be the moment that confirmed in his mind that things were going too far, and that the only way to protect him was to turn him in.
• The musical kind of intentionally leaves the Jedas angle up to interpretation. Tumblr has made me ship them. This production almost seems to be saying it doesn’t matter exactly what their relationship is. Romantic or otherwise, the love between them is undeniable.
• I mentioned in my old post how the actor playing Pilate accompanied himself on guitar for Pilate’s Dream on the tour, it was very moving and understated. I think they built on that and did it even better for this version. David Thaxton (Pilate) stood and sung the song, and it was Sam Ryder and Phil King (Peter) who sat together and accompanied him on guitars. It was really powerful in a way I can’t fully explain to have Jesus and Peter as the ones providing accompaniment for Pilate while also being in a separate place. Again, it was understated in a very moving way. I don’t think the band played at all during that song, it sounded like it was just the two of them playing.
• They did the silver hands thing again!! I love that, it’s such a powerful visual message. The silver looked more liquid in this version than the tour, so it really looked like it was staining him.
• One of the few laugh out loud moments was at the beginning of The Last Supper. Before the song started, they all got into poses mimicking the Last Supper painting! It took a moment to click for me that that was what they were doing, and it was hilarious!
• Of course, after that, they soon went back to breaking my heart! Judas still had the silver staining his hands, and he had a Lady Macbeth moment during The Last Supper, trying in vain to get the blood-(money)-stain off his hands. Also, Jesus draped a shawl around him near the beginning of the song, and he clearly felt awkward/guilty about being given something, even taking it off and throwing it offstage later in the song.
• Gethsemane was stunning! I’ve wanted Sam Ryder to sing it ever since Spaceman, and he was even better than I could have imagined!! His vocals are brilliant as always, but he didn’t overdo it and knew when to let the vocals give way to acting. I seriously can’t believe this was his first role in a musical, and I feel so lucky to have witnessed it. I don’t think I can really do him justice here, you have to see him.
• He did the thing I loved from the tour, too, where he started the song playing along with the band, but discarded the guitar/mic/mic stand, while breaking down while singing, because Jesus didn’t want to put on this performance anymore. His breakdown was so convincing and heartbreaking, too.
• On a lighter note, when he sung “What YOU started”, he pointed up at the grand circle, right at the seat I was in. So, I guess I’m God now.
• Herod was uncomfortably good. We had Richard Armitage, as his run was extended, and he really went for all the humour of the role. You laugh at him, and then the situation hits you again, and you feel horrible, like “what have I been laughing at?” Especially in this version, where Jesus came back from him covered in blood, clearly having been brutally tortured by this man you’ve just been laughing at.
• So, Judas had a scarf throughout, and I thought he was going to use it in his death scene. In the Arena Tour he uses his scarf, in the film he wears the rope as a belt throughout, so whenever he has a long fabric element in his costume, I kind of clock that. Which is why it genuinely caught me off guard that he used his microphone cord instead. It was done in a very clever non-literal way, where he let go of the microphone and the cord pulled it up so it was hanging from the ceiling, and the lights went down except on the microphone. It looked haunting the way it was swinging representing his body.
• The Mob Leader handed him the microphone. She was a kind of like an omen throughout. She reminded me of The Bullet, an ensemble member in Hamilton who interacts with whoever’s about to die, ending up personifying the bullet that kills Hamilton. (I said she should be called The Nail!)
• Like in the tour, Judas still had silver hands during Superstar. He was still stained, still couldn’t forgive himself, even if Jesus did. But wait, it hurts more…
• The staging at the very end ABSOLUTELY SHATTERED anything left of my heart!!! The ensemble let Jesus down from the cross, and Judas stood some distance away at the front of the stage. Jesus moved to the front of the stage opposite him, and they looked at each other. I thought they were going to take each other’s hands, or hug, or… SOMETHING. Not only did they not do that, IT WAS JUDAS WHO LOOKED AWAY! Jesus had forgiven him (and was still looking sadly at him after Judas looked away), but he couldn’t accept that forgiveness.
One of my favourite ways to feel pain (possibly my favourite even) is with one character ready to forgive, and the other just being like “No. I don’t deserve your forgiveness. I don’t deserve to be redeemed. Hate me, that I would at least understand. I can’t accept the thought that you could ever love me again.” IT HURTS SO MUCH!!! I wish it had gone differently, but deep down I know that that’s because it’s so good. And (I can’t stress this enough) all that was conveyed in basically two head movements - a look and a look away. It’s incredible.
So, yeah, you should see it. Now, I have to go and imagine a (probably very blasphemous) alternative ending to soothe the heartbreak. They’re together now. They’re fine. I’m fine.
