It may sound unlikely, but Jesus Christ Superstar – the 1970 rock opera by Andrew Lloyd Webber and his lyrical soulmate Tim Rice – is really an Australian success story. First conceived as a concept album (call it the Hamilton of its day), Jesus Christ Superstar was brought to Broadway after a spate of unauthorised stagings by fans of the record, but to mixed reviews. Its creators were unhappy with this first official staging – which often sets the blueprint for how creatives later approach and remember the work – and looked abroad to post-Broadway stagings that were doing something new.
They found inspiration in Australia. Now-legendary director Jim Sharman, who had just made his mark with the first Australian production of Hair in 1969, teamed up again with designer Brian Thomson on an oratorio-style staging that morphed into a full production in 1972. (Not much later, the two men would create the look, feel and direction of Rocky Horror). Their staging of Jesus Christ Superstar was emotionally honest and dedicated to using all the hallmarks of then-contemporary Australian rock: impossibly raw-but-soaring vocals, driving beats, screaming guitars. This became Rice and Lloyd Webber’s blueprint; Sharman and Thomson would direct and design the first, record-breaking West End production.
The first Australian cast featured a shock of talent: Jon English, Easybeats frontman Stevie Wright, Trevor White as Jesus, and Marcia Hines, who became the first African-American woman to play Mary Magdalene anywhere. If that’s not enough: two guys who met in the ensemble went on to become Air Supply.
To have Jesus Christ Superstar back in Sydney’s Capitol theatre – where it opened to critical acclaim and genuine acts of sabotage, including an unlit Molotov cocktail thrown onstage, and one passionate Christian pelting English’s Judas with 40 pieces of silver (some 20c coins) – feels like we’re reaching back through time. Is it still earnest and silly? Yes. Does it wear its yearning, urgent heart on its sleeve? Totally. And why not? The stakes are, after all, biblical.
This production is the Regent’s Park Open Air Theatre’s, originally directed by Timothy Sheader and overseen and nurtured in Australia by Shaun Rennie. Again, the cast is drawn from across music and theatre: Michael Paynter, a musician who performs with Icehouse and Jimmy Barnes, is our Jesus. Paynter is so impossibly fluffy-haired and puppy dog-eyed that when he reaches Gethsemane (I Only Want to Say) and blows the roof off, it’s a revelation. He, rightfully, received a mid-number standing ovation.
Javon King, his Judas, seen recently in the 2022 Australian production of Hairspray, brings his theatrical chops to the mat. King and Paynter wrestle for control of both the microphones and the narrative, and even if their connection isn’t as strong as you might want it to be, King is remarkable. Comedian and singer Reuben Kaye plays King Herod with relish, while Mahalia Barnes delivers a sensitive performance and some gorgeous singing as Mary, cutting through Drew McOnie’s frenetic choreography and to-the-heavens lighting (by Lee Curran) to ground us back in pure feeling.
If you love the score (it tends to be one people either love or hate) you’re in for a treat with Barnes and company; they sing it like its new, and the band, under the musical direction of Laura Tipoki, gets the blood pumping.
This production is unevenly paced – it moves so quickly that we often lose Jesus while others have their moment and some key relationships and scenes don’t go deep enough. But it all sounds incredible and very hard to resist, so why bother trying? This is a musical that made a lot of what we see onstage now in Australia possible; it’s the art that made me, and made a lot of us. It calls us home.
Jesus Christ Superstar is on in Sydney’s Capitol theatre until 26 January, then Perth’s Crown theatre in February, Melbourne’s Princess theatre in March and Brisbane’s Lyric theatre, QPAC in June.
