Review: JESUS CHRIST SUPERSTAR Rocks Portland's Merrill Auditorium

More than a half century since Andrew Lloyd Webber and Tim Rice created their rock opera about the last days of Jesus Christ, the work still remains one of the creative duo’s most popular and enduring.  What began its life as a concept album before morphing into the stage spectacle that created such controversy in the 1970s, continues to rivet audience attention not only because of its timeless subject matter, but also because of the very human, emotionally arresting manner in which it is told.

The Broadway National Tour production, presented at Merrill Auditorium in Portland under the auspices of Portland Ovations, directed by Timothy Sheader, follows recent tradition, staging the musical as a rock concert and relying primarily on the music and vocal/dance performances to tell the story.  Narrative elements are downplayed, as are references to historic specificity. The emphasis is on the pure emotion in the music, lyrics, and movement.

Timothy Shaeder’s direction aims to deliver an adrenaline-packed evening, while Drew McOnie’s angular, flailing choreography is as explosive as the tale itself.  The visual production, based on the original by Tom Scutt, opts for a stage dominated by a large cruciform platform and steel scaffolding and free-flowing costumes in neutral tones that are dateless.  Lee Curran’s lighting adds shadow and dramatic shafts of light creating moments of mystery and awe, while Keith Caggiano manages skillfully to balances the vocal-instrumental sound in the large venue, though Tim Rice’s mordent lyrics are sometimes muddied. The five-piece rock band under the direction of Ryan Edward Wise, plays the Lloyd Webber score with passion.

Jesus Christ Superstar is very much an ensemble piece, and the twenty-six members of this company perform with cohesion and commitment. On the opening evening in Portland Joshua Bess delivered an intense performance as Jesus, fearlessly scaling the vocal heights of the role with penetrating emotional power. Elvie Ellis made an excellent foil – a tortured Judas, his own agony and doubt painfully mirroring those of Jesus.   As Mary Magdalene, Jaden Dominique brings emotional heart and moral strength to the tale; she sings the showstopping “I Don’t Know How to Love Him” exquisitely in her velvety mezzo that caresses and cries at once. Other strong moments come from Alex Stone’s frenzied and distraught Pilate and Alec Diem’s Herod as a pompous, preening dandy.

For a critic old enough to remember JESUS CHRIST SUPERSTAR when it first emerged on Broadway surrounded by swirling controversy for its seemingly radical content and style, this 50th-anniversary production seems almost classic – a reminder of the jolting power of this sung-through rock opera about Biblical history.  A performance packed with the energy and emotion of this staging reminds why the Lloyd Webber-Rice work wears the aura of agelessness.

Photo courtesy of Portland Ovations, Evan Zimmermann for MurphyMade, photographer

JESUS CHRIST SUPERSTAR Broadway National Tour presented by Portland Ovations April 12-13, 2024, Merrill Auditorium, 20 Myrtle St., Portland, ME