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Review: JESUS CHRIST SUPERSTAR at Eric Ericsson Concert Hall

By: Aug. 01, 2018
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Review: JESUS CHRIST SUPERSTAR at Eric Ericsson Concert Hall  Image

The summer in Sweden has been warmer than ever before and it is not a lot than can make me go inside when I can spend the evening at the beach, but when Andrew Lloyd has given permission to a feminist interpretation of Jesus Christ Superstar, I thought I should check this out. It was as hot inside the Eric Ericson Hall as outside, but since I spent the past few weeks acclimatizing myself to the heat spending all days at the beach or in the lake Mälaren, which is 26 degrees, that was not a problem.

It is an impressive production, 27 musicians on stage, 19 people in the orchestra directed by Sofia Ågren with master Johan Mörk and 17 people in production with director Adam Gardelin and transaltor Erik Fägerborn. A modern and fresh translation of Jesus Christ Superstar.

The opening night was on July 27 and it will only be played 5 times during the Euro Pride Week in Stockholm as part of the Euro Pride Program. Everyone in the production is working pro bona, but it's a very professional show and many very good voices, basically new voices for me, so great to see there are new talented musical artists ready to enter the stage. The feminist twist is that Jesus and his disciples and some other male roles are played by girls and Maria Magdalena by a guy. However it does not feel any odd with reversed roles, but very natural. It could as well have been a woman who collected a number of people for her disciples. In fact, it does not matter to the story at all. The strength of this show is the strong energy and enthusiasm by everyone on stage. It was really an incredibly strong version. Ida Tobiasson as Judas really set the bar high initially. An incredibly strong voice and so engaged in every scen. Sanda Kassman was a real runner up in the role of Jesus, great voice as well. Malin Svanlund was cold,as Pilate, yet expressed her frustration when Jesus did not want to fight for his life but surrended to his destiny to be sentenced to death. Pilate had the most beautiful clothes in the show and a voice that matched Judas and Jesus. Teodor Wickenbergh had the somewhat unattractive role of Maria Magdalena. It felt a little that they chosen to make a weaker Maria Magdalena than in other shows I seen, but he still had some moments where he could show of his good voice. Arvid Karlström as Kajafas had some technical problems with his microphone in the first act, unfortunately, so we missed some of his song, but when the technology worked well, he also sang with real power and a strong voice.

Overall, I liked the clothes that Maja Malm created. She also did the choreography which was good and energetic. But she also played Herod. The King Herod's song, it's the fun song in the show, but here it seemed that they had been a bit heat sick when the clothes were chosen. Green ill suited swimsuits, green tights, green plush pants and everything else in green except Herod's clothes which just was odd. It did not really look good and unfortunately I lost focus on the song and was completely obsessed with the strange clothes. Until then, the clothes had been good, but simply done, but it works in Jesus Christ with simple drapes etc. So if it was somewhere that this show dropped in professionalism, it was in Herod's song. If they fix that number and the technical problems with some microns, this is a very good show. A show which deserves to be played more times because it is high class. All the hard effort and time spent on creating this deserves to mature even more to grow to yet higher heights.

Eric Ericson Hall was not the first choice of stage. The hall used to be a church and it is a prefect stage and scenery so they did not have to do a lot with the scenery. the room was used very well by the fine light design by Per Brandels that enhanced the drama. The acoustics are good and lifted the voices.

I'm really impressed by everyone in this show, so many amazing new voices which I like to see in other shows. Appreciate they have a live orchestra as it enhances any show.

There are only two performances left on August 1st. There are some tickets left for the afternoon show, so I really recommend that you go and watch it. And if you do not have the opportunity, I hope it will be played again, because I'd like to see it again!



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