Jesus Christ Superstar Live in Concert

We really liked this production of JCS. The weak performance in all of this: John Legend as the Jesus character. All others were fantastic. Loved Alice Cooper as Herod.

WOW!! Such a great feast of fantastic voices and strong performances! So much so, that a pop star talent like John Legend paled in comparison to seasoned stage presence of his co-players. This production begins with a shock of talent. The minimalized stage allowed for fluid transitions and big performances. In my opinion, this production fared better than the other recent spate of "Live, Televized" musical extravaganzas, although the big emotions of the the piece suffered by the interruption of commercials, which so broke the rhythm of the piece that it felt veerry looonnngg. As for the merits and failures of JESUS CHRIST SUPERSTAR, that is a discussion for another time (a crucifixion without a resurrection kinda misses the point, just saying) but the songs with their powerful and poignant lyrics will continue to haunt our culture. So, in terms of production, I give it an 8 (great) out of 10. As for theology and faithfulness to the mission and message of Jesus, I give it a 4 (poor).

Not my favorite musical, but easily NBC's best and most impressive live production. A present studio audience makes a huge difference!