Review | ‘Jesus Christ Superstar’ Is ‘Still’ Worth the Happening
What’s the Buzz? Out of the Box Finds a New Spin on Old JC, 54 Years After the Original
I’ve seen Jesus Christ Superstar performed several times, and the original concept album is one of my longtime favorites (it came out in 1970 and I can still remember the brown record cover in my parents’ collection), so when I heard that the Out of the Box Theatre Company was doing the show — with an all-female and nonbinary cast — I was both excited and nervous. But they pulled it off, putting on an estrogen-fueled production that’s both highly entertaining and extremely emotional.
Miriam Dance as Jesus and Renee Cohen as Judas hold their own in difficult vocal parts that men like Ted Neeley, Ben Vereen, and John Legend have played over the years to great success. And Samantha Eve’s beautifully nurturing performance as Mary Magdalene was, to me, a revelation. I’ve seen her in the role of founder of Out of the Box Theatre Company and director of its productions (including this one) several times over the years, but I’ve never seen her on stage as a performer before and she hit all the right notes as Mary, in a heart-wrenching way. “I Don’t Know How to Love Him,” such a beautiful song to begin with, was particularly moving.
As expected, the popular drag performer Vivian Storm put on a great show as King Herod in the crowd-pleasing number “King Herod’s Song,” though I wish they had attacked that scenery cruncher — and really the entire show — with a bit more reckless abandon. The real showstopper for me was Lois Mahalia as Pontius Pilate. Her quiet but commanding presence and killer pipes took my breath away every time she was on stage.
All in all, this was a solid, unique take on a beloved Broadway musical. It’s playing through next weekend at Center Stage Theater, but tickets are very, very limited (click here for info). I hope they find a way to extend the run. This is a show — with noteworthy performances and eternally relevant themes of violence in the name of religion and a harrowing examination of the the cult of celebrity — that’s well worth seeing in 2024.
