JESUS CHRIST SUPERSTAR Capitol Theatre, November 14 Until January 26 Reviewed by KATE PRENDERGAST ★★★★1⁄2 Not long after its 1971 Broadway premiere, Jesus Christ Superstar had its first official Australian production at the Capitol Theatre. Fifty-one years later, and now a global phenomenon, JC has risen again at the Capitol. Under British director Timothy Sheader, an indefatigable ensemble cast and crew brings passion to The Passion, blood and glitter to the stage, and biblical proportions of movement, artistic imagination and pure vocal power to this audacious reimagining of the defining days of Christianity.
Reuben Kaye has the best costume. Credit: Jeff Busby Credit goes foremost to Tom Scutt – mastermind of costume and set. Jesus’ followers/groupies burst onto stage looking like they’re repping the new Yeezy season or Burning Man leisure wear.
Jesus even wears a snapback cap. The raggedy beige bagginess amplifies Drew McOnie’s choreography: contemporary dance meets gospel chorus meets evangelical aerobics that would be lethal to anyone less than supremely fit. Scutt’s two-storey Fallout -style scaffold, rusted and bare, towers over the temple, the courtyard and the betrayals.
In the upper rafters, three shadowy figures cowled in black hoodies soar through ballads on electric fretboards and keys. This structure is centre-split by a carved-out cross, a hollow from which the twisted, ominously underlit limbs of a Judas tree loom. As though crashed on sta.
