An unfortunate production of a good show

Having not heard anything about it, and not recognising any names who star in it, I wasn't interested in seeing the current staging of Jesus Christ Superstar at QPAC.  But then I got offered free tickets, so not wanting to look a gift horse in the mouth, off I went with my wife on Friday night.

It turned out that it was remarkable - for being what I consider the worst theatrical production I have ever seen at QPAC.   

It is, firstly, a curious hybrid of not quite a concert version of a show, and not quite a normal stage show.    So what that means is you get one set, with one (slightly) moving element, and hence it is up to the singers and dancers give a vague idea of where each scene is meant to be set, but in a very haphazard way.  And it also becomes unclear in this hybrid as to whether there is really meant to be acting as part of it, or not.   Essentially, it feels unacted, but they sometimes move around the stage interacting with people as if there is meant to be acting.  It's the worst of both worlds.  I would prefer it be one thing or the other - if all the songs are sung into stand up microphones, they could presumably deliver better performances.

Secondly, from the opening bars of heavy metal guitar, this is a very hard rock, rock performance - with most of the music coming from a couple of hard working synth players, by the looks.   Not my style of performance at all.   Sure, it's going to be hard to fit an orchestra in any stage show just for the ultimate song (as per the original album soundtrack), but going this way just made for loud with little nuance or enjoyment.

Thirdly, the singing is, often, very rock screechy.  And even the slower songs by Mary M had (I thought) annoying and odd phrasing like "I don't know how to [pause] love him".  She's Jimmy Barnes' daughter, apparently.  Don't care, didn't enjoy her singing.  Sometimes I thought the males singers were a little behind the tempo too.   But they get screechy loud at times, and some in the audience thought that was great.  (See below.)

And lastly, what I consider the biggest sin, for a musical that is just as notable for its clever  and sometimes witty lyrics as it is for the music, was that the loud rock style sound mix often obscured hearing the words clearly.  Almost anything sung in chorus was utterly indecipherable,  and even the lead males singers often (in the faster and louder songs) were not so clear.

And yet, at the end, half of the audience gave a standing ovation.   (It was an odd audience - mostly older people and few younger in the mix.   Must be some sort of thirst in them to again hear metal guitar with quasi Jimmy Barnes' singing since there were last in a pub in the 70's or early 80's.)

Fortunately, I see that I am not the only person who had big problems with the show.  From Reddit:

I am a huge Jesus Christ Superstar fan (this was my fourth time seeing it at different venues including West End in London) and I was incredibly disappointed! I felt that this production had one purpose only - to showcase the singers rather than the singing. It was so loud (screeching is the word I would use!) that it was hard to hear the vocals and I found Jesus a particularly high-pitched squealer. It was like he was trying to show how strong his voice was rather than have us enjoy the music. I thought Mahlia Barnes was just there as a token singer as there was no acting which was disappointing - to the extend that at one point she stood in front of the stage singing to a microphone - it may as well have been a Mahlia Barnes concert rather than a play. She definitely tried to "make it her own" by changing how it is usually sung, holding notes at places that are usually not held etc (i.e. show off her vocals rather than being authentic to the play and it's music). The costumes were like brown rags (they are usually really "rockstar" and fun) and with only one set the whole show was a disappointment. I left half way through (as did many people). I will definitely not be recommending this to anyone!

I do agree!   

It makes it very unfortunate given that I hadn't heard the soundtrack for decades, and forgotten some of the songs and much of the lyrics, which (as I say) are unusually good.   Made me feel like seeing a good production, or perhaps watching the very 70's era movie (which I saw in the cinema with my father.  Surprisingly, as a conservative Catholic, he took it quite well.)

It also reminded me how, in a Christian group I used to go to in the early years of high school, they once used the show's title song as an intro to talking seriously about "what the Bible says Jesus really said about himself."   It was taken as a quite serious minded speculation - the Gospel according to Judas, as perhaps Lloyd Webber and Rice said themselves?   And I think that remains a valid take.