Jesus Christ Superstar: Live Arena Tour

This is surely the best attempt at rejuvenating Lloyd Webber and Rice's under appreciated work since the 1973 movie featuring Ted Neely and Carl Anderson. It does however fall into similar traps from previous productions, in so much as, directors incessantly feel the need to modernise or set it in some kind of wacky environment, sometimes at the expense of logic. The most bizarre example being Ponteous Pilate doing push up's after tennis, whilst pondering Christ's fate.

This production is for arenas and stadiums only; A gift to the awesome array of session musicians, who smash their way through the big numbers with aplomb, whilst still providing tenderness where needed. The cast also benefit from the size and scope of this production, but for different reasons. As a paying member of a 40,000 strong audience, one can imagine being swept away with Mel C's Magdeline, as would her voice have been swept away with reverb, and bolstered by the awesome accompaniment. But on TV, listening to the direct feed from the desk, her interpretation lacks all subtlety, and is harsh on the ears. No doubt her brief stint in the west end production of Blood Brothers, entertained Lloyd Webber's sensibilities both Musical Theatre, and commercial. Sadly, Ben Forster as Christ also disappoints due to a lack of rock authenticity. He seems to have the range (although he does seem to split his long held high note at the end of Everything's Alright - did that go unnoticed in post production? Or was it the 'warts and all' approach to editing live events?) but the higher notes are reached not unlike a choir boy. The 'screams' of Ted Neely and Ian Gillan are here replaced with a dulcet falsetto. And there is a lack of anger: Tim Rice's interpretation of Christ in his final days is as impatient and angry, as would any real man's mentality be. Forster however, is a whimpering victim, failing to find the good stuff needed for The Temple scene, and only marginally improving for Gethsemanie. Tim Minchin, however is a ray of light. There is no doubt that he delivers vocally in his big numbers, but that's where his focus seems to be, and not on the smaller moments where his voice is quite thin, and glassy. But due to the benefit of close up telly, his complete and utter emotional investment in the character, and what's at stake are undeniable. Whilst I'm not a massive fan of his tone, It's a great performance, with little attempt at hiding or covering up his own stylings, putting his own stamp on the character - a rock 'n' roll hallmark. Chris Moyles is adequate as Herod. This is to Superstar what Master Of The House is to Les Miserables, and is much loved, a lot of fun, and therefore, hard to get wrong. The 'wacky' re-imagining DOES work here, presenting the song as a live 'phone-in' /Jerry Springer-esque telethon of some kind. Bringing us round to design. It's done really well, with a huge screen covering various on stage moments, as well as providing storyline background ideas, atop a huge staircase. of which some steps retract or move.

On the whole, it's great to see Superstar given the treatment it finally deserves, and as a fan of the show, musician, and actor, my hat goes off to the rollicking band, and energetic supporting cast. Superstar rocks, again!

JCS transposed into the present with Jesus and the disciples as anti-capitalists, the pharisees are corporatists/bankers, Pilate is a judge and Herod is some sort of game show host or entertainer.

The lyrics simply don't make any sense when sung in these circumstances. The Temple is now a nightclub called "The Temple", so when Jesus sings "my temple should be a house of prayer", it just makes you think he must have been the previous owner. Herod, Pilate and the Pharisees are all part of the same culture as opposed to Romans and Jews so again it simply just doesn't work.

Musically the band is very good, better than the movie and almost as good as the original concept album. The singing is generally very good with Tim Minchin being easily the weakest link, he sings through his nose. Jesus is very good and Mel C sings well, although she is just doing a direct copy of how Yvonne Elliman did it, not that that's a bad thing.

Last Christmas I saw the Court Theatre production here in Christchurch. Much lower budget, much smaller cast, much superior.

First off, I should say that the filming itself of this production is well done. Good camera angles although the editing never lets them breathe enough. Still a well filmed live production I would say. I've given this a 6 largely in part due to the production value.

The production itself however is strange. They have really modernized it (nearly post-modernized it), which actually makes it feel more dated times. The dystopian hierarchy is a very cool change that I liked, but other changes like turning the temple into a night club just didn't work and ruined the integrity of the original scene.

They also auto tune a lot (if not all) of the voices, plus apply many other vocal effects, and it's really really noticeable.

Jesus also just was miscast. He can hit the high notes, but doesn't have much strength or power to them. Range isn't everything. His voice is far to smooth and soft for material that requires full voice screaming. Sounds like a Bee Gee instead of hard rock screaming. I must point out that sings the wrong vowel sounds quite regularly too, which really should have been caught by the music director.

Tim Minchin really does steal the show as he appears to be just about the only person on stage who really understands and is dedicated to the material. He gives it his all, and it's a real travesty that they auto tuned and smoothed out the grit in his voice as the role of Judas is not supposed to sound nearly as smooth at they made it.

Overall it's an interesting adaptation. If you're a fan of the musical in general, you might enjoy it just as a different take, but the vocal effects alone will ruin it for many classic theatre fans.

Firstly, I have to say I would have seen at least 10 versions of the show, plus, of course, the movie. I also went to see the Arena spectacular at the brand-new Perth Arena. It was brilliant. I thought the 3 leads were totally brilliant, in particular Tim Minchin, who is a Perth boy. The DVD didn't disappoint either, and, to my musically educated mind, I felt that Ben Forster was absolutely brilliant, I thought Tim was fabulous, and I felt Mel Chisholm stole the show. This was the best iteration of this show I have ever seen, and I have also performed in the house band on a couple of them as well. I have seen Gillan, thought he over-sang, the best until now was John Farnham, but Forster wins for me. I can't understand one or two of the reviewers here, one said it was too modern????? The story was in set in 33AD, they didn't have tanks, helmets or metal scaffolding then either, but it's always been a part of the charm of this show , the juxtaposition of the times. I loved it. In case you can't tell.

Tim Mitchin and Mel C were great in the show, both have impressive voice and excellent play. Only one thing made this marvellous piece of art a little bit "sour": playing of Ben Forster. He acted like a hysterical child, though his voice was fair good, except some overtone.