Superstar

I took my mom to see the musical Jesus Christ Superstar last night. As we did last year, my family bought her a package of theatre tickets for her birthday this year. Each member of my family takes my mom out for a date once a month, going for dinner and then watching the show. Yesterday was the first show of the season and it was my turn.

I vaguely knew that it was a rock opera version of Jesus' life in the Bible and apparently it was pretty faithful. My knowledge of such trivia proved accurate and it was well written, pulling entire sets of lyrics almost directly from the Bible. The lead singer playing Jesus was actually the original actor from the movie, which was cool and somewhat pitiful to see him stuck in the role he originated more than thirty years ago. His crazy rock-falsetto was amazing.

The other lead singer that played Judas was my favourite performer, some grammy-winning guy with a very different style of singing. I once heard that certain instruments, like the old Hamond B3 organ, are ever-so-slightly off key in terms of their supporting tones and this minor distinction gives it much more character than an organ with only perfect pitch in all respects. In the same way, this Judas had some fantastic vocal inflections that he used repeatedly that were like that and it was quite the pleasure to hear. I love listening to black voices.

Overall, this musical was much more tame than I expected. Everything was properly set in the Biblical period, particularly the costumes. There was only one part that really jumped out as modern and it was a playful comedy relief segment in the second half. I was expecting much more contemporary twists, not just modern song styles. (And by modern, I mean mid-70s.) The songs were impressive at times, though the repetition of some tunes got a tad annoying since certain characters only spoke with those tunes. Still, any time you get a chance to see Jesus fly into the sky, I recommend it.

And to follow that up, I'm taking my Little and a group of younger kids to a heavy metal ("screamo") concert by Exodus In Peril tonight at my church. That's my friend Calvin's Christian band and it's always a powerful show with a ton of youth packing the place out. Considering that the musical and this concert are both technically "rock," it will be quite the contrast.