Live Design: Winning acclaim from critics and audiences, NBC's live broadcast of the Tim Rice/Andrew Lloyd Webber 70s rock opera, Jesus Christ Superstar, on Easter Sunday, April 1, 2018, proved that these kinds of productions can be visually engaging and entertaining. With John Legend in the title role, the show attracted 9.4 million viewers, and was directed by David Leveaux and Alex Rudzinski. The design team includes production designer Jason Ardizzone-West, costume designer Paul Tazewell, and lighting designer Al Gurdon.
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I have yet to actually watch the Tim Rice and Andrew Loyd Webber 70s race opera, Jesus Christ Superstar, but after seeing the pictures in this article I know it is a must see show. I actually have never seen or herd this musical all the way through, I think this would be the production to watch. First of all I have lack of understanding of the storyline and have always thought of it as secular in some way. I have also felt the opposite way, that it might be a call for conversion. Lastly, the only people who I have ever seen put on this production are high schoolers, and I know way too well that a high school version should not be your first introduction to a new musical. So I really hope this production will leave me loving this musical and I can finally get on board.
I used to really not like these live television shows. I thought Grease, Peter Pan, and The Sound of Music were really underwhelming and poorly constructed. It seemed like a forced partnership between tv and theatre that just was not natural. Jesus Christ Superstar is a different story though. I think the production quality was way higher with this performance. They are really beginning to figure out this style and what it requires. I think one of the biggest improvements they made was with the set which was clearly in a tv studio, but because of how big and workable they made it, it served their purposes way better than the other shows which I could not remove from their tv studio or stage oriented sets depending. The lighting in JCS was really quite impressive. He did some really smart things working with the live actors and the cameras in a way that has not been done before.
I have to say that I really only watched the show between runs of Rube, so my recollection of what happened is a bit spotty. But I do agree with Cooper, the whole "live musical on TV" shtick worked with this production a lot better than it has with productions before. I think most of that had to do with the fact that they produced Jesus Christ Superstar as more of a rock concert -style show than a traditional musical. I think in productions past, they have really tried and failed to reconcile the traditional theatrical staging with TV -style sets (see the Sound of Music for evidence). The set, I feel, worked really well for this show. I am usually wary of the whole "scaffolding" aesthetic (it's really easy just to put up a bunch of scaffolding and call it a day), but in this case, with the scaffolding surrounding a really massive and detailed temple, I think it really looked great. I am a huge fan of using beams of light both as a lighting design, and, in a way, as a scenic design, so I really liked the way the LD used the set to create every look.
I have to say, I am not shy about my distaste for televised musicals. I feel that the format of television is antithetical to the enjoyment of live theater, and thus have never been very impressed or even interested in these productions. That being said, I have to say that Jesus Christ Superstar was heads and shoulders above any of the other "live" musicals I have seen, due mostly to the impressive production design (lighting in particular) and the good performances. Also, the way in which the event was filmed was more self aware than other tv musicals in that they did not try to hard to make it look like a real theater show. In fact, they leaned into the flexibility of television, making shots and angles that would be impossible in a real live theatrical production. So I applaud JCS for nearly refuting my distaste for these "live" shows, but I will not admit defeat yet.
Honestly, I am not a fan of this format at all. It takes away the values of both theatre and television. To me, theatre is so powerful because there is a direct connection between the performer and audience. The performer is able to feed off of the crowd and vice versa. Alternatively, television and film's strength lies in its ability to tell a story through selective and smart editing. A live musical takes away both of these virtues. With that said, I fully believe that the people who work on these tv musicals are wonderful talented as shown by Al Gurdon's lighting design. He is able to create such beautiful looks that complements the scenery. In much the same vein, the performers were amazing. I think that JCS was able to be the most successful rendition of this format because the musical itself stems across multiple genres so it is not a long stretch for it to do so in a different way. However, I believe in the power of live performances and, though I can artistically appreciate JCS live, I will never be convinced that tv musicals is a good idea.
I understand the the idea behind television musicals, and but I think the issue comes in when they try to make it a live TV show, rather than a musical. I think Jesus Christ Superstar worked because it was in one space and felt like a musical that had been filmed rather than a musical packaged for television. The National Theater has a program where they they film one of their productions and send it to theaters around the world. At home, the local movie theater shows these productions and I love going to see them. To me JCS felt closer to the way that the National Theater treats its productions. While it impossible to replace live performance also think that there is value in being able to see a closeup of an actor's face in a theatrical performance. In the past it was not done well, but JCS and The National theater show that it can be done well if it is treated as a theatrical production.
I have a single piece of criticism to say about Al Gurdon's lighting design for this show: TOO MUCH STROBE OH MY GOD STOP WITH THE STROBE. I get that Jesus Christ Superstar was a subversive rock opera that came out and was successful in a time when rock operas weren't a thing, but there are ways to instill subversiveness and edginess without a million flashes going on and instead by actually having a cohesive design. This also applied to the costumes in the show. I thought the costumes for some characters like Caiaphus or the king, played by Alice Cooper, were absolutely stunning, but they totally clashed with the rest of the entire cast. It seemed like the costume designer was trying to mix west side story, togas, and a futuristic post-apocalypse bit by bit, rather than making a cohesive and inclusive design. And don't even get me started on Sara Bareilles's dress that looks like it was bought at Macy's.
The lighting design of Jesus Christ Superstar was wonderful. The lighting really sold the story and made the atmosphere do 180s in some situations. The way that it interacted with the set was particularly stunning. Especially at the end when John Legend is carried up and away on the larger than life cross made of light. I was absolutely breathless when I saw that happen. The shadows that were cast on all of the stone and rough surfaces made me really see the vision of ancient Jerusalem. Once again, during the scene where Jesus is judged, the square drop spots on all of the judges were stunning. The feeling of isolation that it created made it clear just how alone Jesus felt at the time. I must say that I was happily surprised at how good this show was and I attribute a lot of that to the lighting design.
The most incredible thing about the lighting in this show is how it interacts with the scenic elements. These photos are particularly inspiring right now, as I am working on designing lighting for Arcade for Susan’s Basic Design class. How the light seems to play with the scenery, how it creates shadows and filters through holes in the set, it is very engaging and calls attention to lighting that is not usually given. The freshman DP class was watching Jesus Christ Superstar while running Rube that day, so I did not fully absorb much of it at all. I was taking note of the lighting when I was watching though. The lighting in this show was very over-the-top. There were many moments where I was somewhat confused as to the color choices and the extravagance of the lighting. I took the lighting in this show to be a design that would look super incredible in pictures but maybe be a little too much for the show itself.
This final still from Jesus Christ Superstar Live where the lighting design created a cross with the large and blocked set pieces is really the only thing I paid attention to throughout all of the short clips that I saw while half watching this televised musical. In all, I have a lot against televised theatrical productions because of how far away they stray from the reasons theatre is so great. When you televise a musical or other theatre production, you take away the human to human contact that theatre encompasses and tells stories through. Most of the televised musicals I have tried to watch like Grease or Sound of Music, I hoped that they might be heightened by their design elements, and even then most of those elements often fall flat as well. In Jesus Christ Superstar, though the lighting might have been impressive, it did not heighten the show overall. I do agree with Truly though, that the scenic and lighting elements worked well together by producing shapes that would not have showed up without one of those two elements. I hope that in the future, these televised musicals pay more attention to design, and that somehow they come closer to "real theatre" on TV.
As I said in an earlier comment, I am not a fan of these live TV musical marriages that seem to pop up with casts that are designed specifically to increase viewership by pulling in people who are usually turned away at the idea of watching a musical. My issues with losing the essences of theatre and TV aside, I think that the quality of these productions are out of this world. The funding they have access to, in tandem with the designers they hire, result in some really incredible productions. The ability of the camera to place the audience in the exact line of sight that allows us to see the design in the way in which it was intended to be seen is a rarity in theatre, so having the opportunity to have that experience in this is really cool. Overall, I think that the design quality of this performance was above any of the others I have seen, and I am interested in seeing if this is the new standard, or if we will, unfortunately, slip backwards to where we were.
I have seen at least five different productions of JCS around the world, but this new NBC Live is definitely my favorite. Indisputably, it is marvelously-done and legendary in JCS's production history. Months ago before the Live, I saw the model of the set design of it on Instagram. Literally, the design stunned me even it was just a model. The perfect combination of scaffolding and aged murals created a mesmerizing sense of an alternate reality. Also, the strong contrast between the shiny new scaffolding and the ruined-looking walls reminds me of the religious conflict in the musical. When I finally saw the Live production on TV, my mind was blown off. I realized that not a single live musical production I have seen before can compare to this one. The lighting design was absolutely magnificent and powerful. When the light went through the scaffolding, it almost created an illuminated texture in the air. In all, the scenography of this production really stole my heart. It must be an unforgettable experience to work in this kind of production.
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