www.vulture.com: NBC’s live production of Jesus Christ Superstar was pitched to audiences as a “Live in Concert” version, which led some to expect a straightforward performance of the songs. It turned out to be an inventively staged production of Andrew Lloyd Webber and Tim Rice’s rock-and-roll gospel, so passionately imagined that it set a new standard for this type of event.
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The thing about live television broadcasts of musicals is that it has to walk the fine line between amazing theatre and amazing television and cinematography, aside from a couple random shots that were weird, I think this production was highly successful for what it was. Everything from the lighting, the costumes, and the scenic elements itself were filled with highly evident motifs. While we were watching it midst rube run throughs, we were very intrigued and confused with their use of scarf choreography throughout the show, then in the end they all laid down their white scarves on the stage, which signified the end of their allegiance. The lashes scene was also highly artistically sound with some of the coolest choreography I've seen. Most importantly, the ending was pure integration of television ability and theatrical spectacle that you can't find anywhere else. Watching the entire stage open and take Jesus into the heavens should be an experience that all people see, I was perplexed.
I find musicals on live TV to be a bit off putting. I feel like in trying to encapsulate the artistic qualities of both mediums, we end up with kind of a strange product that is equal parts overwhelming and just confusing. As far as the ones I have seen however, I think that the cast and design team of Jesus Christ Superstar did a fantastic job with what they were trying to accomplish. I saw bits and pieces of the broadcast, as we were working on Rube with it up on a computer screen in the room, but the clips and images I have seen since them are something that I found to be really aesthetically and artistically pleasing. I think that they were trying to accomplish a spectacle from the beginning, and that is what they really ended up with. Every scene seemed to be a different wow moment. While that is cool, I think that it loses the spirit of theatre a bit because I’m not sure how much of the story came through in all of the noise coming from the money behind the production.
Although I didn’t get to watch the whole thing and all the way through, I was able to see a fair amount of Jesus Christ Superstar being live broadcasted on NBC. What I saw was as described in this article. It was spectacular with beautifully done performance, scenery, lighting, costumes, and more. Phenomenal. The camera angles and shots were also well done and definitely aided and created that atmosphere and take on the production that they were trying to achieve. I really do think this was well done and has set a new high for television broadcasting live theatrical musicals. What is so great is that they don’t have to be done in a theatre so the space becomes limitless as the audience is the camera and that camera can hide or show whatever they choose. It was a fantastic production and I hope as more of these appear on television they will reach or surpass this level of creation.
Unfortunately I did not get to watch all of the Jesus Crist Super Star Live in concert special on Easter, I only got to see bits and pieces of it (we were working on Rube while it was going on). But, from what I did see, it was very interesting. The sheer size of the production was astronomical. I think size is one of the elements of design that really had to adapt when they created this new genre of live television broadcasted theater. Theater is getting bigger and bigger, but I have never seen a theatrical set as large as the one for this special, so this is one of the many elements that was brought on by the circumstance of the television audience. Another thing that was brought on by the broadcasted medium of this show was how the audience didn’t get to choose what they looked at and how they looked at it, that was chosen by the camera angles. I really wasn’t a fan of this because sometimes the camera angles were just weird and it takes away the audience’s freedom to choose which is something I love about live theater.
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