Superstar playing superstar: hosanna for Cynthia Erivo

“All your followers are blind! Too much heaven on their minds.” Judas’s lyric in the opening number of Jesus Christ Superstar sums up the problem harrying its latest production. The musical, with music by Andrew Lloyd Webber and lyrics by Tim Rice, is set to play in concert form at Los Angeles’s Hollywood Bowl this summer. Hot off the heels of her career defining performance in Wicked, West End and Broadway veteran Cynthia Erivo has been confirmed to play the titular role. Although, controversy has welled up to what seems like a logical and professional choice for such a vocally demanding part requiring a certain amount of star power. The thought of a Black queer woman playing Jesus Christ is too radical for some, slamming the casting as “blasphemous” and “disrespectful”. The richest man in the world, Elon Musk, scorned on X “Imagine doing this to any other religion”, suggesting that Erivo playing Christ was not just a bad casting choice but a sectarian hate message. One pastor went so far as to claim that “With all due respect, and humbly submitted, Cynthia Erivo is too BALD, BROWN, and BI to play Jesus”. Discourse from Christian groups over depictions of the son of god is not a new story, but I think that this created problem over Erivo’s casting reveals a deeper cultural malaise. It is a thick cloud which has been hovering over this work from it’s inception. By looking at this problem, it is clear that Erivo is not only an apt choice for the lead role; her casting is in tune and in time with the show itself.

In the history of this show, Christian groups and others have slammed the idea of a musical using the old passion play narrative, not the actual work on stage.

Premiering on broadway fifty years ago, Jesus Christ Superstar has always had the heat for fiery contention. The entire premise of the show, the passion story presented in a secular fashion with a sympathetic eye to the doomed Judas and Jesus, has been stirring bible bashing hearts and minds for over half a century. Productions have pushed the boundaries, from having a decaying corpse of Christ as the entire set to psychedelic light shows to filming in the specific biblical sites for the movie. The director of the Hollywood Bowl production, Sergio Trujillo, directed a radical revival set in apartheid South Africa. Even in my hometown of Belfast, protests against stage productions of JCS have been as recent as 2019. The worry has always seemed to be around not so much the substance of the show, but it’s rock opera style. Those who, for example, called in bomb threats to rock radio stations that played the cast album on loop because it was so popular at the time, likely never listened to one song. If they did, they might catch it’s the commentary of placing the man over the myth. The characters of Judas and Jesus are troubled by a similar uneasy question, sung in titular number, “Jesus Christ. Superstar! Do you think your what we say you are?” A conflict between the perception of a person and who they really are. It is important to note that the musical stays on the straight narrow biblical lines. The tale, from Jesus and his followers entering Jerusalem to the Crucifixion, is accurate to the New Testament. In the history of this show, Christian groups and others have slammed the idea of a musical using the old passion play narrative, not the actual work on stage.

Both the original Broadway cast and the film adaptation featured a cast which was radically diverse for the 1970s, with both having African American actors playing Judas.

The problem around Cynthia Erivo’s casting stinks of the same ignorance. Erivo, who faced a similar backlash when she was first announced to play Elephaba, is undoubtedly one of the most talented musical theatre performers in the world right now. Regardless of her gender or ethnicity, she is the whole package for a forte, powerful leading role. Whether some people’s opposition is more sexist or racist is debatable. It is telling though that no similar reaction was had when John Legend played Jesus in a live television production for NBC. In these kind of arguments, irony is inescapable. Both the original Broadway cast and the film adaptation featured a cast which was radically diverse for the 1970s, with both having African American actors playing Judas.

Beyond the online row, two stories stick out to me surrounding this issue. First, an offhand remark that Erivo gave about sneaking in baptist gospel songs whilst in her roman catholic choir. Second, a touching story of Ted Neeley, who as one of the first people to play Jesus on Broadway, invited an angry protestor into the theatre as his guest. After watching the show, he took his entire church to see it in New York. Hopefully, in the short run of this concert led by a superstar, a similar story can be told.