Interesting to hear your take. I've been off-book on this musical for 25 years, and it was quite a revelation when my college roommate first played it for me. I was taken aback by the ending, too, just because I had been raised in Fishtian churches and expected a Big Showstopping Resurrection. But, finally, the point of the musical, I'm pretty confident in pronouncing, was to provide a mortal biography of a man whose existence has, for better or more often for worse, had enormous consequences for all of Western civilization. This isn't in the slightest about miracles or anything supernatural. This is about the last days of the ministry of Yeshua of Nazareth, his philosophies and principles, his doubts and human weaknesses, and particularly how his radicalism got him killed by the establishment. (That this musical was the product of an extremely anti-establishment era is no coincidence.) So: no rolled stone, no ascension, none of that hocus-pocus. 'Father, into Thy hands I commend my spirit,' he says, and the play is done.
I'm not sure what you mean by 'disjointed', but I find the entire trail before Pilate sequence (from 'And so the king is once again my guest... ' to 'Die if you want to, you innocent puppet!') is a tight, wonderful piece of opera, incorporating little themelets you've been hearing since the overture and (at least if done properly) growing both in emotional (and physical) intensity and in the complexity of the philosophical exchange.
Basically, I love the show and wish to defend it. :) Sorry you didn't like it better.
All that said: I was afraid Neeley would be way too friggin' old for the part.
Simon really does have the best song in Act I, huh? He's a highlight in the movie too.
I'm not sure what you mean by 'disjointed', but I find the entire trail before Pilate sequence (from 'And so the king is once again my guest... ' to 'Die if you want to, you innocent puppet!') is a tight, wonderful piece of opera, incorporating little themelets you've been hearing since the overture and (at least if done properly) growing both in emotional (and physical) intensity and in the complexity of the philosophical exchange.
Basically, I love the show and wish to defend it. :) Sorry you didn't like it better.
All that said: I was afraid Neeley would be way too friggin' old for the part.
Simon really does have the best song in Act I, huh? He's a highlight in the movie too.
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