Superstar
Today I went to see the musical Jesus Christ Superstar (by Tim Rice and Andrew Lloyd Webber, aka the God of Music), and it was brilliant. Although my ideal cast is the 1996 West End cast with Steve Balsamo and Zubin Varla, I found myself quite fond of many of the performers- my favorites were Simon and Annas, who I thought were perfect for their parts. Jesus, though...
Back in the seventies, there was a movie made of Jesus Christ Superstar. The general concessus is that it sucked. A lot. Jesus was played by Ted Neeley.
Today, Jesus was played by that same Ted Neeley. He's sixty-four. If he was ever really good, he certainly isn't now. My group all agreed he was by far the worst of the cast, and when I got home I had to start listening to the soothing CD of the 1996 cast. Steve Balsamo has a range of over three octaves, so he kinda kicks a whole bucha ass. His voice is my ideal male voice, and Neeley just... wasn't. At all.
Judas was good, though. Not as good as Zubin, but Corey Glover was definately good- he'd have to be, seeing as his band Living Color has won some Grammys. Mary was good, Caiaphas was good, Pilate was good... Herod was freaking hillarious, even if he was nothing like I imagined him to be... The priests were great, and the apostles were good too. Peter was definately a great singer.
During the overture, though, they had some funky slow-mo fighting. It was kinda funny, but mostly disturbing.
Overall, though, the play was great and I'm freakishly happy I saw it.