A couple of weeks ago John asked me to keep Friday evening 26th November free for a date night. I didn’t know if he had anything planned or was just wanting to do something together. The evening came and I was told to change and wrap up warm (snow is on it’s way!!). I was suspecting a walk to the Fishes pub for a drink. But then we ate at town at Giraffe where he presented me with tickets to see Jesus Christ Superstar. I had seen about a month ago there was a production of it on at the Playhouse, but had totally forgotten about it – so if John hadn’t been so very thoughtful then I would have missed out. I think he realised how very delighted I was.
I had always felt a little… surprised? ashamed? that I had never seen this Andrew Lloyd Weber musical. It had the impression for me of being ‘one of the big ones’ and there had been productions of it in my theatre going years but somehow I had never been. So I was highly excited about putting that right now.
I thought I only knew 2-3 songs and I think it turned out there were 4 I recognised. It’s termed a ‘rock opera’. We were in row D and we joked that it wasn’t up to our standards of being on the front row like at Glee, but would you believe it – row D was the front row as the orchestra pit was taking up the first three!!!! And we literally able to look straight into the pit, so we got a really good sense of the rock opera instruments! And the music was very well played. 
I better explain my preconceptions of amateur theatre. My most recent experience (perhaps only non-uni experience) was the Malvern Operatic Society production of South Pacific a few summers ago. I wasn’t a particular fan of South Pacific before I went. My only experience of it was songs that had appeared in best of musicals shows I had seen and I hadn’t warmed to them. And I had started to watch the DVD that I own at least once but had never yet (and still not) completed it. And my Malvern theatre experience… I realised when JCS started that one thing I remembered from Malvern, was the large cast. It seemed like they wanted to get as many people involved as possible. Which I think is admirable. But did seem to give it a certain air… I am being highly hypocritical here, as I really do love big cast productions, and I would really rather love to be in an amateur (or professional!) production myself, however small the part! The other thing about the South Pacific production that I just can’t but fail to mention… It appears (though I am yet to clarify this) that in the second half
Just going through Honeybourne station. Am typing this on the train. Isn’t that the most wonderful station name. A dog has just started making the most terrible yelping barking noises – where ever did it come form?!)
there is a scene which involves a power cut. Well in the production I saw, the lights all did go out and the performers carried on and about 5 seconds later, the script indicated there had been a power cut and the characters came on with torches and carried on. But then a man came on from the side of the stage and announced that there had been a power cut – was hard to tell if he was an actor or not. Then he asked us all to leave and so a little surprised and reluctant the audience started to stand up and walk out and home. And that’s all I know about it!
Well I am very pleased to report that my opinions of am dram have been revised as I thought last night was fabulous. The acting and singing seemed pretty good to me, though I totally struggle to assess those with any authority. What I feel more confident to comment with my opinion on is staging and choreography and is it I suppose stage direction in general. The use of staging was really good – especially for an amateur production – though of course you now know to take my views on am dram with a pinch! They had a sort of tiered bleachers thing going on, the middle of which frequently pulled aside for people to enter and exit through. they also had very good noose and hanging scene that came down and crucifix too. Though I was a little anxious that something had gone wrong with the crucifix as there seemed to be a lot of men in black at the back of the stage working on it – and I felt if you were going to have technical difficulties you really didn’t want to have them with a crucifixion. But it all seemed to work out fine, so maybe it was all intentional! There were lots of numbers that had a lot of the cast on stage – maybe around 30 people. And the choreography of them seemed great. Although there were bits I found very uncomfortable. The scene with lepers covered in bandages who were crawling across stage and reaching out to the audience creeped me out greatly – as I guess it was meant to. And the suicide hanging similarly. And I guess the crucifixion too. Also do need to mention that the actress playing Mary Magdalene was my favourite. I loved her performance and singing – probably because she sounded just like my CD of ‘I don’t know how to love him’.
It also gave John and I an opportunity to talk about religion. Being my usual gullible self I was inclined to take ALW’s slant as ‘gospel’ so it was good to be able to ask John what his take on events was. I didn’t know beforehand what the storyline of the musical was, and it turned out to be the week leading up to the crucifixion, without anything about the resurrection. Although if I hadn’t read the leaflet beforehand, I don’t think I would have known in the first half that that is what the storyline was as it seemed more a collection of sung performances than something connected by a story thread.
So my final conclusions: I had a great evening and thought it was a tremendous production and am so pleased to have seen it. The general musical itself, I don’t think is going to be added to my top 10 but there are several songs that I have since found myself singing so a few more favourites I reckon. Thank you John.
How bizarre - I am just uploading this post onto blog from word now I am off the train and just adding photos. I am listening to Elaine Paige on Sunday on iplayer and she has just said Jesus Christ Superstar is one of her favourites and started playing 'Everything's Alright'. And mid-type, John walked in - couldn't have been better!
