The songwriting power of Tim Rice and Andrew Lloyd Weber may have birthed Joseph’s Technicolor threads first, but it was their concept album Jesus Christ Superstar that made them musical kings among men. Debuting in 1970, the JC double records topped the US pop charts the following year and were quickly converted into a musical which received five Tony nominations. In 1973, Norman Jewison transformed it into the 8th highest grossing film of the year, and even in 2012, it won HuffPost’s competition for “Best Jesus Film” (sorry, Mel Gibson; not sorry). But if the religious zealots had their way, JCS would have been razed, but the overly sensitive worshipful had less power back then (no Internets) and so this lush rock masterpiece not only survived, but is now, over 40 years later, too classic to be shutdown. Amen.
Fridays-Sundays. Starts: July 10. Continues through Aug. 22, 2015
