THEATRE REVIEW: "Jesus Christ Superstar" at the La Jolla Playhouse (La Jolla, CA)

      In November of 2011, my dad and I saw a performance of the Stratford Shakespeare Festival Production of the Andrew Lloyd Webber / Tim Rice musical "Jesus Christ Superstar."  We saw it at the Weiss Theatre of the La Jolla Playhouse in La Jolla, California.  My dad was living in San Diego at the time, and before my Fall 2011 visit to see him. I checked to see if any shows were in town.   I thought the Stratford ShakespeareProduction of "Jesus Christ Superstar" would be a good idea because it was a pre-Broadway Production.  





     It was only the year before that I heard the album of "Jesus Christ Superstar" for the first time.  The original concept album was available for checkout at my local library.  I wasn't a fan of the album at first, but soon it grew on me.  Before I knew it, I was seeing a live production of the musical.  After the production finished its run at the Weiss Theatre, it opened at the Neil Simon Theatre as another Broadway Revival of "Jesus Christ Superstar" on March 22nd, 2012--after beginning previews on March 1st.  That might be why the production closed so quickly on Broadway--there had been so many revivals already.  Plus  the revival of "Evita" opened on Broadway in 2012 as well.  Neither production won the 2012 Tony Award for Best Revival of a Musical--both lost to the revival of "Porgy and Bess."   



     This was a good show, I thought.  Robert Brill was the scenic designer--and gave the production a rock concert feel to it.  After the show, I asked my dad if he thought the show would do well on Broadway.  He didn't think so because the show was sad.   That also could have been why the show didn't do well on Broadway.  Or maybe because the majority of the cast were transfers from the Stratford production up in Canada.  Tben again, it could be that this was just one of the Pre-Broadway productions I saw that just happened to become Broadway flops.  I still like my lyrics to "Hosanna" better than the originals... "Hosanna hey Sanna Sanna Sanna ho Sanna hey Sanna how Sanna... at J.C. Penny, I elbow many... as I try to get back... to the car..."  Take that, Tim Rice.












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