Jesus Christ Superstar

Review: Moving performances in Jesus Christ Superstar

In her own words. Ed


Last week Christ the King College once again staged and performed another great show.

This time it was the Andrew Lloyd Weber and Tim Rice classic – Jesus Christ Superstar. The well-known rock musical follows the moving story of Jesus through the final weeks of his life and his betrayal by Judas. It encourages the audience to understand the feelings of Jesus, Judas, Mary and Peter as well as The Disciples.

In Christ the King’s production all the performers showed intense emotion. The characters were well cast, allowing each actor to demonstrate their strengths.

Jesus, played by Driscoll Green, had a strong voice and acted each scene with feeling and emotion. His companion, Mary, performed by Louise Ryan, was also very well played, with a soft voice that seemed to calm Jesus, Judas and indeed the audience, in times of trouble.

Moving performance
One of the highlights for me was the duet ‘Could we start again, please?’ between Mary and Peter, one of Jesus’ closest disciples. The duet takes place just after Jesus has been taken away. Peter was very well played by Polly Green and the two girl’s voices worked brilliantly together, inducing tears among the audience.

Megan Rogers played the angry Judas and the arguments between Jesus and Judas created great tension around the theatre.

Innovative staging
The staging was very clever, with the first act in set one area and the second act in another. This meant the actors were able to use the areas that best suited the scenes.

Caiaphas, the Jewish high priest who helped arrange Jesus’ death, was played by Reuben Brading-Cornish, and his rich, low voice echoed around the room. Unfortunately, due to some technical problems with the mics in the first act, it was sometimes difficult to hear certain voices over the band. However, by the second half, the mics were fixed and the sound was much clearer.

I’m looking forward to seeing what Christ the King College will tackle next.