It seems most appropriate to me to begin this review with a quote from a star of the Sixties and Seventies, Frank Zappa, who specialized mainly in stretching the musical boundaries of rock and roll, in 1987:
"One thing that did happen during the 60's was, some music of an unusual or experimental nature did get recorded and did get released. Now look at who the executives were in those companies at those times: *not* hip young guys. These were cigar-chomping old guys who looked at the product that came and said, 'I don't know. Who knows what it is? Record it, stick it out. If it sells, alright!' We were better off with those guys than we are now with the supposedly hip young executives, y'know, who are making the decisions of what people should see and hear in the marketplace. The young guys are more conservative, and more dangerous to the art form, than the old guys with the cigars ever were!"
It was in that environment of "who knows?!" that "Jesus Christ Superstar," which likewise stretched the limits of rock, was first born. When it initially came about, people were ill-prepared at best for its success... who expected that an ad-hoc recording that was most noteworthy prior to its release for Tim Rice and Andrew Lloyd Webber's ingenuity in fitting a symphony orchestra and several rock bands and choirs into a single studio would become one of the biggest rock operas of all time? It was only in such an environment that radio exposure could create a cult-like following for an opera that had never been staged. It was only in this era that a long-playing record could draw condemnation from religious circles. (Interesting that in those very early days, it seemed that it was those with doubts about their faith who were most critical. Those confident in their beliefs weren't threatened by a retelling of the oldest story in circulation.)
And then, after several innovative stagings on Broadway, in the West End, and throughout the world, the call went out over the airwaves: "And now... the film." Even by today's standards, Oscar-winning director Norman Jewison's 1973 movie was a pretty remarkable achievement. Shot almost entirely in Israel, in and among the ruins of the cities that may have been known to the genuine article, the film -- among other details -- was the last movie in history to be shot with Todd AO, an extremely high definition widescreen format. The cinematography and the use of a technology pioneered for the sweeping historical epics of the 1950's gave the movie an expansive feel and captured the vastness of the deserts and the foreboding mountainous landscapes. It also launched the careers of Ted Neeley and Carl Anderson, who had understudied the lead roles in the New York stage production, and were both nominated for 1974 Golden Globe Awards for their portrayals of Jesus and Judas. Small wonder that the film was the eighth highest grossing movie of that year. (To think that today we must turn to television as a primary source of anything even remotely resembling "movie musical" programming...)
But to many fans of the film, there had always been mysteries about the making of the film. It's not as though it was lost to history, by any means, but assuredly shrouded in mystique. In 2013, for the film's 40th anniversary, producer Frank Munoz decided to change all that, reuniting members of the film's original cast for a pair of screenings (of a restored and remastered edition of the film) in California that grew into a nationwide tour, culminating in Frank's film directorial debut, "Superstars," a documentary equally about the making of the original film itself and about another "making of," giving a backstage glimpse at a reunion of all of the film's surviving leads and its director in a showing at the Beekman Theatre in NYC (the pre-show Q&A is a special feature on the DVD edition).
For the casual JCS fan, and even for experts, this film is well worth the viewing; there are so many fascinating anecdotes throughout, largely in fresh interviews with the cast, that I can only recommend you buy the movie and dive into it to see what you find. I guarantee you will come away with information you didn't know before. The soundtrack is sadly bereft of JCS music, but it more than makes up for it by incorporating terrific material from Ted Neeley's recent EP "Rock Opera," including previously unreleased duets with Yvonne Elliman and the late Carl Anderson. (Longtime fans familiar with Ted's post-JCS solo album "1974 A.D." will also love the cameo from "Spin Away" on the DVD menu.) It encouraged me to go back and learn more about what the cast was up to in the years since, and I'm really glad I did. I hope you're inspired to check it out, too!
