Last night I went to see Mercy High Schools' production of Jesus Christ Superstar. The son of one of my friends from Glenwood Gardens had the title role, so a group of us decided to go out to dinner together then see the show.
I've seen my share of HS Drama from all ends of the spectrum, from cringe inducing, to practically professional. JCS is an ambitious show for a HS to stage. The music isn't easy and since it is more Opera than Musical it's a lot of singing your young actors to carry off. It is also an odd show for an all girls HS since the leads are male. But the drama director at Mercy is known for pushing that sort of boundary and changing sex of characters to give the young women in her program the chance to do challenging meaty parts.
The thing that really intrigued me when I heard about the show wasn't that some of the male roles were going to be played by women, it was that the show was going to be done in a Steampunk setting. Since I'm a big Steampunk fan this was a real hook for me.
I was impressed.
The minimal dark pipe, gear, and boiler plate set worked. The amime-esque black, silver and gray costumed apostles were funky, half punk-rock half steampunk, the Romans in their bright red Eisenhower Jackets looked vaguely like the evil aliens for the original 1980's V miniseries and the mostly female chorus as the proletariat in work boots, rolled up sleeves and cloth caps looked like an army of Rosie the Riveters.
The show had some of the same issues that plague most HS Musicals, but it was very well done especially considering Mercy is not a Drama magnet school. All the main characters were on top of the material. I've seen college and community theater productions where the actors didn't have the stage presents of the young men who played Jesus and Judas in this production. The guy who did Caiaphas and the young woman who did Annas were also standouts. Herod as an flamboyant Elton John style celeb was brilliant.
On the downside the chorus was so big that they were sometimes almost tripping over each other in the big production numbers. I know this is common in HS theater because they want to give as many kids as possible parts in the production. My problem was that it was hard to understand what they were singing. They needed to work on projection or they needed to be miked better. Someone should have told the dance chorus that smiling like you were in the baton twirling talent segment of the Miss the America pageant was not the right emotion for any part of this musical. They had the moves but not the emotional impact they should have had. I see that as a direction not production issue.
All things considered this was a great production, and I'm sorry I didn't see it until the last night because I would have like to have talked it up to people. Not that I think they needed PR. I think they had sell out houses for the whole run.
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