Word: macdermots
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Music by Galt MacDermot...
Music by Galt MacDermot...
...Bible for inspiration, and he found it in the greatest story ever told. Jesus Christ Superstar was an instant hit, first as a single pop song, then as a double album, finally as a 1971 stage show in New York. It was not the first rock musical -- Galt MacDermot's Hair preceded it, as did the Who's "rock opera" Tommy -- but its impact was extraordinary. Lloyd Webber hated Director Tom O'Horgan's lurid, heavenzapoppin' staging, which featured a transvestite Herod, Judas in silver briefs and Christ emerging from a huge chalice clad in a $20,000 glittering robe...
...HUMAN COMEDY. William Saroyan's novel of homespun Americana packed little wallop as the book for this pop cantata, but the profligate melodiousness of Galt MacDermot's score and a dozen engaging actors just about sent audiences humming and floating out of the theater...
...composer needs to be more careful about prosody: misplaced accents make some lines sound as if they were translated from Czech. He also overuses the device of building scenes from a solo or duet into a chorus. But MacDermot's invention, which puts unexpected topspin on his melodies, his deft handling of a small pit orchestra and, at bottom, his appealing portrayal of homey virtues all add up to an evening that stubbornly sticks in the memory's ear. Which, of course, is what real operas are supposed to do. -By Michael Walsh