Word: webber
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...notion of Christ as that willowy young man with the far-away look in his eyes, the meek but confident son of God who, disguised as Jesus, mild-mannered converter to a great Middle-Eastern religion, preaches a never-ending sermon for Love, God, and the Eternal Life. Webber and Rice fight the traditional characterization by being anti-traditional: they put Jesus (rather uncertainly) into the role of a mass-culture hero, make Judas a sort of cautious road-manager, cast Mary Magdalene as a groupie in love with Christ, and Simon Zelotes as a politico who wants...
...Nineteen Forty-One." a reference to the point in John's Gospel where the narrative describing the discovery of Christ's resurrection begins. But it has a few half-concealed implications that are wide-eyed blasphemy for those who see the Last Supper, for instance, as a sacred event. Webber and Rice, with a neat bit of circular logic and some imaginative rewriting, transform the Last Supper into an open fight between Jesus and Judas. While this goes on, the Apostles sit calmly by getting into their cups, oblivious of what is going on, singing a drunken ditty that gets...
...implication is that Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John were all hopelessly drunk at the Last Supper (and the overall implication that the Apostles were generally out of touch with what was going on) is very clearly blasphemous. Otherwise it's a needlessly clever justification for the liberties Webber and Rice take with a few scenes from the Gospels...
Whatever the reaction to Superstar may be, Webber and Rice have fused words and music into such a convincing narrative style that rock may never be quite the same again. Webber's clever sounds and rhythms (such as Latin, soft rock, ragtime, Prokofiev four-step) not only do not drown out Rice's words, but actually show an awareness of their syllabic structure. Just imagine, listening to rock and understanding the words too. The musical depiction of Christ (Ian Gillan) is far too neutral to capture either a man or a myth. But Mary Magdalene (Yvonne Elliman...
Superstar occupies the same assimilative position in the pop world that Ginastera's Don Rodrigo does in serious opera. Webber and Rice do not outdo the Beatles or the Rolling Stones or the Edwin Hawkins Singers, Prokofiev, Orff, Stravinsky or any other musical influence found in their work. But they have welded these borrowings into a considerable work that is their own. Tommy (TIME, June 22) was the first, flawed suggestion that rock could deal with a major subject on a broad symphonic or operatic scale. Superstar offers the first real proof. William Bender