Jesus Christ Superstar Live In Concert (2018)

IMDb plot summary: A live musical recounting the final days of Jesus Christ and those around him.

Directed by David Leveaux and Alex Rudzinski. Stars Sara Bareilles, Alice Cooper, and Ben Daniels.

Jesus Christ Superstar Live in Concert is, well, a live in concert version of the Andrew Lloyd Webber/Tim Rice musical. This one stars John Legend as Jesus, Brandon Victor Dixon as judas, and Sara Bareilles as Mary Magdalene. It's a rock musical retelling of the final days of Jesus life, focusing heavily on the perspective of Judas and the religious leaders who are plotting to take Jesus down. Jesus Christ Superstar is maybe my least favorite of Webber's big hits. It has a few really incredible musical motifs and then a lot of nothing around it. That can probably be said of many of his shows, but this is an especially uncompelling story for me, which is maybe a little weird given that I am a very Christian religious person... But there's just not a lot of about this version of the story that resonates with me. Jesus just seems perpetually whiny, so while I love the song "Gethsemane" in isolation, it's pretty annoying in context. Judas, however, also doesn't come across as a compelling character, and Mary Magdalene just does nothing at all. In this particular performance, I like Dixon's and Bareilles' performances. Bareilles manages to bring at least some sincerity to her characters perpetual passiveness, and Dixon is a heck of a vocalist. John Legend is not an actor and does not sell his character at all. Jesus Christ Superstar will forever work better for me as a short highlights album then as a full-fledged production, and this particular production doesn't do anything to change my mind on that. 

How it entered my Flickchart:

🎥 Jesus Christ Superstar Live in Concert (2018)

📊 Ranked #1799/4031 on my Flickchart

🎯 Flickscore™: 56

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