Jesus Christ OK Star Newcastle Theatre Royal 15/09/15

I am grateful to friend who organises theatre trips for a gaggle of gay men- despite the world of hassle that almost always accompanies these acts. They tend to be musicals, which are not my thing but he invited me to join them to see Jesus Christ Superstar and, as I used to love the film and the recording I had, I said yes. Later I found it clashed with a class I was supposed to be teaching, but that got cancelled at the last minute so off I went.

The show was NEARLY there! 

It was very rushed at the beginning- songs melding into each other in a seeming effort to get through them rather than to actually tell the story, very little scene-setting.

Before I went in I said that for me, the show hinged on Judas and Caiphas in terms of the quality of the voices. The actor playing Judas was overpowered by the part, the "Superstar" number was quite painful! Caiphas was played by a black actor Cavan Cornwall whose Basso Profundo voice was like being bathed in melting maximum cocoa content chocolate. He seemed to be channelling Xerxes from 'The 300', but that sort of worked too. The tenor playing Annas was also good, it was a treat whenever the priests were singing. The guy playing Jesus... "meh" but its a bit of a crap part to sing anyway, the ex 'X Factor' contestant playing Mary Magdalene was O..K... but she had this VERY annoying way of over-pronouncing her words like someone who had been given vicious elocution lessons.

I was not simply comparing it to the film and to recordings I had when I was a teen, the piece is fiendishly difficult to sing and it wasn't always in the grasp of these performers. The dance numbers such as the scene with Simon the Zealot were a TEENSE embarrassing -but just a teense, I watched them and thought "Those people are so British!"

The band was good. I enjoyed the show, but... "meh".

Cavin Cornwall