Jesus Christ Superstar

Ever since I was able to appreciate music, Andrew Lloyd Webber has been a part of my life. Both my Mom and my Grandma owned copies of The Premiere Collection: The Best of Andrew Lloyd Webber CD and I had quite a few favorite songs on it that I listened to over and over again.

“The Phantom of the Opera” was a great way to begin my listening session, followed by “Take That Look Off Your Face” (from Tell Me On A Sunday) and “All I Ask of You” (from The Phantom of the Opera). Then I listened to my three favorite songs on the CD: “Don’t Cry For Me Argentina” (from Evita), “Magical Mr. Mistoffelees” (from Cats), and “Superstar” (from Jesus Christ Superstar).

There were more songs on the CD that I loved, but those are the ones that I really remember listening to. And to this day, Evita and Jesus Christ Superstar are my ultimate favorite Andrew Lloyd Webber albums.

I have seen the 1996 Evita movie with Madonna and Antonio Banderas more times than I can count. It is in my top five favorite movies of all time. It sits behind Field of Dreams, Cocktail, and The Sting, and is just in front of Top Gun. And although I have also seen Evita as a live performance at Plays In The Park in Edison, NJ in summer of 2000, I enjoy the movie so much more.

However, the one live performance that I had been wanting to see was Jesus Christ Superstar. I starting listening to the album when I was in 9th grade. I rode the bus to school and I brought along my discman with the two CDs. I could picture every song, but I wanted to see it performed, instead of just forming scenes in my head.

When Netflix started out, and DVDs by mail were the way to go, I rented the 1973 movie Jesus Christ Superstar and I was so disappointed. I had such high hopes for this musical that I thought I loved so much, but I could not get into this movie. I was so broken hearted – how could I love the music so much, but not like the movie?

Thankfully I did not give up though, and I found another version of Jesus Christ Superstar on DVD. This one was a film of the 2000 performance staring Glenn Carter as Jesus and Jérôme Pradon as Judas. I fell back in love! I am so glad that I gave the musical another chance.

I mean, who wouldn’t be enthralled by a modern story of Holy Week where props included guns instead of the swords that were carried in 33 A.D.

From there, I watched another filmed live performance – this time the 2012 Live Studio Tour, starring Ben Forster as Jesus, Tim Minchin as Judas, and Melanie C (from the Spice Girls) as Mary Magdalane. This one took me a few times to get into because of ‘dreadlock Judas’ as I nicknamed the antagonist. However, this version ended up becoming very close in rank to the 2000 version that I love.

And this King Herod was even more so over-the-top than the one in the 2000 performance. (You can read my comparison of King Herold in Jesus Christ Superstar to King George in Hamilton here.)

Then I saw that John Legend would be staring as Jesus on live TV on Easter Sunday 2018 – I knew I had to watch it. With Alice Cooper as King Herod? I’m in!

Thankfully I DVR’ed it as well, because I watched it two more times that week. And I asked for the DVD of the performance for Christmas 2018, and it was in my stocking!

In fall of 2019, I was scrolling through Facebook and Playhouse Square announced that the 50th Anniversary Tour of Jesus Christ Superstar would be coming to Cleveland in March of 2020. Tickets to that show were all that I wanted for Christmas that year. I could not think of a better way to honor my Mom and my Grandmother, for the love of Andrew Lloyd Webber that they instilled in me. I needed to go to see that show.

My wife and I have a tradition on Christmas Eve – as we lay down in bed we tell each other what we hope to see under the tree in the morning. I know it sounds materialistic, but it is just something we have always done. Yes, as an outsider, I could see how it could lead to hurt feelings if one person did not get what the other one wished for, but we never saw it like that. To us, it was just a conversation with each other before we went to bed.

However, that night, I could not even look at my wife (fiancé at the time). I hid my face in the pillows as I told her how much I wanted the Jesus Christ Superstar tickets. I didn’t want her to see the look in my eyes, because I really didn’t think she would have bought them for me.

And so, on Christmas morning I tried to keep the wanting of the tickets out of my head as I opened presents from my wife, and her Mom and Step-Dad. Yes, I understand I was in my 30s, and I should not have felt that selfish over a Christmas present, but it was all I truly wanted.

This irony is not lost on me – being materialistic, wanting tickets to see the story of Holy Week, wanting a gift so bad for Christmas, the day that I should be celebrating Christ’s birth.

I know this may paint me in a bad light, but my wife says that when I want something so much, I am so passionate about it. That is how she knows what I truly want versus just wanting something in the moment.

We got through all the presents and I honestly had done well keeping my mind off the tickets. I was enjoying watching everyone open their presents, and I had given my wife a very special present that I had put a lot of thought into that year.

A few months prior to Christmas, I saw that my wife’s favorite band was going to play locally, at MGM Northfield Park. However, I did not want to just give her a print out of the e-tickets, so I got creative.

I bought her a bunch of different little gifts, wrapped them individually, numbered them in the order I wanted her to open them, put them all in a box, and then I wrote out a poem that I put in the top of the box before I wrapped the box as well. The poem read:

You can count this as a single present,
Or six littles plus THE one.
But you must open them in order,
Or this wouldn’t be much fun.
Hopefully you’re not upset,
It’s not what you thought it would be.
I want to know you’re thinking, 
After you open each, your thoughts tell me. 
I could have bought you anything, 
The selection is just too vast.
Hopefully you figure this puzzle out,
Before you open up your last.

She ‘thought’ the gift would be Cleveland Cavaliers tickets, since I had been buying her tickets every Christmas prior. However, I had to mix it up a bit this year.

The gifts that she opened in order were:

1. A polished, etched stone with “I love you to the moon and back” – to represent rock for rock band
2. A roll of pennies – to represent gambling in the penny slots at the casino
3. Poker chips – to represent a casino
4. Carolina Panthers deck of cards – her favorite football team, cards again representing a casino
5. A pack of hair elastic bands – to represent a hair band
6. A toy shark – to represent a “Great White” shark

After she opened that last little gift, I had her guess what all of that represented. She got the Great White tickets part, but she (and her Mom) thought I was taking her to Reno, Nevada. Close, but sadly no. Just a local venue, not Reno.

Once I confirmed that we were going to see Great White, she didn’t care that it wasn’t in Reno. She was ecstatic that I remembered her favorite band and bought tickets for us to go.

As I watched the excitement on her face, I could honestly say that Jesus Christ Superstar was the last thing on my mind. I made my wife’s Christmas and that made my day.

Once the presents were all opened, we exchanged cards. I opened the one from my wife, and out fell two tickets to the March 29th showing of Jesus Christ Superstar. Now it was my turn to be so excited, I even started tearing up. Of course I wrapped my wife in a hug and she said, “You thought I didn’t get them? I know how much you wanted them”.

The date was set – March 29th 2020! Only three months away…

March 2020 – need I say more?

In the meantime, the Great White show was coming up first. That date was February 22nd, 2020.

Thankfully, we were able to see Great White just as Covid-19 was becoming a common topic, but by the time the middle of March rolled around, everything got shut down – including Playhouse Square.

The mass gathering ban went into effect around March 12th – only seventeen days before the show. I was crushed! Heartbroken!

Thankfully Playhouse Square announced that Jesus Christ Superstar was postponed, not canceled like a lot of other shows that were scheduled that spring and summer. So I kept a watchful eye on Playhouse Square’s website. No joke, I probably checked it at least 3-5 times a week!

On June 15th, 2020, Playhouse Square announced new dated for the show – August 2021! Over a year away, but at least it was finally scheduled!

That night I started pestering my wife to check her email to see if her tickets were updated – of course not that fast. Every week or so I mentioned the tickets and the new date, waiting on her to receive updated information yet. And nothing came.

Before I knew it, the August 2021 show was postponed again because the COVID cases were rising again.

When February 2022 was announced as the new dated, I pestered my wife again – getting her to check her emails every few days. Finally I got fed up waiting and I called the place she purchased the tickets from – of course they only saw the August date. I told them Playhouse Square announced that it was in February, not August. But Secure Box Office hadn’t received notice yet. I told them to check the website, and sure enough they finally acknowledged the date change.

But it became another waiting game…

Wicked came to Playhouse Square in late December 2021, and a few of the performances got canceled due to COVID issues. I was counting down the days until February 20th, trying not to get too excited but freaking out at the possibility that a cancelation may happen.

Around February 1st, my wife received an email saying the new tickets were going to be printed and shipped since the original tickets would no longer scan-in at the theater. It was getting closer and that was a good sign.

February 13th came, a week from the show’s date and we still hadn’t received the tickets. I emailed them from her account and they replied back with a generic “100% guarantee” email, but there was also a tracking number. I put it into UPS and it said a label was created.

However, four days later, Thursday the 17th, there still was not any movement on the tickets. I reached out to Secure Box Office, asking about the tickets. At first I got the generic message again about 100% guarantee or our money back. I told them I did not want our money back, I wanted to go to the show. They promised I would have the tickets by Sunday. I was freaking out, in tears, because there was still no movement from UPS on the package.

Friday morning came, and still no movement. I was planning on calling about the tickets as soon as I got home from work. But around 12:45pm I was forwarded an email from my wife with our digital tickets! What a relief!

Deep down I knew that the 100% guarantee was there, but I still could not help freaking out.

Tickets were downloaded, the show was two days away, everything could calm down now, right? Nope, now I started stressing out on where to park. I knew that I wanted to park in the Playhouse Square Garage, and although I used to work in Downtown Cleveland and I knew exactly where Playhouse Square is located, I had never parked in that garage before. Apparently there was a walkway to the theater, but again, I had never done that, so I had no idea what to do, or where to go, so I started stressing out all over again.

Nine days shy of twenty-three months later and the day of the show was finally here!!! We dressed up more than we usually did on Sundays (I even put on mascara!), and we were on our way, planning to get to Cleveland an hour before the show. Once I got off of I-77 into Downtown Cleveland, I followed my GPS to the deck. We passed a few parking lots that seemed to be close to the theater, so my wife told me to turn around and just park in the lot. As I was circling the block to get back to the lot, we found the entrance to the deck I actually wanted – my GPS was just taking me a different way than I should have went. Twenty bucks paid, and we were told to park anywhere on the second floor. Up the ramp we went and I saw the entrance to the Playhouse Square walkway.

We found a close parking spot, tight like any Cleveland spot, but there was still enough room to get out of our car. Thankfully there were other people who also decided to get to Playhouse Square early, that we were able to follow them through the walkway from the deck to the Connor Palace Theater.

I am not sure why I stress out all of the time, but now I will be more confident next time we visit Playhouse Square.

Even though the main doors open an hour before the show, the seating doors open 30 minutes before the show, so to kill time, we visited the souvenir booth and I bought a Jesus Christ Superstar label pin to add to my collection, as well as a set of 4 guitar picks. I am not sure what I will do with the guitar picks, but maybe one day I will buy a shadow box and put my tickets, playbill, pin, and guitar picks in it.

The show was incredible. The actors, the choreography, special effects – everything was so well rehearsed and professional. The only drawback for me personally was since I knew the songs and plot so well, I sometimes got caught up in expecting what was coming next instead of just sitting back and watching it play out in front of me. It was almost like I had seen it hundreds of times, and this was a re-watch.

On the main stage, there was a large cross that the actors walked on. When the opening number began, I was trying to figure out how the cross would move and stand up.

Spoiler alert: It didn’t.

But I feel like I spent too much time thinking about the trivial stuff and I should have just watched it all play out.

As an adult, I have been to four live performances – Movin’ Out, The Lion King, Dirty Dancing, and now Jesus Christ Superstar. Out of the previous three, I think The Lion King would have been my favorite. The artistry and choreography was fantastic, and very well done. However, Jesus Christ Superstar won out on my all-time favorite performances that I saw as an adult.

My all-time favorite live performance is The Secret Garden, which I saw in 1993 with my family. It is very sentimental to me because it was the last live performance I saw with my Mom before she passed away.

I am so thankful that my Mom, my Grandmother, and my family instilled in me a love of theater. I would love to say that I grew up in theater, but I should actually say that I grew up going to the theater. I am so lucky that I was able to see a Broadway show almost every Easter when I was younger. I am also very lucky that we had a local theater near us that performed Broadway hits with local actors every summer in my hometown.

I was actually in one school play. When I was in 4th grade my elementary school put on an original play. I believe that it was titled “A Trip to Lunar City”, and it was about a group of students visiting the moon.

And apparently, during auditions, I had the loudest mouth (shocker!), so I was cast as the narrator.

Because of all this theater influence on me as I was growing up, I now have a huge appreciation for the arts, and I know that this will not be the last time I go to Playhouse Square.

Next show I want to see live? Hamilton or Rent!