Perspective: Christian Musicals with Miraculous Staying Power

LOS ANGELES TIMES | ENTERTAINMENT
By Larry Stempel, Special to the Los Angeles Times

"JESUS CHRIST SUPERSTAR": Paul Nolan in the rock-godish title role. (Stratford Shakespeare Festival)

Before "Godspell" and "Jesus Christ Superstar" first hit off-Broadway and Broadway, respectively, 40 years ago — the first like an ember that caught fire, the other like an explosion — who but the most prescient or devout would have laid odds on any musical that ended with a crucifixion? What helped create a climate conducive for religion to come out of the musical theater closet was the convergence in the 1960s of two cultural trends: the liberalizing spirit within Christendom in the wake of Vatican II, and the anti-Establishment fervor of the youth counterculture in the U.S. Can any musical created in response to such a time still speak to us today when what was once so fresh, indeed subversive, has become the very thing it sought to subvert? In this light the revivals of "Godspell" and "Jesus Christ Superstar" this season have two important tasks: making successes of these works once again, and making them speak to our time as wisely, or as tellingly, as "The Book of Mormon." [link]