We passed a very nice weekend in the company of Kris' sister, Tiffany, who visited us on her way from her home in Southern California to a week of work in Seattle, Washington. Kris and Tiff spent time cementing their sisterly bond, and they both made my life as a cripple much easier, for which I'm appreciative.
The highlight of the weekend was our trip to Portland on Saturday. Kris had, with the foresight that only she possesses, ordered tickets for the matinee performance of Jesus Christ Superstar.
The show was outstanding, with fun modern set designs and costumes (the apostles as graffiti artists! the pharisees as riot police!), solid performances (when the understudy for Judas was announced the crowd voiced its disappointment, but in the end we gave him a standing ovation), and dazzling production numbers (the temple as a stock market complete with stock tickers, Herod as a pimpish impresario surrounded by floozies). It was one of the best stage productions I've ever seen, certainly better than the mediocre The Phantom of the Opera from last year.
After the show, we celebrated Kris' upcoming birthday with our annual dinner at Benihana. Yum! We finished the evening with a quick jaunt to Powells where I picked up some Edward Abbey and more Proustiana.
As a child, I was aware of Jesus Christ Superstar on some level, but I was not familiar with it. I have a vague recollection that it was looked on as blasphemous by the Mormon church, and it wasn't something that I had an opportunity to see or hear.
(I can remember, at eight-years-old, being mortified while scanning the movie ads, as I did every Sunday afternoon and discovering the George Burns/John Denver movie Oh, God! Taking the Lord's name in vain was one of those sins that I could not even contemplate as a kid, and here was a movie that dared to do so in its title. Blasphemy!)
I first met Tiffany in the summer of 1989 when she came to visit Kris. She brought with her Sanderling (Kris' snake) and some cassette tapes, among which was the Jesus Christ Superstar soundtrack. I'd entered my agnostic stage by then, and was willing to listen to the tape. It wasn't what I expected.
To begin with, it was not blasphemous. Quite the contrary: the lyrics and the performances seemed almost reverent at times. It's true that the musical attempted to humanize Jesus by modernizing his story to a degree, and that there are points were Andrew Lloyd Webber and Tim Rice ask some pointed questions, but for the most part, this is a production that, while intentionally ambiguous, retains a great deal of reverence for its subject matter.
Consider this passage where Jesus remonstrates Caiaphus, and then the crowd rejoices:
Jesus:I could actually quote the lyrics forever. There's some great stuff here. (I believe it's Tim Rice's lyrics and not Andrew Lloyd Webber's music that make this show.) In the interest of space, however, I'll pass for now.
Why waste your breath moaning at the crowd?
Nothing can be done to stop the shouting
If every tongue were still the noise would still continue
The rocks and stones themselves would start to sing!Crowd (with Jesus):
Hosanna, Heysanna, Sanna, Sanna, Ho
Sanna, Hey Sanna, Hosanna
Hey JC, JC, won't you fight me?
Sanna, Hosanna, Hey Superstar!
There's a question as to whether Jesus Christ Superstar is a Broadway musical or a rock opera. The debate hinges on the definition of opera.
A popular, but incorrect, attempt to differentiate opera from musical theater goes something like this:
In opera everything is sung; if there's spoken dialogue it's musical theater.Tell that to Mozart.
A slightly less-restrictive defintition is:
If the music is an integral part of the dramatic action, it is an opera. If the music can be removed without impacting the storyline, it is musical theater.Well, maybe, yet I'd argue that the songs are an integral part of West Side Story, yet I'd never claim that it was an opera. Nor Into the Woods.
The most pragmatic definition I could find states:
Actually Broadway musicals and operas are very similar. In fact, many consider the Broadway musical as America's version of or contribution to opera. Purists say the difference between Broadway and opera is that Broadway contains spoken dialogue and opera is completely sung through. However, there are many operas that have spoken dialogue (Mozart's The Magic Flute for example) and there are musicals that are completely sung through (Andrew Lloyd Webber's The Phantom of the Opera for example). Now what primarily remains the biggest distinction between Broadway and opera is that in a Broadway musical all the singers are electronically amplified with microphones, while opera singers are not amplified. And to many, the magic of opera is just that, hearing such glorious sounds and volume being produced solely by a human being.Yet, I feel that even this definition misses the point to some degree.
The problem is that people are attempting to differentiate opera from musical theater based on a formal level. This is difficult to do. It makes more sense to me to differentiate the two based on their historical development (though this, too, leads to difficulty defining many contemporary shows.)
On a basic level, opera is a grand theatrical form developed in Europe which utilizes particular elements (specific vocal techniques, subject matter, etc.). Musical theater is an American form, derived in parts from the light opera of Gilbert and Sullivan, from minstrel shows and vaudeville acts, and from popular song. (This is a simplistic definition, but I'm not about to write a huge entry explaining the history of the two forms; if you're interested, your public library will have several books on the subject.)
When one looks at the two forms from a historical perspective rather than a formal perspective, one can avoid the mistake of classifying, say, Mamma Mia! as opera instead of musical theater.
On this day at foldedspace.org
2005 — Vignettes No long story today, but several (amusing) little anecdotes.
2004 — American Dream This move is humbling. I am awed that Kris and I have reached a place in our life where we can afford to buy this beautiful house. Also: we are hoarders of food.
2002 — The Holy Ratio Two parts fish sauce to one part lime juice.
My parents had the Jesus Christ Superstar soundtrack on 8-track! I believe it was the only 8-track they owned, actually.
But I wasn't really aware of it until after Jr. High, where my fantastic 'General Music Class' watched Godspell, which is (if you can believe it) basically an adaptation of JCS.
This class was probably one of the most amazing classes I ever had. The teacher, whose name I've forgotten, exposed us to musicals (Godspell, Camelot), opera (Carmen), Prairie Home Companion (on record!), and lots of classical stuff.
And he wasn't pretentious. He liked rock and whatnot.
I remember it fairly vividly, and got a lot out of it.
As for Oh, God!, I loved that as a kid. I knew John Denver from both the Muppets, and because my mom was a John Denver fanatic in the late 70s. George Burns was, well, George Burns. He was generically famous.
I think the film is quite close to my own personal approach to religion, insofar as I believe in religion, which I for the most part do not. But if there is a Supreme Being of some sort, I'd like to think that he's like the George Burns character in Oh, God.
In fact, even today, that remains one of my favorite portrayals of the Supreme Being on film. My absolute favorite is Ralph Richardson in Time Bandits.
God: "You might as well ask why we have to have evil!"
Kevin: "Yes. Why do we have to have evil?"
God: "Ah...." Long pause. "I think it has something to do with free will".
I also didn't see The Last Temptation of Christ until well after the fact, and I quite enjoyed it, too, both for it's content, and for the general historical tone it took.
I think it's interesting that the Musical, one of the more 'pure' American art forms, is largely represented by cartoons nowadays. Well, cartoons and Muppet films. Yes, there are broadway musicals, but I suspect that the films have a wider overall audience nowadays than the stage productions do.