Sky Arts : Jesus Christ Superstar ( John Legend and Alice Cooper)

EricTheWeary

To be fair to Sky Arts they are pulling a few new things out of the box in the run up to Christmas. Tonight ( thurs 23/12),rather than their normal endless recycling of low budget documentaries and Andre Rieu concerts they have JC Superstar with Legend as JC and Alice Cooper as Herod from 2018. 
Not necessarily my kind of thing but I'll try to dip in just for curiosity value. I've never seen any version of this although it does seem to be the most legitimately 'rock' of anything that Lloyd Webber ad Tim Rice ever did. 


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Whitecat

Is the same production otherwise as the one that had Tim Minchin in the London/UK touring version?

EricTheWeary

Whitecat said:

Is the same production otherwise as the one that had Tim Minchin in the London/UK touring version?

I'm not sure to what extent this is the whole musical or a concert of the songs ( so minus any acting or dancing). I think it was originally recorded as a special for a US TV network so probably was more of a one off. 

Caffeine_Vampire

Mrs V and I shall check out the Judas Coop. Thanks for the tip.

Whitecat

EricTheWeary said:

Whitecat said:

Is the same production otherwise as the one that had Tim Minchin in the London/UK touring version?

I'm not sure to what extent this is the whole musical or a concert of the songs ( so minus any acting or dancing). I think it was originally recorded as a special for a US TV network so probably was more of a one off. 

Ah ok - there was a filmed version of the actual show (in London) that had Tim Minchin as Judas and it was rife with autotune... production/performance was otherwise great but it was difficult to listen to!

axisus

I love the JCS soundtrack, always have.

I thought that the John Legend one was a superb rendition to be honest. The set is really cool, and the vibe is superb. Lots of great people in the roles, a lot going on on stage all the time, band up on the scaffolding etc. The one letdown for me was that John L can't hit the high note in Gethsemane, which is kind of critical. Still, everyone comes a bit short once you have heard Steve Balsamo sing it ....

As always, the best role in the production is Judas, and the guy in the production (Brandon Victor Dixon) nails it. 

EricTheWeary

I watched a little bit of it. I couldn’t really tell what they were singing half the time so I had no idea what was going on but certainly an ambitious bit of staging. Alice Cooper sounded like Alice Cooper so if he was auto tuned it was at least done some with some subtlety. 

Philly_Q

I think I'll give this a miss, seeing as John Legend in acting mode single-handedly ruined La La Land, which I otherwise quite enjoyed.

EricTheWeary

Philly_Q said:

I think I'll give this a miss, seeing as John Legend in acting mode single-handedly ruined La La Land, which I otherwise quite enjoyed.

I think I watched about ten minutes of La La Land, just couldn't get into it. I think I just like old Hollywood musicals that remind me of my parents and grandparents, anything made from about 1970 onward doesn't really work for me. 

JezWynd

axisus said:

I love the JCS soundtrack, always have.

I thought that the John Legend one was a superb rendition to be honest. The set is really cool, and the vibe is superb. Lots of great people in the roles, a lot going on on stage all the time, band up on the scaffolding etc. The one letdown for me was that John L can't hit the high note in Gethsemane, which is kind of critical. Still, everyone comes a bit short once you have heard Steve Balsamo sing it ....

As always, the best role in the production is Judas, and the guy in the production (Brandon Victor Dixon) nails it. 

Did you think so? I watched a couple of minutes, it was all I could bear. I love the original LP version for all sorts of reasons - the orchestration and arrangement, Alan Spenner's bass, Gillan as Jesus, but above all Murray Head as Judas. Set against that version, what I saw on TV was a poor shadow.

axisus

JezWynd said:

axisus said:

I love the JCS soundtrack, always have.

I thought that the John Legend one was a superb rendition to be honest. The set is really cool, and the vibe is superb. Lots of great people in the roles, a lot going on on stage all the time, band up on the scaffolding etc. The one letdown for me was that John L can't hit the high note in Gethsemane, which is kind of critical. Still, everyone comes a bit short once you have heard Steve Balsamo sing it ....

As always, the best role in the production is Judas, and the guy in the production (Brandon Victor Dixon) nails it. 

Did you think so? I watched a couple of minutes, it was all I could bear. I love the original LP version for all sorts of reasons - the orchestration and arrangement, Alan Spenner's bass, Gillan as Jesus, but above all Murray Head as Judas. Set against that version, what I saw on TV was a poor shadow.

In all fairness, Murray Head was awesome on the original soundtrack. I also like Jerome Pradon in the part for the film. It's just a good role for a singer I guess.