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I went to see the touring of Jesus Christ Superstar in Durham NC yesterday. This is the production starring Ted Neeley - Jesus from the 1973 film. It was a great show well-staged, acted and sung with one glaring exception - Ted Neeley. He was way too old for the role, has lost his already dubious voice and had absolutely no sense of timing. The also had him wandering the stage talking with God which made him look nothing so much as senile. The actor playing Judas was signing autographs after the show and it was sorely tempting to ask him how it felt to be carrying the old man in the role.

Oh, sorry, thought this was going to be a political thread.

Sorry, we now return you to your regularly scheduled thread...

I was not all that impressed with Mr. Neeley in his performance in the movie when he was in his "prime", so I doubt I'd much care for him now. Maybe it was because it was a movie that he felt the need to be so understated, rather than use a "stage" voice, but I thought his voice was pretty weak. It is, after all, a ROCK musical. Then again, compared to the masterful Ian Gillan of Deep Purple on the original recording, Neeley was gonna come up short anyway.

Lady G, KT and I went to see the production in Vegas with Sebastian "Skid Row" Bach do the lead several years ago and really enjoyed it.

Sir_Galahad wrote:Lady G, KT and I went to see the production in Vegas with Sebastian "Skid Row" Bach do the lead several years ago and really enjoyed it.

That's nothing. You should have seen the production with me as King Herod back in 1996!

franktangredi wrote:

Sir_Galahad wrote:Lady G, KT and I went to see the production in Vegas with Sebastian "Skid Row" Bach do the lead several years ago and really enjoyed it.

That's nothing. You should have seen the production with me as King Herod back in 1996!

Hubba, hubba!

franktangredi wrote:

Sir_Galahad wrote:Lady G, KT and I went to see the production in Vegas with Sebastian "Skid Row" Bach do the lead several years ago and really enjoyed it.

That's nothing. You should have seen the production with me as King Herod back in 1996!

<LOL> Is that really you??

I remember seeing the original Broadway run - my sister was friends with a cast member and was able to get us 5th row center orchestra seats, which was a real treat since we had played the original album (not the cast recording, but the album that was, IIRC, what started the whole thing) endlessly, and a whole group of us knew the music by heart. A great production.

I'm also reminded of a story told by Norman Jewison when he offered the part of King Herod to Josh Mostel, suppossedly Zero Mostel, still bitter about not being chosen for Jewison's film version of Fiddler on the Roof, asked why he Jewision didn't ask Topol's son to play the role.

---Jay

Sir_Galahad wrote:

franktangredi wrote:

Sir_Galahad wrote:Lady G, KT and I went to see the production in Vegas with Sebastian "Skid Row" Bach do the lead several years ago and really enjoyed it.

That's nothing. You should have seen the production with me as King Herod back in 1996!

<LOL> Is that really you??

What, you didn't recognize me?

Yes, it's me. Swear to JC.

it makes me crazy when men play roles that are too old for them. Don't write letters, I'm sure it happens with women too, I just can't remember any.

Darren McGavin played a great "the old man" in Christmas Story, but good grief! -- he was 25 years too old for the part. Same with Morgan Freeman as Alex Cross. Tom Clancy said that he preferred Alec Baldwin to Harrison Ford as Jack Ryan because of their ages. I didn't like Patriot Games anyway; I don't remember what I thought of Ford in the role.