I just watched the film version of Jesus Christ Superstar for the first time and it's FABULOUS!

[PangolinPie]

It's intensely 70s, camp, Jesus is a tiny wee poppet of a man, and the songs are just great. It's free on Prime and has cheered me right up. I'm not religious btw and don't even normally like musicals but this was brilliant!

@LadyGardenersQuestionTime

And what exactly do you mean by “70’s”??? Are you LAUGHING and POINTING??? Don’t you know that for those of us who were young in the 70s this was the height of hippy cool?

I could recite/sing the whole thing end to end. Fabulous piece of work.

I love the idea of the actors turning up in a bus in their very 70s outfits and setting up for the play.

One of my favourite songs is Could we start again please?

And I love the intensity of the dancing in Simon Zeolates

It was on in Portugal a few days ago and I was really excited, but they just did not get it

@cakeorwine

My favourite too. Just love it.

And they somehow got tanks into it as well

I saw the stage show during Holy Week in my teens, so the late 70s I think. Loved it.

God I love it. The priest with the insanely deep voice makes me come over all unnecessary.

I used to force my sister to practise the Simon Zealotes dance when we were about 8 and 10. I wanted to be the blonde one. Although now I just wonder how they did all that with no bra.

Thought your 2nd post was a Monty Python reference then OP

m.youtube.com/watch?v=CJ6WSjtmxNM

Can I just post Steve Balsamo’s version of Gethsemane. Truly extraordinary.

I saw a version in manchester years ago where the staging was if it were a reality show. Actors with cameras streaming onto big screens, almost a reflection of the media hysteria and persecution. It was really thought provoking and utterly incredible.

I saw the original London production in 1972 with Paul Nicholas as Jesus. Think I may still have the programme/brochure somewhere.

Love love love this musical - must have seen it five or six times on stage.

Oh, brilliant. Thanks for the heads up. Will go and watch that now.
Wonderful music in it.

Thanks for saying it's on Prime! Watching a version of JCS is my usual Easter tradition

I'm old and I saw it in the 70s and I remember the song - I think it was Pontius Pilate singing - So you're Jesus Christ, you're the great Jesus Christ, prove to me that you're no fool, walk across my swimming pool etc.

@upinaballoon

I'm old and I saw it in the 70s and I remember the song - I think it was Pontius Pilate singing - So you're Jesus Christ, you're the great Jesus Christ, prove to me that you're no fool, walk across my swimming pool etc.

That was Herod. I first saw it on stage in London in 1974, then saw the film in early 75.

Thank you so much for posting that it's on Prime - it seemed to be on tv every year when I was very much younger and I absolutely love it. I think the film is my favourite version, its so much of it's time.

Oh my goodness, how have I never seen this before?!! Thanks for posting that it's currently on Prime @PangolinPie.

So 70s; so camp (those Roman guards with YMCA style helmets and vests). Amazing performances from the actors playing Mary and Judas. Love the little poppet Jesus, and a very slight touch of Matt Lucas with the first close up shot of King Herod.

I saw the Steve Balsamo version on stage in the late 90s - absolutely sublime.

And two years ago, during lockdown, the Shows Must Go On YouTube channel showed the Manchester Arena version with Tim Minchin as Judas and Mel C as Mary. I loved that version.

Then last year I caught the version with Alice Cooper as King Herod on TV. I wanted to go to bed as I was tired, but just had to stay up to watch.

fb.watch/cs7rYcwHvr/

So that's three Easters in a row I've watched a version of JC Superstar. I'm definitely going to keep it as a tradition.

There's also the version with Rik Mayall as Herod - lots of leather in that one

Loved the 70s version. So colourful and full of life, gorgeous fashion and locations!

@lucysnowe2

Yeah I love it, it's grate!

lol at 'tiny wee poppet of a man'. He can wail though.

Does anyone else find the Pharisees strangely hot??

Yes! The Pharisees are really hot, and I like their guitar riff. Pontius Pilate and Herod are so camp, bloody brilliant

@PAFMO

For some bizarre reason none of us can remember it was one of about 3 LPs we had at university in the 80s and we used to get pissed and sing along to it whether it was Easter or not.

I'll leave you with an Eats, Shoots, Leaves conundrum which amused us then.

Yvonne Elliman: "I've had so many men before, in oh so many ways, he's just one more"

Does she mean:
A) she's had them on the dining table, swinging from the chandeliers and on the local merry-go-round
B) He's just the same as all the others

We all rather hoped it was A (Joy of Sex Nazareth style- they all had the beards after all) but fear it may just have been B.

My assumption was always A, as she's explicitly portrayed as a prostitute...

Can I just post Steve Balsamo’s version of Gethsemane. Truly extraordinary.

I also saw this (a few times) in the 90s - fantastic cast! No other has ever lived up to it but I did like the Regents Park interpretation. Joanna Ampil has the most beautiful voice. I was lucky enough to see her as Kim in Miss Saigon after Superstar closed. The 90s was definitely a golden era for West End theatre

Of course it’s A. She’s a prostitute.

Thank you, Sueelleker, for putting me right on 'not Pontius, but Herod'. I can see his face, now.

I like Colm Wilkinson doing Gesthemane as well

I thought that lyric, with its double meaning, was always intended to be deliberately ambiguous.