JESUS CHRIST AT THE CASINO

All I could think when seeing Jesus Christ Superstar on Sunday 16 February was Christ throwing the money lenders out of the Temple. Would he really have approved of (1) a musical about his life and (2) its presentation at Crown Perth Theatre which is situated in the middle of a Casino?

Before I start whinging, I do have to express gratitude towards John Frost, a musical producer for decades, for the fact that I'm still on his opening night list. When I said that I couldn't attend the Melbourne opening because I was now living in Perth I was instantly invited to the local opening.

We dropped Sebastian at the airport for his return flight to Adelaide and headed to the casino where I had my first meltdown. I drove into a car park only to discover that it was going to cost me $60. I refuse to hand that amount of money over to a casino so much to Susan's embarrassment and the irritation of the cars that had started to queue behind me, I backed out and after some driving around, found a more distant free car park.

It was odd to be at an Opening Night where I knew absolutely no-one. But comforting in some way because I didn't have to lie in response to someone asking what I thought. But I'll tell you....

I’d forgotten that Judas is a much more interesting character than Jesus in this musical but both guys had stella voices and performed with vigour. Jimmy Barnes’s daughter was badly cast in my view - she looked like and performed like a frumpy housewife. Good voice but no stage charisma. And the choreography drove me mad. Lots of waving and bending. What was the pink haired Puck-type figure who kept appearing in every scene doing? And was Herod really that camp in the original? However it wasn’t until we got to the meat of the matter that I was really turned off. All that violence - beating, whipping with gold dust, crown of thorns being forced in - it felt like torture porn. Yes, I know it's in the Bible but do I really need to see it on stage?

I couldn’t bring myself to stand at the end because of the … hmm, was it the production or the musical itself? Some good songs but not enough to make me enjoy the experience. I’m glad I didn’t have to pay $150 per ticket. Sorry John....


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