Jesus Christ Superstar

Firstly can I thank KMA for agreeing to me reviewing their show while Mike is on holiday. He will be sorry he missed one of his favourite shows. I have seen many professional productions of this show but never an amateur one. There was nothing amateur about this production. Using a minimalist set of rostra and scaffolding to provide different levels for the singers and band to work on Gary Gibb, director, ensured that all the action could be seen when all the company were on stage. The challenge for the director and Ross Hamilton, musical director, is to bring something new to a well known story and to keep the audience engaged throughout. This they did. They were ably supported by their principals. Darren Philip Johnson gave a powerful and emotional performance as Jesus along with Mia Oudeh’s quiet but equally emotional performance as Mary Magdalene. Steven Smyth as Judas ensured the audience felt the struggles of his character in betraying Jesus. Unusually the part of Annas was played by a woman, Pauline McGeevor. It worked. Gary Gibb’s beautiful rich vocal tones in the role of Caiaphas brought a certain menace to the production. The songs from this show are well known and a particular favourite of this reviewer is Pilate’s Dream. Mark Grieve as Pontias Pilate gave the audience a brief respite from the high power, high volume singing in the first half with a lovely rendition of this song. A highlight of the second half is King Herod’s Song. Frazer McLaughlan played it for all its worth with great choreography from Lynn Gibb. Simon and Peter played by Peter Tomassi and Sean Mitchell respectively and other minor roles played by members of the company did nothing to weaken the overall performance. Judas’ suicide and Jesus’ crucifixion were handled well with the use of lighting to leave the audience to fill in the visuals. The band deserves particular mention with their high energy playing and once revealed at the end of the show on the top section of the rostra they were allowed to play the audience out and leave us physically and emotionally exhausted. Well done all involved.

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