Jesus Christ Superstar

This Andrew Lloyd Webber and Tim Rice musical started out as a rock opera concept album before being turned into a stage musical and a film. The story is based on the last week of Jesus's life and the struggles between Jesus and Judas. It begins with the preparation for the arrival of Jesus and his disciples in Jerusalem and ends with the crucifixion. This has always been a challenging musical to perform as it is sung-through, with no spoken dialogue and requires two male leads with incredible ranges to their voices.

Right from the beginning Andrew Lee showed that he easily had the wide-ranging vocal talents to capture the part of the tortured Judas Iscariot. A powerful performance with an edge of disdain at times for Jesus and others in the cast.

Some very interesting characterisations and good singing throughout really brought the whole piece to life. Great contributions were seen and heard from Simon (Daniel Cartwright) Annas (Josh Radcliffe) and Pontius Pilate (Jon Ranwell). King Herod (Ivor Farley) and his dancers brought flamboyancy and fun with an accomplished version of Herod’s song.

It was clear that an incredible amount of work has gone into the singing, harmonies and choreography and congratulations must be given to the production team of Del Thomas (Director) Sebastian Sing (Assistant Director/ Choreographer) and Peter England (Musical Director) for their vision and dedication to producing such a good show. It was a shame that there was a lack of attention to detail in some places with wrong and inconsistent foot wear, especially on the men, and personally I didn’t think that Mary needed the jewelry but these were minor distractions that didn’t take too much away from what was an excellent performance from the chorus as a whole.

Sarah Ford as Mary Magdalene sang beautifully in her first show on the amateur stage, a definite asset to the society. Her rendition of “I don’t know how to love him” and “can we start again please” along with Peter (Jacob Hallett) and the cast were delivered with great emotion and feeling.

However, the performance of the night was by Andrew Dunn who gave us an extremely moving portrayal of Jesus Christ with a voice that lit up the songs with colour and feeling. His singing in Gethsemane was stunning but this was to be matched by acting as he carried the cross through the audience to the crucifixion.  With tears in his eyes he drew every member of the audience in until the cross was lifted into place on the stage, the whole image being enhanced by stunning lighting which created a magnificent ending to the show.

It was great to see MCMTC taking on this challenge and performing so well, giving their audience a roller coaster of emotions that I am sure they will remember. Well done on an excellent show and thanks for all your kindness and hospitality. Can’t wait to get the sand between my toes when we see South Pacific

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