Holy rock ’n’ roller Jesus Christ Superstar is born again BY BILL RODRIGUEZ

When Jesus Christ Superstar hits the Providence Performing Arts Center January 14 through 16, it will be bringing along a lot more than just trailers of sets and costumes. It has its own baggage.

By the time the rock opera by Andrew Lloyd Webber and Tim Rice landed on the stage in 1971, it was already controversial. Christian conservatives were poised to condemn the humanizing premise, never mind the treatment, as blasphemous. A well-received concept album had come out the year before, attempting to generate buzz and financial backing. In the Broadway debut, born-again veteran Jeffrey Fenholt as Jesus and Ben Vereen as Judas wowed the critics, but not in the good sense. (Former hoofer Vereen’s singing struck the Time reviewer as "Sammy Davis Jr. imitating Chuck Berry.")

Trinity Rep’s own Kevin Moriarty came on board three years ago, tapped by the producers to reconceive the show for a new traveling tour. He had been assistant director for the 2000 Broadway revival, directed by Gale Edwards, which reportedly lost $7 million. Road reviews have been mixed, but Superstar still has its fans and has gained more, with Moriarty and his production designers providing visual impact at every emotional moment in its re-envisioning. Banks of light glare at us over "Roman" soldiers dressed like Gaza checkpoint guards. Go-go dancers in red vinyl mini-skirts torment Jesus as he drags his cross. The temple displays stock exchange numbers and the names of Satan-coached companies like Tyco and Enron.

As for any religious controversy, by now Jesus Christ Superstar is taken for granted, as much a part of pop-culture heritage as heavy metal or drive-in church services. Hardcore appreciators — witness the Superstar fan sites — have been joined by Christian music listeners.

Moriarty is known to Trinity audiences most recently as director of Richard II, which opened the sold-out Henriad. The Trinity Conservatory graduate also heads the MFA directing program of the Trinity Rep/Brown consortium and is artistic director of the Hangar Theater in Ithaca, New York.

The director spoke recently about Jesus Christ Superstar.

Q: I imagine that a director would rub his hands at the opportunity to re-envision Superstar freshly.

A: When I was young, I actually went out and bought the album, the two-record set. And I used to dance around to it in my bedroom all the time — even before I understood what the story was or what they were singing about at times.

It is an opera that has removed almost all of the recitatives, it just goes from song to song to song. Whereas most through-sung musicals have connecting material, either dialogue or singing, that take you through plot and character. Superstar just dispenses with that and jumps right from big emotional moment to big emotional moment.

Q: Back when Superstar was new, and I assume to some extent since then, there were protests from religious groups over Jesus being portrayed as too human. What would you say to them?

A: Well, it’s interesting. We have had very, very little protest — none to speak of other than an occasional letter or comment in the three years that we’ve been out on the road.

Q: Well, this is three decades after the initial controversy.

A: Right. I think that we’ve changed now as a country. Rather than audience members perceiving Jesus Christ Superstar as an assault on their beliefs, the opposite seems to be the case. We have a huge number of audience members in any town that we go to who are profoundly religious, from various faiths, who love the show. I have two aunts who are nuns — I grew up in a somewhat conservative Catholic family — and they’re in the center of the audience for the show.

Thirty years ago, if you’d never heard of the show and somebody just quoted a couple of lyrics or told you, "Oh, King Herod’s going to show up and sing a crazy song," or "Mary Magdalene’s going to sing about being confused about how to love Jesus," it would be easy to think that it was just a sophomoric bad boy stunt. Then when you actually hear the score as a whole — which most of us have done by this point in our lives — I think you realize that Andrew’s heart is really in the piece. Though he was really young — he and Tim were just 19 and 21 when they wrote it — it has the same kind of belief or earnestness that a Handel oratorio does. You can feel his heart in it.

Q: You’re also artistic director of an upstate New York theater and in charge of the Trinity/Consortium MFA directing program. Kevin, are you secretly triplets?

A: (Laughs) I ask myself that all the time. The students and staff here at the theater at Trinity Rep and my fabulous staff back at the Hangar in Ithaca — when I walk in the door, they always say, "When are you leaving?" I certainly have a lot of frequent flier miles right now — that’s the good thing.