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★★★★
I was afraid every performance of Jesus Christ Superstar since 2025 might be held up against Cynthia Erivo and Adam Lambert’s high-profile three-day run at the Hollywood Bowl last year. I certainly had Erivo’s white-clad Jesus clambering up the stairs to her crucifixion looping in my mind when I skipped into the Hong Kong Cultural Centre, ready to rock some emotional damage. By the time I stepped out of the grand theatre, it was Javon King’s vocals that were firmly wormed into my eardrums.
For first-timers, Jesus Christ Superstar is a rock opera with music by Andrew Lloyd Webber and lyrics by Tim Rice, originally conceived as a concept album in 1970 which swiftly made its Broadway stage debut the following year. The musical is based on the Passion, or the period of time leading up to Jesus Christ’s death – but the twist is that it’s told through the eyes of Judas, the disciple who infamously betrays Jesus to his persecutors.
Certainly, Christians will find following the plot a much easier task than audiences who are not familiar with gospel stories, but the cast and crew are adamant that the show is a blank canvas that everyone can be touched by. There are always going to be viewers coming in with the preconception that Judas is the villain, but for Luke Street, who stars in this touring production as Jesus, the musical carries way more nuance than a pedagogical tale with clear-cut good and bad guys. “I think even if I was called Noah and [Judas] was called Michael, we’re still telling that story which everyone can relate to.”
Street’s Jesus is nothing like a god, and that’s the whole point. (Judas clearly talks about stripping away the myth from the man in his first number ‘Heaven On My Mind’.) The Jesus that we get to see onstage is overwhelmed, sometimes coy and almost shy, wearily indulgent of the antics around him as if A) he knows how the story ends anyway and B) he’s simply too tired to overextend his efforts. Millennials, this is our Jesus.
He’s at his most biblically accurate son-of-god persona in ‘Hosanna’, when Jesus and his followers arrive in Jerusalem to an exulting crowd, softly flexing his power at an annoyed high priest Caiaphas and reassuring his followers. This is the last time Jesus smiles in the musical. Street imbues his lead character with a vulnerability and charm that is hard to deny, from Jesus’ graciousness in the face of frankly stupid behaviour from his posse to his softest moments with Mary Magdalene.
By the time the man is overwhelmed by a crowd of lepers in ‘The Temple’ you get just how tiresome the burden of his fame must be. By the time the seminal ‘Gethsemane’ rolls around early in the second act, with Street belting out those climactic high cries in a heartrending journey through the five stages of grief, you’ve held your breath so much that you’re also tired and therefore fully understand why Jesus is willing to be killed just so it can all end.
Javon King is also a revelation as Judas, with fierce vibrant vocals that reverberate in your ears afterwards. He struts and prowls along the stage in turns, depending on whether he’s running through rapid-fire negotiations with his own psyche or sneering down his nose at Mary, but always tense, always moving, almost vibrating out of his skin. In many ways, Judas is the main character of Jesus Christ Superstar – he is the first narrating voice, he sets the plot of the entire musical in motion, he pokes holes in a situation that everyone else in the group seems happy to maintain, he takes (misjudged) action.
In a move that has annoyed hyper-religious types for over 50 years, this musical adds nuance and proper motive to Judas’ classic betrayal; he is a worrier who is trying to pull his friend out of a fame game that has seemingly blown way out of proportion. King is beautiful in this role, making *spoiler alert* Judas’ suicide all the more harrowing in his frenzied guilt. The last few moments of the show that he spends with Jesus, finally quiet after being the most loquacious bastard in Jerusalem for two hours, live in my mind rent-free.
Other standout moments and figures in the Hong Kong run of Jesus Christ Superstar? Grant Hodges’ gravelly tone (dipping as low as a C-sharp hum) and imposing presence as Caiaphas, contrasted with Kodiak Thompson’s more shrill and more unhinged Annas; the cast and ensemble freezing in a real-life diorama of da Vinci’s The Last Supper; Hannah Richardson’s soft, velvety rendition of ‘I Don’t Know How To Love Him’ being the perfect foil to all the leather-edged machismo; and the flogging of Jesus acted out with violent bursts of glitter!
Jesus Christ Superstar came out some 50 years ago, and half a century later still finds itself relevant to theatregoers worldwide. It’s really not hard to see why, from the rock-inflected music and streetwear-inspired costumes, to the timeless songs and belters. As a sung-through musical, it may be hard for some to fully grasp what’s being said and debated, but there are Chinese subtitles provided on either side of the stage. Experience this musical phenomenon for yourself at the Hong Kong Cultural Centre, running until August 1.
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