When the “Jesus Christ Superstar” opened on Broadway on this day in 1970, it was not without passionate protests from Christians and Jewish groups. The concept of a play using the genre of rock music to elevate Jesus to superstar status is appropriate today, but in 1970, this use of rock music to tell the story of Christ was nothing short of blasphemy!
“Jesus Christ Superstar” was written by a 23-year-old Andrew Lloyd Weber and a 26-year-old Tim Rice. Lloyd Weber admitted to using dramatic license, but he insisted that the major aspects of each Biblical character were according to the gospels. “If opera had to be realistic, we would not be able to have a Black Judas, or a half-Japanese Mary, or a Jewish Pilate,” Lloyd Weber told the New York Times on opening night.
Director Norman Jewison’s was that “audiences will take this for what it is – an opera, not history.” He said, “These kids are trying to take Jesus off the stained-glass windows and get Him down on the street. Some people are not going to like that.”
Jewison was right. Opening night was picketed by Christians who concluded that Jesus and Mary Magdalene was having sex with Jesus. The American Jewish Committee and Anti-Defamation League expressed concern that Herod would be seen plotting against Jesus and that this would rekindle the idea that Jews were responsible for killing Christ.
Let’s remember that the establishment in 1970 harshly judged what was collectively seen as a young generation smoking pot, doing drugs, having free sex, and was basically irresponsible. That young generation then was the Boomer generation, which is today’s establishment.
One of the songs on the soundtrack is “I Don’t Know How To Love Him” by Yvonne Elliman, who played Mary Magdalene. The religious establishment believed the character was singing about how she didn’t know how to have sex with him, but she was expressing her challenge of finding the right way to express her love and admiration for Christ.
To put the shock of the first impressions the establishment had of “Jesus Christ Superstar” in perspective – if a movie came out today that featured rap/hip hop music and slang to tell the story of Christ many would reject it as blasphemous sacrilege. But couldn’t the same argument be made today that was made in defense of “Jesus Christ Superstar” in 1970?
The Bible suggests that Jesus reflected the pop culture of the times. His stories and parables related to the mass population. Why is it so hard to believe that if Jesus Christ walked among us today that He wouldn’t use rock or rap to tell His story?
