you'll escape in the final reel

[gwynnega]

As a kid, I was very fond of Jesus Christ Superstar and Godspell (the movie versions). Being Jewish, I found them weirdly fascinating. (I think I also had a comic book about Jesus at roughly the same time.)

Then a few years back I got into the original cast recording of Jesus Christ Superstar, partly because Murray Head (brother of Tony) sang the part of Judas--partly because I discovered it was a pretty nifty hard rock album.

Recently I learned my friend John Ramirez was putting together a one-time performance of the Jesus Christ Superstar songs at the Satellite (the nightclub formerly known as Spaceland, which is about five minutes from my apartment by car--I used to spend a lot of time there, but hadn't been there in years). Last night I went to the performance, and saw a lot of old friends, and danced. And wow, they did a great job with the music. (I wish the YouTube clips had better sound and picture quality.) Petra Haden (daughter of Charlie) = probably the best Mary Magdalene ever.

"Heaven On Their Minds" (Watch on YouTube)

Comments

[gwynnega]

Ian Gillan was great as Jesus--though of course Judas got the best songs. :-)

I imprinted on the songs of Godspell at a very young age. The movie was ultra hippie-dippie, though seeing it now is odd, since some of it was filmed on top of the World Trade Center, under construction.

The show last night was pretty amazing!