By Nathaniel R
Paul Nolan as Jesus in the most recent Broadway revival (2012)This just in: NBC is prepping its sixth live musical for April 2018. Their first Sound of Music was a mixed bag quality-wise but a giant ratings hit. Since then they've had two critical and ratings successes (The Wiz and Hairspray) and one failure (Peter Pan). [Update: the fifth is Bye Bye Birdie starring Jennifer Lopez will air during the holidays later this year.] The sixth, after that, will be Andrew Lloyd Webber & Tim Rice's rock opera Jesus Christ Superstar. It's made frequent regular appearances on stages all over the world since its debut in 1970. It even had a Golden Globe nominated film version in 1973 directed by Norman Jewison who was, at the time, a very hot commodity having recently made three best picture players: The Russians are Coming! The Russians are Coming! (1966, not a sci-fi time travelling movie about the current US government), In the Heat of the Night (1967) and the Best Picture nominee Fiddler on the Roof (1971).
No casting has been announced but they're said to be seeking "authentic recording artists." What does that even mean...?
Does that just mean actual rock or pop stars? What is an inauthentic recording artist? Does it mean Middle Eastern recording artists to play the Middle Eastern characters? We have so many questions. Our guess is that they go with color blind casting like the '73 film which starred a white guy, a black guy, and an Asian girl
Carl Anderson (Judas), Ted Neeley (Jesus), and Yvonne Elliman (Mary Magdalene) -- all Golden Globe nominated -- on the set of the 1973 film version
Which "authentic" recording artists could you see as Jesus and Judas?
And, more importantly, who would you cast as Mary Magdalene who gets the show's very best song "I Don't Know How to Love Him"