Paul Bouchier, the production’s Company Manager, took to the stage just before the performance I attended finally got underway to let the audience know there was a minor technical issue, already being dealt with, that was holding up the start of the show. Such is the nature of live theatre, and if the performance had been cancelled, it wouldn’t be the first time that had happened in the West End, and it wouldn’t be the last. But as ever, one can only review the show one actually experiences, and woe betide the reviewer who even attempts to do anything else.
All that to say, the sound balance was a bit off at the performance I went to, and not every lyric could be heard. Again, there’s the caveat of a pre-show warning of technical difficulties, and it might well be that going on a different night would have resulted in a different experience. Not quite hearing what was being sung might not be too much of an issue in some musicals, and as someone who grew up in a religious household, it ultimately didn’t matter to me as far as this one was concerned. That’s not the same as it not mattering at all, and if I were a first-time visitor to Superstar, I would have been rather annoyed, especially as I would have wanted to know what it was that made the disciples of this version of Jesus Christ (Sam Ryder) hang on his every lyric.
For those put off by the eye-watering ticket prices, there’s the option of considerably cheaper ‘standing’ tickets on stage. There are additional terms and conditions to agree to, including a medical waiver and an understanding that “your sightlines of the performance may be restricted”. That’s putting it mildly: standing patrons were boxed in by scaffolding, a marked contrast in itself to the rest of the décor in the Frank Matcham-designed London Palladium, and the action didn’t appear to take them into account, with barely anything performed upstage. Mobile devices are placed in locked pouches and bags are left in a cloakroom before that section of the audience is permitted to take their places: no filming of the rear ends of the cast bowing at the curtain call for them.
Here, many of the elements of the 2016 Regent’s Park Open Air Theatre production have been retained, the most memorable for me being the recreation (so to speak) of Leonardo da Vinci’s painting The Last Supper, and the use of glitter to represent blood (a note for the squeamish, who probably wouldn’t want to come to see a crucifixion through song in any event – there is some fake blood when the time comes). For me, the standouts were Tyrone Huntley’s Judas, convincing and engaging throughout, and for sheer vocal power, David Thaxton’s Pontius Pilate.
Ryder’s Jesus was, in a word, curious. The audience largely went wild, with justification, at the end of ‘Gethsemane’; the high notes duly hit. For much of the first half, however, Ryder’s voice was so subdued I struggled to convince myself this was a religious leader even capable of being heard by five thousand people, let alone performing a miracle to feed them all. In a scene where an ever-increasing number of lepers are supposed to overwhelm him (“Won’t you touch, will you heal me, Christ? / Will you kiss, you can cure me, Christ?”) the intimacy direction and choreography has it such that nobody actually presses into him. “Don’t crowd me!” he pleads. Well, they weren’t. I had people standing closer to me on a crowded Tube train on the way to the show.
Jesse Tyler Ferguson, whom I must admit I had to Google after the show (the short version is that he’s done a lot of theatre and television, but this is his West End debut, but not his London one, as he was in Here We Are at the National Theatre previously), did his set piece as King Herod in the unimaginatively titled ‘King Herod’s Song’, performed with flamboyancy and pizazz. Entertaining for all but those who have a strong preference for an unhinged and furious Herod. On-stage, above the standing patrons, was a nineteen-piece orchestra, for me the best thing about this sung-through rock opera.
At two hours including an interval, it’s far from the longest show in the West End. But it held the audience’s attention very well, despite practically everyone in the house knowing how this was going to end. You could hear a pin drop in the show’s most poignant moments. Sound issues aside on the night, it’s a decent and dynamic production.
Review by Chris Omaweng
Tim Rice and Andrew Lloyd Webber’s Jesus Christ Superstar is set against the backdrop of an extraordinary series of events during the final weeks in the life of Jesus Christ, as seen through the eyes of Judas. Reflecting the rock roots that defined a generation, the legendary score includes ‘I Don’t Know How to Love Him’, ‘Gethsemane’ and ‘Superstar’.
Sam Ryder – Jesus
Tyrone Huntley – Judas Iscariot
Desmonda Cathabel – Mary Magdalene
David Thaxton – Pontius Pilate
Jesse Tyler Ferguson (20 June to 11 July), Richard Armitage (13 July to 1 August, and 8 August), Boy George (3 to 15 August, except 8 August), Layton Williams (17 to 29 August), Julian Clary (31 August to 5 September) – King Herod
Bob Harms – Caiaphas
Matty J – Annas
Billy Nevers – Simon/Alternate Judas
Phil King – Peter
Matthew Harvey – Standby Jesus
Koko Alexandra – Soul Singer/Ensemble
Jasmine Jules Andrews – Ensemble
Courtney Arango – Resident Choreographer/Swing/Co-Dance Captain
Amy Barker – Swing
Alistair Beattie – Swing
Daniel Bowskill – Ensemble/Fight Captain
Jahlil M Burke – Ensemble
Martha Burton – Ensemble
Marcelo Cervone – Ensemble
Sarah Freer – Soul Singer/Ensemble
Sebastian Goffin – Swing/Co-Dance Captain
Alexander Kranz – Swing
Owen Lloyd – Ensemble
Milo McCarthy – Ensemble
Dan Moore – Ensemble
Cherece Richards – Soul Singer/Ensemble
Kyle Richardson – Ensemble
Olivia Saunders – Ensemble
Toyan Thomas-Browne – Ensemble
Charley Warburton – Mob Leader/Ensemble
Lillie-Pearl Wildman – Ensemble
Tim Sheader – Director
Drew McOnie – Choreographer
Tom Scutt – Designer
Tom Deering – Musical Supervisor
Lee Curran – Lighting Designer
Adam Fisher – Sound Designer
Sam Cox and Maria Johal – Wigs, Hair and Makeup Designers
Kate Waters – Fight Director
Grindrod Burton Casting – Casting Director
JESUS CHRIST SUPERSTAR
London Palladium, 20 June to 5 September 2026
Theatre Royal Drury Lane, 16 October 2026 to 9 January 2027
Touring from 11 February to 23 October 2027
