Broadways Superstar Aint So Super Anymore

[MamasDoin'Fine]

Producers have announced that the revival of the Andrew Lloyd Webber-Tim Rice rock opera 'Jesus Christ Superstar' that was a hot ticket at Ontario's Stratford Shakespeare Festival last summer will close on Broadway on July 1st.

The show will have played 116 regular performances and 24 previews.

Helmed by outgoing Stratford artistic director Des McAnuff, "Jesus Christ Superstar" began previews at New York's Neil Simon Theatre on March 1st and opened on March 22nd.
It originated last summer at the Stratford theatre festival in southwestern Ontario with much the same cast, including American actor Josh Young, who recently landed a Tony and a Theatre World Award nomination for playing Judas.

The show was also up for a Tony for best revival of a musical and received Drama Desk and Drama League nominations.

Other cast members include Paul Nolan as Jesus, Chilina Kennedy as Mary, Tom Hewitt as Pontius Pilate, and Bruce Dow as King Herod.
Both Lloyd Webber and Rice have praised the production, which chronicles the last week of Christ's life and explores what McAnuff has called a "love triangle" between Jesus, Mary and Judas.

Reviews on the Great White Way have been mixed and a cast member commented "no matter how amazing the audience is on opening night, you never know how long the show is going to go."
"There have been shows on Broadway that have had spectacular reviews and big standing ovations on opening night, and then they've folded a month later. And there have been shows that haven't done well on opening night and haven't had great reviews that have gone on for years,"

[devonian.t]

Doesn't this suggest that there is very little need/ demand for yet another UK/ West End revival?

[MamasDoin'Fine]

My thoughts too. It's just being thrust upon the public via yet another naff TV show.
Someone in that office should really sit up and look and listen to this news.

[The Scorpion]

It wasn't the great production it was hyped up to be, IMHO. The staging was a mess. And it was foolish to fast-track it to Broadway with little advanced publicity and with the Evita revival already scheduled. And it wasn't too long ago that Broadway had its last revival of JCS, plus the US in general is saturated with the show.

I suppose at least the UK isn't so JCS-saturated, which might help it to do better here.

[MamasDoin'Fine]

I agree, the TV ads in New York I saw made it look rather cheap and gimmicky