Jesus Christ Superstar is Back, with More Women

Sellwood's "Superstar" update adds one few key scene.

It has been 11 years since Jesus Christ Superstar was staged by a Portland company. This summer, the once-controversial musical is not only onstage, it is in an old church in Sellwood. Longtime Portland actor-director Michael Streeter, who describes himself as a "recovering Catholic," wants Superstar to be controversial again. While this production at Post5 Theatre is not likely to spark hot-button buzz, it is goddamn entertaining.

Since its controversial Broadway debut in 1971, Superstar has become one of history's favorite musicals, loved by basically anyone who thought the New Testament was boring, which is a lot of people. Streeter's update tries to bring the edge back by casting women as Apostles and actress Ithica Tell as Judas. "Some decisions made in 400 A.D., we're still living with the consequences today, as far as women's power," says Streeter. "It also cuts off half my talent pool if I have to hire only men."

The show's biggest middle finger to the Bible is a wedding scene in which Jesus (Broadway veteran Ernie Lijoi) and Mary Magdalene (Jessica Tidd) exchange vows in a dialogue-free, low lit and understated ceremony. For a production filled with glitter and fake blood, the scene feels like a forced footnote and is both too short and lackluster to buoy Streeter's feminist take. If Andrew Lloyd Webber did a Jesus wedding scene, you could bet on searing electric guitar, not mellow acoustic plucking, as in Streeter's production.

This Superstar is best when Lloyd Webber's addictive music is given free rein. Even as lepers swarm, Judas cries and Jesus explodes with anger, the audience cannot help but manically bob its collective head. When flamboyant King Herod (Brian Burger), dressed in a silk robe, dances the cancan with four girls in gold mini-dresses and grinds up on Jesus, the seats of the old church were bouncing from foot-tapping. The final disco ecstasy number, "Superstar," gets a hilarious, modern take: A gaggle of girls Snapchat Jesus like he's Bieber, and Tell rocks a fire-engine red pantsuit like Beyoncé would, multitasking on an iPhone while she scolds Jesus. In the background, the cross is backlit with neon lights and a star that looks straight from a Rockstar energy drink can.

If star-power moments like these sound too big for a small theater, it's because they are. Superstar is meant to be performed big. It is a full-fledged rock opera about the life of Jesus, after all. In Sellwood's theater, it feels like a squeeze. Instead of gleaning symbolic irony from the church-turned-theater setting, it mainly felt too hot. The first Friday show was oversold, a good sign for local theater, but one that left the audience scrunched on tiny chairs on an already crowded stage. The band squeezed to one side, under a staircase, and threw ponchos on over jeans and Vans to seem more relevant. In the disciples' poppy dance numbers, the crowded stage seemed like a possible fire code violation.

Talent sweeps every staging issue under the rug, though. When Tell is singing as Judas—one of the most difficult roles in musical theater, with a vocal range spanning two octaves—you forget that it's 90 degrees and the actors are trying not to trip over each other. She performs effortless vocal runs, like she's jumping hurdle after hurdle in a pool of molasses without even breaking a sweat. "Annas, you're a friend, a worldly man and wise/Caiaphas, my friend, I know you sympathize," she sings both lightning-fast and crystal clear. Verses were chopped, lines were dropped, helping the show clock in at a comfortable two hours. What's uncomfortable is honoring the program's request that you refrain from singing along.

See it: Jesus Christ Superstar is at Post5 Theatre, 1666 SE Lambert St., 971-333-1758, post5theatre.org. 8 pm Thursday-Sunday, through Aug. 20. $20.

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