The life of Jesus has been told many times—in highly reverent movies like King of Kings and controversial ones like The Passion of the Christ. The musical film Jesus Christ Superstar celebrates its fiftieth anniversary this year, and it’s one of the more controversial retellings of the Jesus story. At the same time, it opened the door for new approaches to telling Jesus’ story, like the 2004 rock opera !Hero.
So why has this musical set to rock music attracted controversy, even as it continues to excite people?
Jesus Christ Superstar first saw life in 1970 as an album, a rock opera with lyrics by Tim Rice and music by Andrew Lloyd-Webb.
In an interview on the 2004 Jesus Christ Superstar Special Edition DVD, Rice said he got the initial inspiration at age 15 while attending a religious school. Rice was intrigued by Judas Iscariot, finding him an “unlucky chap” and “I think most people in that situation would’ve acted as he did.”
Years later, while trying to become a professional singer, an agent introduced Rice to Andrew Lloyd-Webber. Their first collaboration to be released was Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat, whose success led them to consider other biblical subjects. They had no success finding investors for a theatrical show of Jesus Christ Superstar, so they followed a recommendation to record a single and then an album. The single, “Superstar,” appeared in 1969, and the full album appeared in 1970.
The album is a rock opera—rock music where each song fits into a larger concept. Several musical groups were experimenting with the possibilities of rock opera; two months before the single “Superstar” was released, British rock band The Who released Tommy, considered the first rock opera.
On the album Jesus Christ Superstar, 23 songs chronologically tell the story of Jesus.
The first song after the overture, “Heaven On Their Minds,” takes place sometime before Palm Sunday, with Judas singing about the trouble Jesus is causing. Jesus and other characters—Mary Magdalene, Pontious Pilate, King Herod, Simon the Zealot—appear in the other songs, often responding to Judas or each other as they tell the Passion story. As in the biblical account, Judas betrays Jesus to Pilate, then dies by hanging himself on a tree.
The song “Superstar” imagines Judas outside time, talking to Jesus, asking what Jesus will be remembered for and how he ranks against other seminal religious leaders.
The final song, “John Nineteen: Forty-One,” is an instrumental piece to be played as the Romans take Jesus off the cross.
When the album Jesus Christ Superstar appeared in 1970, it quickly drew sharp responses. In the United Kingdom, the BBC banned it from being played on its radio stations, calling it blasphemous. However, it sold very well in America. Numerous groups created unauthorized productions based on the album—Devin McKinney describes one of the most surprising ones in his book Jesusmania!: The Bootleg Superstar of Gettysburg College.
In October 1971, the musical Jesus Christ Superstar appeared on Broadway. The musical has been restaged dozens of times in various countries—most recently, Jesus Christ Superstar Live in Concert was broadcast on NBC in 2018, with John Legend as Jesus.
There’s a long history of movies and plays about Jesus attracting criticism if they don’t fit people’s expectations. For example, during World War II, lay theologian Dorothy L. Sayers wrote a series of radio plays about Jesus’s life called The Man Born to Be King. Concerned that people had gotten so familiar with King James English that they weren’t paying attention to the story, she retold the life of Jesus in modern language—including some characters having Cockney accents. Theologians applauded her extensive research, but many hated the approach—even calling the 1942 Fall of Singapore God’s judgment for Sayers “sacrilege.”
With Jesus Christ Superstar, the fact it told Jesus’ story with rock music upset some. Many more were upset because they felt the play went against the Gospels’ account of Jesus. In Superstars: The Documentary (Extended Version), Ted Kneely (who played Jesus in the 1973 film and various times on stage) observed that protestors routinely appear when the musical gets staged.
While various people have criticized the musical’s content for various reasons, the most substantial and recurring criticisms are:
- Judas indicates in his first song and elsewhere that he doesn’t believe Jesus is the Messiah, just a teacher who has begun to believe what others say about him.
- Jesus isn’t clearly depicted as having the supernatural powers mentioned in the Bible. Characters reference Jesus performing miracles, but none happen onscreen. In one song, “The Temple,” a crowd of lepers approach Jesus, and rather than healing them, he tells them to go because they are overwhelming him.
- Mary Magdalene is implied to be a prostitute and admits in the song “I Don’t Know How to Love Him” that she has romantic feelings for Jesus. Some of her feelings are communicated when (like the woman in Luke 7:36-50) she pours oil and perfume on Jesus. Jesus appears pleased by her actions, but the lyrics leave it ambiguous whether he’s reciprocating her feelings.
- Jesus expresses doubt while singing “Gethsemane (I Only Want to Say),” saying he knows he must die but questions why it must happen. Earlier in the song “The Last Supper” he muses whether anyone will remember him, suggesting he doesn’t have divine foresight.
- The musical doesn’t show Jesus being resurrected. It ends with Jesus dying on the cross.
The 1973 movie opens in a clever way that seems to be responding to the controversy. Rather than making an elaborate costume drama, it opens with a group of young actors driving into a desert to stage the play. In other words, the script immediately tells audiences, “this is a play, remember?”
Since most criticisms focus on the musical’s lyrics, Rice has often addressed concerns. A 1971 Time article quoted Rice saying, “It happens that we don’t see Christ as God, but as simply the right man at the right time in the right place. It is a great and inspiring story, though.”
Rice has also said the musical deliberately leaves it open whether Jesus was God or a human. In the 2004 interview mentioned earlier, Rice said that when he and Lloyd-Webber were interviewed in the 1970s, they often said, “We do not say he wasn’t God; it’s up to you.” He also gives this more detailed explanation of how the musical portrays Jesus:
“We wanted to portray Jesus as a human being who had doubts, as he does in the Bible, particularly in the Garden of Gethsemane. He was not always a nice guy. Sometimes he would lose his temper. It’s all there in the gospels. We wanted to bring out the human side of him without making a statement one way or the other re: his divinity. Superstar doesn’t say Jesus was God. It certainly doesn’t say he wasn’t. It is Jesus seen through the eyes of Judas. And Judas didn’t believe he was God. Or at least I believe Judas didn’t believe he was God. And I think that’s why Judas felt he had to turn him in. Because he felt that he was an ordinary man—a man who he, Judas, had admired, who was now getting out of control.”
While the gospels do not describe Jesus pondering his final legacy like Rice imagines him in the song “The Last Supper,” the lyrics could almost be Jesus speaking rhetorically—a man feeling depressed and despairing because he knows he’s about to die and his friends will abandon him. The gospels do affirm that Jesus felt despair in the moments leading up to his death. Matthew 26 and Luke 22 describe Jesus praying in the Garden, asking God to “take this cup away from me.” Some may argue this isn’t quite what viewers see in the musical. The Bible shows Jesus wondering, “Is there another way to do this?” Jesus Christ Superstar depicts him asking, “Why does this have to happen?” However, a logic textbook would probably argue those two questions are equivalent.
Since the gospels don’t specify what motivated Judas to betray Jesus—just references to “Satan entering him” (Luke 22:3, John 13:27) and Jesus rebuking him for harsh words to Martha’s sister Mary—the idea of Judas seeing Jesus as merely human isn’t heretical.
Furthermore, since Jesus Christ Superstar doesn’t portray Judas as having a balanced perspective (he seems anxious and upset throughout), viewers can see the musical without adopting his perspective. The 1973 movie underlines that Judas may be missing something in scenes where he hallucinates: he sees fighter jets fly over him and tanks chasing him. Both events involve camera shots where no one is next to Judas (even though he’s singing to Caiphas during part of the tank scene), meaning it could all be in his head.
Since Rice aims for ambiguity, the fact the musical ends without Jesus’ resurrection and he is never seen performing miracles, fits the scheme. People mention him having healed people, and priests dismiss his healings as tricks—but like Judas, they have an unreliable view of Jesus.
The one scene that seems to explicitly say Jesus lacked divine power is when he doesn’t healing the lepers who surround him. On the other hand, it’s hard to say whether these lepers are trustworthy—they sing eloquently about how they can’t speak and dance gracefully while singing about how they can’t move. Jesus’ lyrics that there are too many of them could imply he can’t help them all at once, a riff on teachings about the Holy Spirit. Jesus said in John 16:7 that it was better to leave so the Holy Spirit could come—possibly because the Holy Spirit gave God’s spirit to every believer. The disciples struggled every time Jesus wasn’t near them—sinking when they tried to walk on water, falling asleep in Gethsemane, denying him once he’d been arrested. After the Holy Spirit came, they became brave (as seen in the book of Acts). So, Jesus saying there are too many people for him to heal could be a comment on how he couldn’t do all he wanted. He’d had to empty himself to be fully human (Philippians 2:7), which wasn’t always convenient. Even in a scene
The final major criticism—that Jesus Christ Superstar depicts Mary Magdalene as a prostitute in love with Jesus—is valid. Sadly, this is more a problem with extrabiblical traditions than the musical. Christians have been speculating whether Mary Magdalene was the “sinful woman” who anointed Jesus’ feet at least since Pope Gregory I connected them in a 590 AD homily. The idea of Jesus having a special relationship with Mary Magdalene appears in various post-New Testament texts that claimed to be gospels—sometimes with weird sexual material, as in fifth-century Borborite Gnostic writings about Mary Magdalene.
For every Christian who has criticized Jesus Christ Superstar, there have been Christians who say it got them thinking about what the gospels truly say.
Given the musical’s ambiguous take on his divinity, it may be best to look at the title. It’s not about Jesus as the son of God or the king of kings. It’s about him as a superstar—a famous figure who turns everyone’s head when he arrives in Jerusalem, causing them to debate who he is. Judas sees a moral teacher who’s lost his way. Mary Magdalen sees a man unlike any she’s ever met. Caiphas sees a threat to his power. Pilate sees a man with a martyr complex. King Herod sees a fool. Simon the Zealot and his breakdancing compatriots see someone who can lead a coup against the Romans. These different perspectives prompt different responses, which can get viewers to discuss what they believe about Jesus—which opens the door for deeper spiritual discussions.
While different Christians will debate how close Jesus Christ Superstar gets to the gospels and how comfortable they are with its view of Jesus, it remains a compelling musical that can serve as a springboard for fruitful conversations about faith.
Further Reading:
10 Great Easter Movies about the Life of Jesus
Top 10 Bible Movies of All Time
10 Best Jesus Movies You Should See
10 Movies to Watch During Lent
Top 10 Bible TV Shows of All Time
Learn more about the meaning and significance behind the Easter holiday and Holy Week celebrations:
What is Lent? and When Does Lent Start?
What is Ash Wednesday? and When is Ash Wednesday?
What is Palm Sunday?
What is Maundy Thursday?
What is Good Friday? and When is Good Friday?
What is Holy Saturday?
What is Easter? and When is Easter Sunday?
Easter Bible Verses
The Resurrection of Jesus
Easter Prayers