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FIELD NOTES

By Rev. Allie McDougall

IN AUGUST, a three-night run of Jesus Christ Superstar was mounted at the Hollywood Bowl with an all-star cast that notably featured Cynthia Erivo in the role of Jesus.

This is the first time a woman has sung the role in the legendary rock opera in its 55-year history. Erivo has recently broken into superstardom after her turn as Elphaba (aka the Wicked Witch of the West) in the film adaption of the celebrated musical Wicked, itself an adaptation of L. Frank Baum’s The Wizard of Oz. The casting choice was divisive – some felt that this was an intentionally provocative decision to get a rise out of the Christian right, others that it was long overdue to have a Black woman play the role, and others still felt that it was downright blasphemous.

Controversy has followed Jesus Christ Superstar since its inception in 1970, to the point where co-writers Andrew Lloyd Webber and Tim Rice were unable to secure funding and opted to release the music as a concept album before translating it to the stage. The purpose of the piece is to psychologize Jesus and the disciples, to remove His divine nature from the text, and ask the age-old question: what if Jesus was just a normal guy? This is the same question that has been asked by doubters, skeptics, and liberal theologians for decades. JCSS has never pretended to be anything other than an examination of the human mind and intentions of Jesus and Judas, set to some of the most memorable and iconic riffs and lyrics in musical theatre history. It is not a piece of devotional art, like Bach’s St. Matthew Passion or Handel’s Messiah, and for this reason it has been enjoyed and debated by fans with and without religious identification, introducing the Jesus Story to new audiences using the parlance of the times since 1970.

The hullaballoo surrounding Erivo’s casting in 2025 is retreading old territory, but with a new set of cultural concerns. A Black woman playing Jesus in a rock opera is neither blasphemous or offensive to Christ, nor does it score the culture war points that edgy provocateurs might be hoping to rack up in their crusade against the Christian right. And regardless of how one feels about the casting decision, you cannot argue with Erivo’s immense talent and vocal compatibility with the technically, musically challenging role of Jesus in JCSS. Clips surfaced online of her rendition of “Gethsemane”, the searing take on Christ’s agony in the garden prior to His arrest. Erivo performed the role with all the requisite passion and sincerity demanded of the part. As far as the specifications of the role and the production go, her sex and race are irrelevant.

The secular, culturally constrained arguments for and against casting a Black woman in the role of Jesus Christ ultimately fall apart under the weight of the theological implications that can be gleaned from this choice. The image of Jesus has always been interpreted and reinterpreted through cultural lenses, around the world and through time. We understand the historical Jesus to be a brown-skinned Palestinian man, yet He has appeared in religious art and media with innumerable faces, each reflecting the artist and audience. Are not all people bearers of God’s image, deserving to identify their own humanity with the nature of Christ? It is a comfort that Christ’s incarnation graces humanity in all its forms, transcending the artificial barriers and labels we ascribe to our physical bodies. In the mystery of the Word made flesh, the totality of the human experience is included and represented. There is nothing blasphemous about casting Cynthia Erivo in the role of Jesus Christ because there is nothing wrong or offensive or profane about being a Black woman. Indeed, there are more striking comparisons and identifications to be made with the suffering and struggle of Black women on the axes of race, sex, and violence and that which Our Lord experienced on Earth. Much of this work has been done and continues to be developed by Womanist theologians and scholars. What is wrong, offensive, and profane is insisting that there is only one acceptable way to image Christ in visual media, that the monopoly of this holy image belongs to any single group (least of all white, blonde-haired, blue-eyed Europeans).

Whether or not it was Andrew Lloyd Webber and Tim Rice’s intention to make us think theologically about a depiction of Christ that is overtly and intentionally human and critical of orthodox Christianity is immaterial. For 55 years, the story of Jesus’ Passion and the incredible music that accompanies it have grabbed audiences, stirred up controversy, and invited us to think more creatively about how we understand Jesus from where we stand in time. Jesus may not have walked this Earth as a Black woman, but he also didn’t sing rock and disco. Love it or hate it, Jesus Christ Superstar has the cultural cachet to keep heaven on our minds.

Rev. Allie McDougall is the Vicar of St. Paul's and St. Stephen's, Stratford.
alliemcdougall@diohuron.org