Skip to footer

Jesus Christ Superstar: Producers cancel tour without explanation

Producers of the rock opera 'Jesus Christ Superstar' pulled the plug on a 12-city American tour just days before the new arena version of 'Jesus Christ Superstar' was set open in New Orleans.

|
Evan Agostini/Invision/AP
Singer John Rotten Lydon throws bananas at the media, JC Chasez, Michelle Williams and Brandon Boyd look on, at the 'Jesus Christ Superstar' arena spectacular press conference and press performance to announce a North American arena tour in New York, April 4. The new arena version of 'Jesus Christ Superstar' has abruptly canceled its 54-city tour just days before its launch in New Orleans.
  • By Mark Kennedy Associated Press

| New York

A new arena version of "Jesus Christ Superstar" starring punk legend John "Johnny Rotten" Lydon and Michelle Williams of Destiny's Child has abruptly canceled its 54-city tour just days before its launch in New Orleans.

Producers quietly pulled the plug on the project Friday without explanation. Fran Curtis, a publicist for the show from press representative Rogers & Cowan, did not return messages seeking a reason for the cancellation.

The "Jesus Christ Superstar" tour was to start June 9 at Lakefront Arena in New Orleans and include stops in Detroit, Los Angeles, Chicago, St. Louis, Phoenix, Seattle, Las Vegas, Denver, New York City, Boston, and Philadelphia.

Producer Michael Cohl, who was also a lead producer on the ill-fated, aerial-effects laden "Spider-Man: Turn Off the Dark," declined to talk too much about the tour's financing when it was unveiled in April, but he said the new show's total costs were in the "eight figures" and needed to pull in "several hundred thousand dollars" each night to keep it on the road.

It was to star Lydon as King Herod, Williams as Mary Magdalene, Brandon Boyd of Incubus as Judas and JC Chasez of 'N Sync as Pontius Pilate. Ben Forster, the winner of the U.K.'s prime-time contest show "Superstar," was to play the son of God.

The guitar- and keyboard-driven rock musical, which debuted on Broadway in 1971, includes such songs as "What's the Buzz?" ''Superstar," ''Everything's Alright" and "I Don't Know How to Love Him."

The musical dramatizes Jesus' entry into Jerusalem, the unrest caused by his preaching and popularity, his betrayal by Judas, the trial before Pilate and his ultimate crucifixion. It marked an early collaboration between Andrew Lloyd Webber and Tim Rice, who also created "Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat" and "Evita."

You've read  of  free articles. Subscribe to continue.
Real news can be honest, hopeful, credible, constructive.
What is the Monitor difference? Tackling the tough headlines – with humanity. Listening to sources – with respect. Seeing the story that others are missing by reporting what so often gets overlooked: the values that connect us. That’s Monitor reporting – news that changes how you see the world.
editor@csmonitor.com
Subscribe
Mark Sappenfield
Editor

Dear Reader,

About a year ago, I happened upon this statement about the Monitor in the Harvard Business Review – under the charming heading of “do things that don’t interest you”:

“Many things that end up” being meaningful, writes social scientist Joseph Grenny, “have come from conference workshops, articles, or online videos that began as a chore and ended with an insight. My work in Kenya, for example, was heavily influenced by a Christian Science Monitor article I had forced myself to read 10 years earlier. Sometimes, we call things ‘boring’ simply because they lie outside the box we are currently in.”

If you were to come up with a punchline to a joke about the Monitor, that would probably be it. We’re seen as being global, fair, insightful, and perhaps a bit too earnest. We’re the bran muffin of journalism.

But you know what? We change lives. And I’m going to argue that we change lives precisely because we force open that too-small box that most human beings think they live in.

The Monitor is a peculiar little publication that’s hard for the world to figure out. We’re run by a church, but we’re not only for church members and we’re not about converting people. We’re known as being fair even as the world becomes as polarized as at any time since the newspaper’s founding in 1908.

We have a mission beyond circulation, we want to bridge divides. We’re about kicking down the door of thought everywhere and saying, “You are bigger and more capable than you realize. And we can prove it.”

If you’re looking for bran muffin journalism, you can subscribe to the Monitor for $15. You’ll get the Monitor Weekly magazine, the Monitor Daily email, and unlimited access to CSMonitor.com.

Subscribe to insightful journalism

QR Code to Jesus Christ Superstar: Producers cancel tour without explanation
Read this article in
https://www.csmonitor.com/The-Culture/Latest-News-Wires/2014/0601/Jesus-Christ-Superstar-Producers-cancel-tour-without-explanation
QR Code to Subscription page
Start your subscription today
https://www.csmonitor.com/subscribe