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Let's talk about Cynthia Erivo playing Jesus | JESUS CHRIST SUPERSTAR casting controversy explained
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Mickey Jo
It's time to try defying crucifixion. Ah, men. Oh my God. Hey, welcome back to my theatre themed YouTube channel. Hello to you if you're listening on podcast platforms. My name is Mickey Jo and I am obsessed with all things theatre. Just not this particular news story because Jesus Christ Superstar is set to be presented in concert this summer at the Hollywood bowl in the famously chill country of the United States of America. Which in and of itself is not controversial because in the five some decades since the show was created by Sir Android Webber and Sir Tim Rice, people have forgotten the fact that there was initially massive Christian outrage. Don't worry though, it's back this because the casting of this particular production includes Cynthia Erivo as Jesus. Tony Award winner Cynthia Erivo, Academy Award nominee for her performance this last year in the Wicked movie as Elphaba. Cynthia Erivo, set to host the Tony Awards in 2025. Cynthia Erivo, she's going to be Jesus now. An OB. Obviously people have been reacting to that news in a very sensible and ordinary way. I'm joking, of course I am. The discourse has been insane. And so today I am bringing that conversation, God help us all, to my theater themed YouTube channel. How many times have I blasphemed in the first few minutes of this video? I apologize, but I digress. We're going to talk about why this is a total non issue and why if these people had been paying attention to musical theater and Jesus Christ Superstar, they would realize that their outrage actually ought to have happened quite a long time ago. And finally, depressing though it may be, we're going to talk about whether this is the latest in a string of recent flare ups of right wing tension and aggression overcasting over what they perceive to be diversity inclusion, which as we all know at this point is massively under attack in the new U.S. government. And we're going to see whether or not we are increasingly having a problem with that. Spoiler alert. We definitely, definitely are. In the meantime though, to quote Judas from Jesus Christ Superstar, I remember how this whole thing began. Let's go back to the start of this new story, in fact even further back, and talk about the context of Cynthia Erivo playing Jesus in Jesus Christ Superstar. So let's start at the present moment with this news story and then venture backwards from that. So it was announced earlier this week that Cynthia Erivo would be playing Jesus. This amidst much news of her achieving great things in the wake of the success of the Wicked movie. And she was already on the rise beforehand Post the Colour Purple, that was the big launch for Cynthia Erivo. She was a successful British actress. I saw her on the Sister Acts tour over a decade ago. She then played Celie in a revival of the musical the Colour Purple at the Menier Chocolate Factory in London. It didn't transfer to the West End. I'm not actually sure the rights allow it to, but that's a different conversation. That production transferred to Broadway where her performance was acclaimed, won her the Tony Award and catapulted her to a legitimate screen career. She has scarcely been seen in a stage production since. Not never, but scarcely. We can't afford her anymore and that's our problem. But evidently her connection to and love for musical theatre has endured. Hence her playing Elphaba, the hugely coveted role of Elphaba in the Wicked movie that, if you don't know, allegedly also considered in the past. I mean, over the various years it's been in development, actresses such as Lady Gaga, actresses such as Jessie J. Yes, I'm using the word actresses loosely in this context. Lea Michele also involved, but just like the original stage Elphaba. Idina Menzel, who had a second career boost after her success in Rent with Wicked and then a very rare third career boost when she was the voice of Elsa in Disney's Frozen and had this huge success with Let It Go. Cynthia Erivo seems to be enjoying a second big boost in her career and one that really tethers her brand once again to the world of musical theatre. So with the new announcements coming in the wake of this success, they seem to be very specific to Broadway, to musical theatre. Hence the hot off the press announcement. She's going to be hosting the Tony Awards this year, which have been Hosted by Ariana DeBose over the last few years, which in the past have been hosted by the likes of Hugh Jackman, Neil Patrick Harris, Alan Cumming, Kristin Chenoweth, big names in entertainment and musical theatre specifically. Now, do I think that their initial plan here, and maybe even the better idea, would have been to have her host it alongside her close friend and Wicked co star Ariana Grande? Yes, obviously. That would have been adorable and it would have been great for the ratings of the Tony Awards. Can you imagine? Do I think Ariana Grande wanted to do it? Yes, I'm sure she did. You know Ariana Grande would say yes to hosting the Tony Awards like she's done SNL multiple times. I dare say it's probably a scheduling thing. Or maybe just Cynthia wanted this moment. Maybe they don't want to be Attached to each other at the hip for the rest of time. Like their Daisy and Violet inside show. Although thinking about it, I would love to hear that. Imagine the response to that casting announcement. Again, people would have things to say. But I once again have digressed. The point is, Cynthia's doing big things. One of those is Jesus in Jesus Christ Superstar. Here is the news as it was reported two days ago in Variety. Cynthia Erivo is set to play Jesus Christ this summer in a production of Andrew Lloyd Webber and Tim Rice's Jesus Christ Superstar at the Hollywood Bowl. Erivo shared the news via Instagram and wrote just a little busy this summer. Summer can't wait. She's no stranger to the show, having starred in. That's a spoiler alert for something I'm gonna say later in this video. Actually, actually, performances begin on August 1st and run through August 3rd. So when we say a limited run, it's really only a couple of performances. And that's because it's not, it's not a major production. It's not gonna transfer to Broadway. The people saying like, oh, I hope they, they film it and I hope they bring it to Broadway. That's not happening. I hope they tour it. It's not a revival of the show. It's, it's just a little acute little concert moment. That's not to say it won't be costumed. They have been in the past. That's not to say it's not going to be directed. Here we have a director, Sergio Trujillo, I believe he is the Tony Award winning director and choreographer for the production. And Tony Award winner Stephen Aremus is going to be the musical director, Stephen Arimus of Wicked. So that's a fun connection, him working with Cynthia. I will say a theme throughout this video is going to be me fact checking people who don't know enough about musical theatre history. And even this Variety article, though it is written in kindness, kind of makes a mistake here in suggesting that Cynthia Eriva is only the second black woman to play Elphabet in a major production of Wicked. To call the film a production is already a little bit odd. They acknowledge that Alexia Dean was the first black woman to portray the character full time. And they do say full time there. But you can't say that Cynthia is only the second black woman to play Elphaba in a major production when the Broadway production is a major production. And black women have played Elphaba on Broadway, just not as the principal performer until this upcoming cast, when all of that is about to change but once again, I digress. The point is Cynthia is going to play Jesus Christ in Jesus Christ Superstar. Now, obviously in a historical and biblical context, Jesus Christ was a man, something that we have learned over the last few days is very, very important to his followers. Like, you know, the whole divinity of it all, notwithstanding the concept of the Holy Ghost and God's spirit said to earth and his, notwithstanding, it's like, yes, he did a lot of miracles, but the Y chromosome matters more to us anyway. This of course is provoking unsurprising outrage, admittedly, because it is the first time that Jesus Christ in Jesus Christ Superstar has been played by a woman. Except that it's not. There has been a production of the show before which has cast it through a gender non conforming lens, has taken a gender blind casting approach and that production did not feature a male actor in the role of Jesus. There has been a concert version of the show before, just like this is, which had an all female cast. Subsequently, an album was made recording the score with an entirely female cast. And guess what? Cynthia Erivo featured on that album, though ironically not as Jesus. She was Mary, basically the only female role in the original production, if cast traditionally. And also also not that long ago, the role of Judas Iscariot on the US tour of Jesus Christ Superstar. I believe the tour of the Regent's Park Timothy Sheader directed version that began here in London and is currently in Australia and has been wildly successful all around the globe. I believe that production featured as one of the understudies for the Roya of Judas, a female performer who went on and portrayed the role opposite a black actor in the role of Jesus. We'll get to that in just a minute. And was it met with controversy? Was it met with outrage and backlash and protests and articles? No, because those people never really found out about it. And even if they had, I don't know if a few years ago they would have cared because there wasn't quite so much provoked outrage as there now is. We hadn't learned how to weaponize and economize outrage in the way that we now have. All of which is to say this is not the first time that Jesus Christ Superstar has featured in its leading roles non traditional casting from the perspective of gender. And we could talk about the many other musicals that have also in recent years taken a similar approach. We could talk about the very high profile company revival which started in the West End and transferred to Broadway. We could talk about the Broadway revival of 1776. We could talk about a Production of how to succeed in business without really trying that I saw here in the uk. We could talk about all of the Shakespeare that is done constantly with casting irrespective of gender. But here is the question I would like to ask. Do we really think this outrage would be happening if it were a performer other than Cynthia Erivo? If we were to take one step away from this and say instead of Cynthia Erivo doing it, it was, I don't know, Jennifer Hudson, still a black woman, but one who I would argue is a little bit more palatable to right wing America for a handful of reasons because Cynthia Erivo has a discernibly queer aesthet seen a lot of misrepresentation of Cynthia's gender identity. Cynthia is openly queer and has talked about this, but is not to my knowledge non binary. I saw a tweet from the usually witty and on this occasion incredibly disappointing Twitter account audition pianist who shared rewritten lyrics of the song I Don't Know how to Love Him. They're a them, they're just a them. And I've had so many thems before. In very many ways they're just one more. Which if you couldn't tell from my response, is evidently side splittingly funny. But it's also mocking something about Cynthia's identity that isn't even true. I think people are conflating queer aesthetics with a non binary identity in a way that, you know, that makes me think if this was to be Jennifer Hudson instead giving what I can only assume would be an equally thrilling vocal performance, like I'm thrilled. Can I just say, haven't even said that yet. To hear what Cynthia Erivo is going to sound like singing Gethsemane. Jennifer Hudson would also sound great, but I do believe there would be a little bit less outrage. Cynthia, for whatever reason, always seems to draw a certain amount of controversy. And I've seen, I've seen tweets of hers from back in the day as well. And like even to have a conversation about casting Cynthia Erivo and things I know I know can also can also draw controversy. I remember the days, but continue to humor me if you will. Let's imagine we take two steps away. Let's now say Jesus is still going to be played by a woman, but by a white woman. Let's say it's conservative favorite Carrie Underwood. Do you really think that GB News in the uk, our unfortunately ongoing right wing news platform, is going to be stoking the flames of this culture war by complaining about that situation? No, of course they Wouldn't be. Do you really think people would be up in arms? No, people would be buying tickets. They'd be getting ready to unfurl their biblical picnic blankets to hear Jesus take the Wheel 2.0 Skrelting Edition. And you know for a fact that poor man's eye of Maud or Elon Musk would not be personally weighing in as he has bafflingly for this piece of casting news. Or we could go in a different direction and talk about the multiplications when Jesus has been played by a black actor or by an actor of color, but a male actor. Because I was reading one of the articles about this whole situation, which just hysterically, in the way that it was written, felt the need to point out that Jesus before, in various different productions has been played by John Legend in the NBC live Jesus Christ Superstar, who they said is black, and also by an actor named Declan Bennett who is gay. Both of which are true facts. But makes me very concerned just about the state of the world that that's, I don't know, journalism and obviously has nothing to do with their portrayal of a historical character who, I'll remind you, wasn't white. But I've been paying enough attention throughout history, and I hope you have as well, to the likes of Madonna, music videos and the secret life of bees, to know that there has always been outrage back in at biblical depictions that were anything but white that obviously wasn't rooted in biblical accuracy. It wasn't rooted in historical accuracy. It was just rooted in, you know, Western white privilege and racism. Society eventually learned to get past that. They're still not best pleased about it, but they eventually learned to contend with reality in that regard. And I'm not here to suggest that Jesus wasn't historically a dude, but it does feel as though this thing in particular and this particular quantity of outrage and this particular character of outrage feels more linked to ongoing misogyny than anything else. And to call it inherently blasphemous for a woman to be playing Jesus Christ and Jesus Christ Superstar feels a little ignorant of the musical Jesus Christ Superstar. So it's at this point we're going to venture all the way back and talk about the reaction to this show when it first opened because they were picketed, they were protested on a daily basis. Original cast member Ted Neely has spoken about people trying to stop them accessing the stage door of the theat. And can I just say that, you know, the religious fanatics in the years since evidently have lost a little bit of their commitment and drive because now people are just, like, typing about it really angrily from their home. They're not even, like, leaving the house to complain about these things. People used to go out on the street. People used to make placards. People used to stop Broadway actors entering their workplaces. And now, now they're just trolling them on social media. Not that I would like to see a return to those days, of course, but doesn't it make people seem a little bit pathetic that they can't even protest exuberantly? Like, you can't even go outside. You can't even put on shoes. What's the point of you, anyway? Much of the reason for the protest is because the musical Jesus Christ Superstar, controversially, controversially at the time and arguably still controversially now, very much depicts Jesus with human frailty from Judas perspective, which is how the musical is shaped in terms of the narrative, which is, by the way, much of its success and why it's so interesting. That's such a great dramaturgical choice. That's not what we're focusing on today. I got distracted. From Judas perspective, Jesus is human. And according to Judas, Jesus at the beginning always was human. And it was something of a more recent revelation as part of, you know, the work that they were doing, that Jesus had suddenly become considered divine. And Jesus was, like, taking that on as well. That is what Judas is singing about at the beginning of the. When Judas is singing heaven on their minds and saying, like, Jesus has got carried away in the whole thing. I remember when this whole thing began. No talk of God then we called you a man. You have set them all on fire. They think they found the new Messiah and they'll kill you if they find you're wrong or something like that. Now, within the material, Jesus never acknowledges this, but Jesus does exhibit human frailty during the song Gethsemane, which, by the way, absolute banger. Jesus sings directly to God and is fearful and frustrated and anxious about the concept of having to go through with the crucifixion and go through with the intended plan and die for all our sins on the cross. You know, the story. We've all. We've all heard it. Take this cup away from me for I don't want to taste its poison, why should I die, etc. Which not only seems a little unbecoming for the Son of God, but also if we look at it from the perspective of Jesus really being God come to earth in human form, then it doesn't really align with that. There is also the slightly more intimate nature of his relationship with Mary Magdalene, depending on how the production is directed. And a lot of Christian audiences were not ready for any of this in the mid-70s, which by all accounts was a time of significant social change. But shortly thereafter, it found significant mainstream success. And at some point in the years since, since the controversy has really died down. I dare say that if you, like, seek out the stranger corners of organized religion, you would still find some resistance to the likes of Jesus Christ Superstar. But for the most part, it doesn't seem to bother people nearly as much. You don't hear about protests and backlash until this particular casting choice. But again, it really. It doesn't really make sense for people to suggest that this particular casting is blasphemous because it's a little ignorant of the fact that the whole show is allegedly also a little bit blasphemous. Like, this is not a passion play in the traditional religious sense. This is not entirely biblically sincere. Anyway, that's about as much as I want to say about the ridiculous controversy. My own opinion on this is that Cynthia, of course, is going to sound fantastic. I think it's way more interesting casting than casting, I don't know, like another male music industry person who can't actually sing the score. I think she's going to sound great. And that's the most important thing, because it's Jesus Christ Superstar. It's not the world's strongest narrative. What it is is one of our best rock opera scores. I think that's going to sound really exciting. I would almost prefer to hear her playing Judas because it's kind of the meteor role, aside from Gethsemane. And I think it would be really fun, like, if we just leaned into the whole thing. Had Cynthia play Judas, had Ariana Grande play Jesus, God is a woman style 2.0, wearing a comedy beard. I only want to say, can you imagine? But finally, moving past the Jesus Christ Superstar of it all, do you know what this immediately reminded me of is the backlash to the casting of Francesca Amawouda Rivers as Juliet in Romeo and Juliet? Because whenever these things get announced, first of all, everyone thinks it's a film. For some reason, everyone always sees this. And it's like, why? Why is she playing Juliet opposite Tom Holland in this movie? Why is Cynthia playing Jesus in this movie? Why do people always assume it's cinema? Why is that always the default? Annoys me. Second of all, why do people always think that this is the first time this is ever happening? Because Francesca was even later in the line of several Several black actresses to play Juliet. Several non white actresses to play Juliet, a role famously played originally on stage by a man. Humans, they upset me. And I'm sure if I were to sit here and surround myself with miserable thoughts of the past, I could give you many, many more examples of when there has been this kind of backlash. But I expect what we would see is a pattern, and that pattern would be a Venn diagram. And a lot of this controversy seems to be found at the center of racism and misogyny, a concept which we call misogynoir. Because people do seem to be able to tolerate gender blind casting approaches. People sometimes seem to be able to tolerate race blind casting approaches. But the thing that seems to consistently spark the biggest outrage is a combination of the two. God forbid a black woman should try and do anything in entertainment beyond the small handful of roles already made available to her, including, but not limited to maids, slaves, and absolutely no one in science fiction. Oh, my God. Hey, I'm currently editing this video and I've just thought of another couple of examples, as I suspected that I might. One of them is when Nomadu Mizwini was cast in the orig original cast of the Harry Potter and the Cursed Child play as a black actress playing Hermione. And all of the stuff around that, like, going back to the books and how people were, like, looking through to find the slightest thing and be like, see, in this one line of this one chapter of this one book, Hermione's described as, like, turning pale. So therefore, this shouldn't be happening. Like, it was so gross and it's so reductive of the capabilities of these brilliant actors to their race and to their skin color. People aren't seeing actors here. People are just seeing black actors. People are just seeing a black woman. And I just think we keep seeing this again and again and again. When Lashana lynch was cast as Miss Honey in the musical film of Matilda, she'd given interviews to say that she was bracing for a backlash to that. I think from what I can remember, there was perhaps even more so resistance to Emma Thompson being cast as Miss Trunchbull, because people were used to seeing that being played by a man. So again, you may not be a woman in these roles if they're not considered to be for you. Anyway, that was just playing on my mind. There are still people who call Cynthia Erivo's demonstrably terrific casting in Wicked Woke, and that is a character who is green. Not only is the idea that the green woman should be played by a white actress. Evidently ridiculous. But in fact, as we've discussed many times, Cynthia as a black actress bringing that knowledge and that insight to the character of Elphaba, someone who is othered because of her skin color, actually makes way more sense and made for a far more nuanced and emotionally meaningful portrayal than I think we've ever seen on stage. Maybe, just maybe, she will bring some of the same profound insight to the character of Jesus, someone who, within the context of Jesus Christ Superstar, a musical which follows the last few days of Jesus life, depicts him being literally crucified for the things that he is saying. And I know that Christianity already has 10 commandments plus the extra one that Jesus whacked on the end, but if I could offer you a 12th, it would be irony. Please embrace and understand irony, because that right now would be beneficial. Anyway, I think that is all that I have to say about the casting of Cynthia Erivo as Jesus in Jesus Christ Superstar at the Hollywood Bowl. What a non story. What a ridiculous outrage. I hope that this goes away very quickly and that we can all get over ourselves. And you know what? Educate ourselves better on musical theatre. This is neither a landmark casting moment nor whatever people are trying to say that it is. If you think this is blasphemous, but the show isn't, then you really haven't paid attention to it or to the Bible, I'm going to say. But that's a different conversation for another day. In the meantime, I'm gonna go lie down in a dark room and scream and or repeatedly sing the climax of the song Gethsemane, which with my current vocal strain, will likely sound much the same. I hope that you have enjoyed the unhinged rant that this video has become, and feel free to share your own opinions in the comments section down below. I'm going to be moderating the heck out of them just so we're all on the same page. As always, please be respectful of each other's opinions and mindful of the fact that fools walk among us. And as always, I hope that everyone is staying safe and that you have a stagey day. I'm out for 10 more seconds. I'm Mickey Jo Theatre. Oh my God. Hey, thanks for watch. Have a stagey day. Subscribe.