Jesus Christ Superstar
Review by Ernest Goes To The Theatre/Ernest Edwards
On Sunday December 28, 2025, I braved the winter weather to see the closing/evening performance of the National Tour of Jesus Christ Superstar at the Ordway. It’s part of their Broadway at the Ordway 2025/2026 season. At the start of the evening, the president of the Ordway welcomed us to the 24th and last performance of the musical, and said that 30,000 people were able to enjoy the musical at the Ordway during the month of December.
This Andrew Lloyd Webber and Tim Rice musical is one of my favorite scores for a musical. This production did not disappoint. We did have two understudies at my performance. Actor Joshua Bess, who is normally the First Priest was Pilate. I can’t remember who then played the First Priest. That actor was phenomenal in the role of the First Priest. He had a great voice and stage presence.
The story of Jesus Christ Superstar follows Jesus and his disciples during the last days of Jesus’s life, from arriving to Jerusalem to celebrate Passover to the crucifixion. The original concept album came out in 1970. The original Broadway production was in 1971. Then the movie was out in 1973.
From the Ordway, this production will go on an international tour. In the summer of 2026 it will play at the Palladium Theatre in London’s West End.
There are many things that I liked with this production. This production was based on the Regents Park Theatre production from London. I’ve been to the open air theatre before in Regents Park, it’s a great venue for theatre. The scenery was very effective for this production. The production is about 90 minutes with no intermission. I don’t think I have seen Jesus Christ Superstar before without an intermission. It was really nice. There were times where Jesus had a guitar during some songs, the same with Peter, the First Priest and Pilate. When Judas betrays Jesus to the Priests, they dip his hands in silver paint in the chest full of silver. Judas then has silver hands the rest of the performance. It’s like he is marked by his betrayal, and everyone can see it. A concept that I noticed is that while singing a song, the performer had to grab a microphone. Sometimes the microphone was passed around, like with the song “What’s the Buzz?”. In the song “This Jesus Must Die” Caiaphas and The Priests sing the first half of the song holding their staffs off to the side. Then in a well choreographed moment half way through the song, the staffs are rotated to reveal a microphone at the other end that they then finish off the song singing from that microphone. That was a really fun moment to see on stage. Another favorite moment was during the song “The Last Supper”, everyone on stage recreated Leonardo DaVince’s the Last Supper. That was a nice moment on stage.
Some recognition for the cast from the Sunday evening performance. Jack Hopewell as Jesus, Elvie Ellis as Judas, Faith Jones as Mary, Isaac Ryckleghem as Caiaphas, Joshua Bess as Pilate, Eric W. Schleck as Herod, and the actors name that I can’t remember who was the understudy for First Priest (understudy not referenced in the program).
This was a fun production. Had me humming the songs as I left the Ordway.
