By Robert Tomlinson
News Director
THREE RIVERS — The 52nd season of the Three Rivers Community Players will open up next week with a performance of one of the more well-known rock operas in Broadway’s history.
“Jesus Christ Superstar” will be performed by the Community Players from Oct. 11-13 and 18-20 at the Community Players Theatre at 15526 Millard Rd., between Dairy Queen and Walmart. Friday shows and Saturday evening performances are at 7:30 p.m., while Sunday and Saturday afternoon matinees begin at 2 p.m.
The story of “Jesus Christ Superstar” is a unique retelling of the final seven days of the life of Jesus Christ, with most of the story centered on Judas and his doubts and dissatisfaction with which Jesus is steering his disciples. The show, done in a sung-through 1970s rock opera format, goes through some of the major events of the Passion, and interprets the psychology of the characters of Jesus, Judas, and the disciples.
TRCP’s production is directed by Chad VanderMei, his second-ever directorial credit with the Community Players. He said he has wanted to do this show for quite a while, and to finally be able to do the show, to open up the 52nd season of the theater, was a “dream come true.”
“The music is incredible, the story is unique in that it’s a commonly-known story but told uniquely through the eyes of Judas,” VanderMei said. “It’s a lot more work than I expected, and I expected a lot of work. But the payoff is going to be remarkable.”
Judas Iscariot will be portrayed in the TRCP production by Kate Acosta, in her first-ever show with TRCP, while Jesus Christ will be played by TRCP veteran Jacob Huff, and Mary will be played by McKenna Burlingham. Other roles include August Gallagher as Caiaphas, Laura VanderMei as Annas, River Jackson as Simon, Morgan Smith as Peter, Eathan Bingaman as Herod, and Jonathan Talmadge as Pilate.
Casting for the show, VanderMei said, was “difficult,” and could’ve gone a number of ways.
“We could’ve cast four different, unique casts, and it would’ve been amazing regardless,” VanderMei said. “During the process of getting ready for the show and leading up to casting, my whole thing was that it’s irrelevant to me whether you identify as male, female or otherwise. If you’re the rockstar for the part, you’re the rockstar for the part. We could’ve casted a million different ways, but the people who are singing these parts, you’ll know why when you hear them open their mouths. There’s incredible talent.”
VanderMei said he has seen a lot of progression with the actors in rehearsals, including actors who are new to theater. He also gave kudos to music director Maggie Timmer, choreographer Tina Miller, and stage manager Maddy Eickhoff for helping him out with putting the show together.
“I wouldn’t have been able to do this without them,” VanderMei said.
With the show itself, VanderMei said it is not meant to be a faithful retelling of Jesus’ final days, but rather it posits a thought-provoking question while also avoiding being heretic or blasphemous.
“When the writers were putting the show together, the question they were asking was, from Judas’ perspective, ‘Surely he was acting reasonably, right?’” VanderMei said. “From his perspective, you have your best friend who is at the top of this monumental movement that’s growing larger by the day, and the people who are following are getting more and more restless and out of control. What would you do if you’re in this situation? … It takes some creative liberties to get some points across, but in Judas’ eyes, he was a little more man than God, and his faith in Jesus is kind of put to the test.”
VanderMei also noted that everyone can “take away something different” from seeing the show.
“Because the ending is left ambiguous compared to the source material, people can choose to believe one way or the other or draw their own conclusions,” VanderMei said.
The setting of the show, VanderMei said, is in the modern day, and noted that he took inspiration from a few other professional productions of the show to get the look of what he wanted.
“It’s set, I guess, in 2024, and you’ll see as it progresses, how well it fits that the followers, Jesus’ followers back in the day would’ve been fighting the same fight these characters are fighting,” VanderMei said. “At the end of the day, the same systems and the same fights for power happen everywhere every time, no matter where.”
Along with the main cast, VanderMei said there will also be understudy performances, which will occur on the two Saturday matinee performances at 2 p.m. He said the idea to do this was two-fold.
“The show is so vocally demanding, we needed to make sure we had a backup plan in place in case somebody loses their voice or gets sick or something,” VanderMei said. “We’re also doing this to give them a chance to shine too, since they’ve been working hard.”
The understudy shows will have Disco Metheany as Judas, River Jackson as Jesus, Laura VanderMei as Mary, Jacob Talmadge as Simon, and Kara Smith as Annas.
Tickets are $20 for adults and $18 for students and seniors, and can be purchased at trcommunityplayers.com.
Robert Tomlinson can be reached at 279-7488 or robert@wilcoxnewspapers.com.
