PRODUCTION DETAILS
ABOUT SUPERSTAR AND ITS WRITERS
THE AUSTRALIAN PRODUCTION 1972-74
PHOTO GALLERY
NOTES ON THE CAST AND CREW
REFERENCES / LINKS

Judas (Jon English) and the chorus in full flight, Capitol Theatre, 1972.
Photo courtesy of Mark Ellison.

PRODUCTION DETAILS

VENUE:
Capitol Theatre, Sydney (1972-73) followed by a season in Melbourne (venue unknown) and a tour of other cities and towns.

DATES:
4 May 1972 - February 1974
700+ performances

Music by Andrew Lloyd Webber
Book and lyrics by Timothy Rice

PRODUCTION TEAM:
Producer: Harry M. Miller
Director: Jim Sharman
Executive Producer: Frederick J. Gibson
Associate Exec. Producer: Garry Van Egmond
Scenic Design: Brian Thomson
Musical Director: Patrick Flynn
Associate Musical Director and Principal Conductor: Michael Carlos
Costume Design: Rex Cramphorne
Sound: John Morrison
Dance Director: Keith Bain

PRINCIPAL CAST:
Trevor White (Jesus)
Jon English (Judas)
Michelle Fawdon (Mary Magdalene) 1972-73
Marcia Hines (Mary Magdalene) 1973-74
Robin Ramsay (Pontius Pilate)
Reg Livermore (Herod) 1972-73
Doug Parkinson (Herod) 1973-74
Stevie Wright (Simon Zealotes)
Peter North (Caiaphas)
John Paul Young (Annas)
Brian Withers (Priest 1)
Peter Noble (Priest 2)
Bill Binks (Priest 3)
Wayne Matthews (Peter)
Frank Howson, Bill Paton (Stage Attendants)

Supporting Cast/Chorus:
Tony Bishop
Carolyn Boyd
Stephen Campbell
Peter Chambers
Janet Dearlove
Jeremy English
Beverly Evans
Noel Evans
Barry Ferrier
Safanya Gee
Donna Gilbertson
Janine Griffith
Phillip Hobbins
Gary Hoffman
Paul Johnstone
Richard Kaal
Julia Lyndon
Wayne Matthews
Suzanne Moore
Sharon Murphy
Bill Miller
Rory O'Donoghue
Tony Rose
Colin Setches
Rosa Shiels
Shayna Stewart
Bonnie Truex
Stevie Wright

MUSICIANS:
Mike Wade [guitar] - band leader
Ken Firth [bass]
Jamie McKinley [piano, acoustic guitar]
Greg Henson [drums]
Michael Carlos [organ, Moog synthesiser]
Mike Reed [understudy guitar]
 

ABOUT SUPERSTAR AND ITS WRITERS

The creators of the Superstar, lyricist Tim Rice and composer Andrew Lloyd Webber, first met in 1965. Rice had been a member of the pop groups The Aardvarks (1961-63) and Whang And The Cheviots. Rice began his professional life with the intention of being a solicitor, but he joined EMI in 1966, working under the supervision of Norrie Paramor. When Paramor left EMI to form his own company, Rice went with him. It was through Desmond Elliot (who Tim had gone to with the idea of a book about pop history) that Tim met Andrew Lloyd Webber. Rice joined the Norrie Paramour Organisation in early 1968 and worked there until 1969.

Andrew Lloyd Webber was a child prodigy from a musical family; his father William was a respected composer and organist and at the time Superstar was created Lloyd Webber Snr was director of the London College of Music. Andrew's younger brother Julian became a renowned classical cellist. Andrew published his first composition at the age of nine, won scholarships to Westminster School and Magdalen College Oxford, but dropped out to work with Rice; he later studied at the Royal College of Music.

Their first musical, The Likes Of Us (based on the life of Dr Barnardo) was never produced, but soon afterwards they wrote Joseph and the Amazing Technicolour Dreamcoat which premiered at Colet Court in 1968. It was specifically written to be performed by schools and proved to be very popular. It was subsequently recorded as an album, but the recording did not become a success until after Superstar became a hit.

Conceived and written in 1968-69, Superstar was certainly an innovative work, although perhaps not so wholly original as it creators have since portrayed it. Rice and Lloyd Webber were not the first to combine the stage musical form with songs written in the rock genre -- that honour goes to two American musicals which premiered in 1968 -- Your Own Thing, a rock musical adaptation of Shakespeare's Twelfth Night and now all but forgotten, and Hair, which was first staged in October 1967 and started its successful Broadway run in April 1968. Similarly, the concept of a rock musical with no "recitative" or spoken links, one that carried the story entirely in the lyrics of songs, was an approach that had recently been pioneered by The Who in their groundbreaking work Tommy, written in 1968 and recorded in 1969, which was also certainly the first such work to be described as "rock opera".

Through their earlier pop work and their connections in the British music industry, Rice and Lloyd Webber must surely have been well aware of both Hair and Tommy, and while they had already written a pop musical on a biblical theme, it's probable that Pete Townshend's allegorical interpretation of the Messiah myth exerted a strong influence on Rice and Lloyd Webber, perhaps encouraging them to take the bold step of telling the story more directly by writing a musical that explicitly dealt with the subject of life and death of Jesus.

Tim Rice: "We broke all the rules. For example, we came out with cast recordings before the shows had opened, and we cut out the book. These things, which proved to be magical ingredients for a hit, were either forced upon us or we did because we had no choice.

"We desperately wanted Superstar to be a stage show but no-one wanted to produce it 'this will never catch on' so we had to do it as an album. And because we did it as an album we made it shorter, because unlike today's CDs, you could only fit a maximum 23 minutes of music on each side of a vinyl LP.

"So instead of a long, drawn-out show for the stage, we had to trim it back drastically. And nothing in life is ever too short. Superstar, at 86 minutes, was a lot better than it would have been at 186 minutes.

"We also ditched the book. Nor did we worry about scene transitions. No matter that the Apostles had to enter stage-left just as 450 Roman legionnaires exited stage-right."

"It was like writing a show for radio, which, indeed, we were, because radio was then the only outlet for this project. And for that reason we made it more contemporary sounding. If it had opened as a stage show in Plymouth or Huddersfield or wherever, with an ordinary pit orchestra, it would not have had any of that dynamic rock feeling which made it a landmark musical."

Rice cleverly avoided any engagement with the question of Jesus' supposed divinity by portraying him purely as a man, during the last seven days of this life . Theologically speaking, they were perfectly justified in doing so, since according to Christian doctrine Jesus was a mortal man until after his crucifixion. Nevertheless, it was a brave step for the time and there were many in the more conservative realms of religion who were appalled by the very idea of such a portrayal, especially when combined with the sinful and shocking medium of rock music. Their other bold conceit was to tell the story through the eyes of Judas and to make him the "lead" character rather than Jesus. Rice also played up the political overtones of the story, inviting obvious parallels with modern Messiah figures like Mao Tse Tung, Ho Chi Minh or Che Guevara, as well as quietly drawing an equally obvious parallel between the Roman occupation of Israel and the ongoing war in Vietnam.

Superstar tells the story of the last seven days of Jesus' life as seen by his favourite disciple Judas, who has become disillusioned with Jesus and fearful of the road he is taking. At the opening of the play, Judas agonizes over what he sees as the fanaticism and blind loyalty of Jesus' followers, decrying the fact that some are now hailing him as a god, the fulfilment of the ancient Hebrew prophecy of the Messiah, and that his most radical followers are looking to him to lead them in a revolution to overthrow the Romans occupation. To Judas, Jesus is only a man, with human frailties, as evidenced by his troubling relationship with a reformed prostitute, Mary Magdalene. As the mood of his followers becomes more extreme, the rift between Jesus and Judas widens. After watching Jesus lose control in the temple, lashing out at the moneylenders and merchants, then begging to be left alone when a crowd of cripples surrounds him wanting to be healed, Judas is more convinced than ever that the man from Nazareth is just that -- a man, and nothing more. He decides that Jesus, having lost control of the mob, has become dangerous and must be stopped before he brings down the wrath of the Romans on them all. He goes to the high priests of the Temple and gives them the information they need to catch Jesus alone so that they can take him prisoner without risking violence by the mob. After leading the soldiers to Gethsemane, however, and watching the events that unfold, Judas realizes that he has become the instrument of Jesus' martyrdom. Furious that the man from Nazareth will be remembered as a "superstar," Judas hangs himself.

Although its conceptual and structural originality may be open to question, Superstar definitely broke new ground both in the record industry and the theatre, by reversing the usual relationship between stage show and soundtrack album. Soundtrack albums had been a popular marketing tool for musicals since the late 1940s but such albums were typically recorded after a show had become successful. Superstar appeared as an LP long before it was produced on stage and in fact it was the success of the record which led directly to the first stage production -- the first and probably the only time a major stage musical has been successfully launched in this manner.

Due to the controversial nature of the show, Rice and Lloyd Webber were unable to get backing for a stage production, so they drew on their extensive connections in the music industry to record the project as a rock album. MCA England were interested so they agreed to record one of the songs and release it to test public reaction. Rice and Lloyd Webber then wrote the first song, Jesus Christ Superstar, which eventually became the finale. It was recorded in September 1969 and released as a single. Although it drew a certain amount of criticism it was generally accepted and most importantly, it charted. MCA gave them the go-ahead to continue, so they locked themselves away in a Herefordshire hotel, and composed their rock opera in one working week. The album was completed in July 1970; the lead performers included Ian Gillan of Deep Purple as Jesus, Murray Head (who later recorded the international hit single One Night In Bangkok from Chess) and singer-guitarist John Gustafson, who played bass on many of Roxy Music's 1970s albums. The Superstar album was officially released in the U.S. by Decca on 27 October 1970 and it too was an immediate hit. This success enabled Rice, Lloyd-Webber and their backers to move ahead with presenting Superstar on stage -- although it's significant that they first went to America to do so.

Superstar had its world stage premiere at the Mark Hellinger Theatre in New York on 12 October 1971. In another bold stroke, the producers cast black American stage star Ben Vereen as Judas, with Jeff Fenholt as Jesus, Yvonne Elliman as Mary (she starred in the movie version and later worked with Eric Clapton), Barry Dennen as Pilate, and Paul Ainsley as Herod. Despite opposition from some conservative Christian groups, the original production (directed by Tom O'Horgan and produced by Robert Stigwood)  became a huge box office hit and ran for 720 performances.

It was followed by a string of successful international stagings including the Australian and UK seasons; each had its own cast and design, and both premiered in 1972. The Sydney production opened in May 1972 at the Capitol Theatre, Sydney, and the London production on  9 August 1972 at The Palace Theatre, where it ran for 3358 performances. The Sydney and London productions were directed and designed by Jim Sharman and Brian Thompson. Sharman was also invited to direct the subsequent Tokyo production. The Sydney version was produced by Harry M. Miller, and the London version by Robert Stigwood. There was also a successful film version directed by Norman Jewison and featuring members of the American productions, including Yvonne Elliman as Mary, Ted Neely as Jesus and black American singer-actor-dancer Ben Vereen as Judas.

Unlike the creators of Hair, Rice and Lloyd Webber were able to follow up the huge success of Superstar with more hit musicals, and they have since become household names. However it is not widely known that their next project after Superstar was a flop. Through 1974-75 the pair worked simultaneously on two new musicals, one called Jeeves, based on the PG Wodehouse characters; Rice eventually backed out, feeling that he could not do justice to the famous Wodehouse characters, and he was replaced by noted playwright Alan Ayckbourn. Despite this, it proved to be one of Lloyd Webber's rare failures, running only five weeks. He reunited with Rice and together they completed the second project, Evita, in late 1975.

Essentially a retread of the Superstar concept, Evita was based on the life story of the controversial popular figure Maria Eva "Evita" Duarte Peron, the wife of General Juan Domingo Peron, the military dictator of Argentina from the 1940s to the 1970s. Some found the musical's canonisation of Eva Peron distasteful, especially given her husband's brutal reputation and his unashamedly fascist political affiliations. But her story is undoubtedly compelling -- equally loved and despised, she rose from provincial obscurity to become a famous actress and finally First Lady, only to be struck down by cancer at the age of 33. Like the figure of Judas, Evita was obviously attractive to Rice, who originated the project, since she perfectly embodied the paradoxical nature of fame and power.

Evita was even more successful than Superstar, and Julie Covington's recording of the song Don't Cry For Me, Argentina was an international hit. The pair are now acknowledged as the most successful musical team in theatre history, but their partnership dissolved acrimoniously soon after Evita premiered. Temperamentally they were very different -- Lloyd Webber's upper-class background made him distant, aloof and by the time of Evita he was becoming known as a workaholic. The outgoing Rice, from an average middle-class background, was an avuncular, well-liked figure who could "produce lyrics on a napkin over lunch".

Lloyd Webber's next project, Cats, was a musical adaptation of the poems from the children's book Old Possum's Book of Practical Cats by the world-renowned British poet T.S. Eliot. It was the first of several hugely successful collaborations between Lloyd-Webber and producer Cameron Mackintosh, but it also marked the end of the Rice-Lloyd Webber partnership. Towards the end of project, Lloyd Webber approached Rice to provide words for the last-minute composition Memory (which proved to be the showstopper).  Rice worked through the night on the lyrics, but his contribution was never used and this slight brought his partnership with Lloyd Webber to an abrupt end.

Despite its improbable (some might say laughable) subject matter, Cats struck an unlikely chord with theatre-goers and became a massive hit, smashing the box-office records set a few years earlier by A Chorus Line. Cats has since becoming both the longest running and the highest grossing musical in theatrical history. It was followed by one of Lloyd Webber's lesser known works, Song & Dance, with lyrics by Don Black. It premiered in 1982 in London and ran for a respectable 781 performances, closing in 1984.

Lloyd-Webber's next project provided him with another colossal hit. It was inspired by his lifelong interest in trains and railways -- as was the name of his company, The Really Useful Group, which derived from his love of the "Thomas The Tank Engine" stories. The new work was basically a variant on the anthropomorphic conceit of Cats. Originally conceived in 1973 as an animated television series, Starlight Express was loosely based on the story "The Little Engine That Could" and centres on a battered steam engine named Rusty who is encouraged to race a flashy diesel locomotive. This idea evolved into a lavish musical spectacle in which the engines were portrayed by actor-dancers on roller-skates (which proved very demanding for the performers). The lavish set featured a 5.5 ton steel suspension bridge and a gigantic set constructed of 6 miles of timber, 2.5 acres of plywood and 60 tons of steel. It took 1200 lanterns & 6000 pea lights on the back wall to create the star effect, and the production cost over £2.25 million when originally staged in London in 1984. It was the most expensive musical ever produced in the UK up to that point but the investment paid off handsomely and Starlight Express now ranks second only to Cats as the longest-running musical in British theatre history.

The same year, Lloyd Webber divorced his first wife Sarah Hugill, whom he had married in 1971, and married soprano Sarah Brightman. His next work was a Requiem written for his late father, in which Brightman sang the female soprano part. He wrote his next musical with her in mind. Phantom of the Opera, adapted from the Victor Hugo novel, is his most famous and successful work. It premiered in 1986 and became an unprecedented international hit, with major productions running for years in cities around the world. It is now acknowledged as the most successful musical of all time, has been seen by 60 million people worldwide and has grossed more than £2 billion. The show also made former film and TV actor Michael Crawford (best known prior to Phantom for his role as the bumbling Frank Spencer in Some Mothers Do 'Ave Em) into a major theatrical and recording star.

In 1986 Rice and Lloyd Webber reunited briefly to collaborate on a one-off project, Cricket, a 25-minute musical comedy commissioned by Prince Edward (who was then working for the Really Useful Group) and which was performed as part of a pageant for the Queen's 60th birthday. Lloyd Webber's next musical venture opened in 1989. Taking the opposite tack to its predecessor, Aspects Of Love featured a small cast in an intimate setting and while the songs were critically praised, this musical was far less successful than its predecessors.

In 1990 Lloyd Webber and Brightman divorced and in early 1991 he married his third wife Madeleine Gurdon. His next project was a musical adaptation of the classic Billy Wilder film Sunset Boulevard, which premiered in 1993, but several of the productions were beset with problems and closed after a relatively short runs.

In 1997, Lloyd Webber was knighted. The same year his next musical, Whistle Down the Wind premiered out, but it soon closed due to extensive production problems. The long awaited Evita movie starring Madonna also came out and was a box-office success.

Webber has become somewhat notorious for his supposedly domineering personality and especially for the obsessive, Kubrick-esque control he exerts over performances of his works (even in schools) through his company, The Really Useful Group. In fact it is impossible to stage any Webber musical without every aspect being thoroughly vetted by RUG. Through the '80s and 90s Webber continued his unstoppable progress to ever greater heights. Cats and Phantom have become international successes of an unprecedented scale, with Cats now holding the record as the longest-running musical in theatre history. The Really Useful Group is one of the most profitable companies in Britain. In recent years Lloyd Webber -- now a life peer -- purchased Canaletto's The Old Horse Guard for over £10 million and bought both the Palace and New London theatres.

Questions have been raised in past about the originality of Lloyd Webber's work and although the matter gained little publicity, it is understood that RUG and Lloyd Webber were obliged to come to a financial settlement with the estate of the composer Giaccomo Puccini after Lloyd Webber was accused of plagiarising Puccini's work for Phantom. Despite these minor setbacks, Lloyd Webber is one of Britain's richest citizens and arguably the most successful and famous composer of his generation. In 2001 Lloyd Webber premiered his musical collaboration with comedian Ben Elton, The Beautiful Game, which follows the exploits of a group of aspiring young Belfast soccer players. His most recent project is as producer for the musical with the Bollywood flavour - Bombay Dreams (2002) - with music by A.R. Rahman, Book by Meera Sayel and lyrics by his Song and Dance collaborator Don Black.

Tim Rice (now also knighted as well) has been almost as successful as Lloyd Webber in artistic terms, although it's doubtful that he has enjoyed anything like the kind of financial rewards in which his erstwhile partner now luxuriates. In 1981 Rice wrote lyrics for the rock concept album 1984 (based on the Orwell novel) with music by Rick Wakeman. In 1983 he co-wrote the musical Blondel (set in the Crusades) with composer Stephen Oliver. In 1984 he collaborated with Benny Anderson and Bjorn Ulvaeus of ABBA on the hit musical Chess, which duplicated Superstar by being recorded as a concept album before it was staged.

In 1992 he wrote lyrics for an English adaptation of a French musical, set in the contemporary recording industry, which was retitled Tycoon. In 1995 he collaborated with Australian musician and composer John Farrar (ex The Strangers) on the musical Heathcliff, Sir Cliff Richard's long-cherished musical adaptation of Wuthering Heights. In 1997 he returned to biblical themes with a musical based on the life of King David, co-written with composer Alan Mencken.

Much of Rice's recent and most successful work has been for Disney, including several of their hit animated musicals. In 1992 he wrote additional lyrics for Aladdin; in 1994 he contributed additional lyrics to the stage adaptation of  Beauty & The Beast, and later that year scored a huge hit when he wrote the lyrics for Elton John's music in the hugely successful animated feature The Lion King. Their song Can You Feel The Love went on to win an Academy Award and the flim later became a hit stage musical. The two subsequently collaborated on an animated adaptation of Aida (1998). In 2000 they collaborated on a third animated film, Dreamworks' The Road To El Dorado. A lifelong fan and a noted cricket writer, Rice is a also a member of the MCC and was club President in 2002-2003.

Rice's autobiography, covering his life and career until the opening of Evita in London, was published in England in 1999. He has won many awards including twelve Ivor Novello awards, four Tony awards, and three Oscars. He was inducted into the Songwriters Hall of Fame in 1999. During the Broadway run of the Jesus Christ Superstar revival in 2000, he had a total of four shows playing simultaneously on the Great White Way. He was knighted in 1994.

THE AUSTRALIAN PRODUCTION

There were many elements that made the Australian production of Jesus Christ Superstar special. It drew on the experience and expertise that had been developed during the Sydney production of Hair, and many of the cast, band and production staff who worked on Hair moved on to Superstar, including producer Harry M. Miller, director Jim Sharman, designer Brian Thompson, orchestra leader (and former Tully keyboard player) Michael Carlos, bassist ken Firth (also ex-Tully), and performers Reg Livermore and Marcia Hines. This tradition continued after Superstar with the hit musical The Rocky Horror Show.

The Superstar production was in many respects a logical development from Hair. Because of the novel demands posed by having the music written in the rock idiom, the casts of both Hair and Superstar were drawn from the local music scene as well as from the theatre. Both productions were also notable for casting relative unknowns in major roles and both were not only hugely successful in their own right but also acted as springboards that launched the careers of many of their lead players.

This was especially true for Superstar, which included Jon English as Judas, John Paul Young as Annas and Marcia Hines as Mary Magdelene; the chorus included both Russell Hitchcock and Graham Russell, the central members of Air Supply; it also provided the venue for the triumphant comeback of former Easybeats lead singer Stevie Wright, who played Simon Zealotes. Also featured was noted stage and TV actor Robin Ramsay, who had achieved considerable fame in the late Sixties in the ABC's drama serial Bellbird, playing the role of the nasty stock-and-station agent Charlie Cousins. When Ramsay's character was written out, Cousin's fatal plunge from the top of a grain silo became one of the most-watched and best-remembered moments in Australian TV history.

In the demanding central role of Judas, the producers cast a British-born singer, Jon English, former lead singer with Sydney's Sebastian Hardie Blues Band. Opposite him was Trevor White, another British-born singer, who had come to Australia in the mid-1960s as the vocalist with the UK band Sounds Unlimited. The role of Mary Magdelene was originally played by actress Michelle Fawdon, who was well established on the Melbourne theatre scene and had featured in numerous TV roles including many Crawford Productions police shows such as Homicide.

Director Jim Sharman had a distinguished showbiz pedigree. His father, Jimmy Sharman Jr, was a famous showman whose tent shows toured the country for decades. Jim Sharman rose to prominence with a series of innovative productions for the Old Tote Theatre Company in the late 1960s, which led to him being selected as the director and designer of Hair in 1969.

When the Hair production moved to Melbourne in 1971it was completely redesigned by another rising young star of Sydney theatre, Brian Thompson, a former architecture student who had collaborated with Sharman on several Old Tote productions. His stunningly simple design for the Sydney production of Superstar won him wide acclaim and was the first of several hit collaborations.

One of the most notable aspects of the Sydney production was the recruitment of American-born singer Marcia Hines to replace Michelle Fawdon in 1973 in the role of Mary Magdalene. Marcia was the first black woman anywhere in the world to play the part, although it was based on an even more daring precedent -- black American actor Ben Vereen had played Judas in the original New York production. Marcia had already made a considerable impression in Hair, but her thrilling performance in Superstar made it obvious that she was a star on the rise and within two years after the show ended she had become Australia's Queen of Pop and Australia's most successful female singer.

Another important member of the cast was Reg Livermore. He had a long history in Sydney theatre and had featured regularly on the Sydney stage and on television, appearing in several ABC drama productions and children's shows. He came to wider attention in 1971 when he replaced Keith Glass in the central role of Berger in Hair. This was followed by his famous stint as Herod in Superstar. Although only a minor role in the original show, it's a mark of Reg's brilliance and teh respect in which he was held by his peers that he was able to transform what was originally written as a short brief comic interlude into a seven-minute song-and-dance showstopper.


NOTES ON THE PRODUCTION DESIGN
Brian Thompson’s striking minimalist design for the 1972 stage production set new standards for Australian musical theatre. His innovative concepts reduced staging, sets and scenery almost to the point of geometric abstraction, and they were superbly complemented by Rex Cramphorne's equally emblematic costumes.

Thompson's design consisted of three main major elements. The first element consisted of several long, transparent vinyl plastic tubes which could be raised or lowered from above the stage; these were used in the "Creation" sequence during the overture and in the death of Judas scene. The second element consisted of several long elevated metal walkways; these were of various lengths and transected the space above the stage at various angles and heights, functioning mainly as raised platforms for the cast, although the main left-to-right walkway was also used to suspend the 'Caesar' curtain which formed the backdrop to the trial scene.

The eye-catching third element, the centrepiece of the set, was a masterpiece of design and engineering -- a large, hydraulically articulated dodecahedron. Nothing quite like it had been seen on the Australian musical stage before, although it had a distant ancestor in the prop Brian designed for the 1967 Architecture Ball, starring The Masters Apprentices -- a giant die in which the band were wheeled out into the hall, hidden inside, at which point it exploded open and the band jumped out and began playing.

The dodecahedron shape was a striking sculptural form and rich in symbolism, but it was also a brilliant piece of multi-functional stage design which could be used in many ways throughout the show. Structurally, the top half of the dodecahedron was fabricated as a single piece, forming a lid which could be raised and lowered  into place by cable to come to rest on top of the bottom half of the structure, making a completely enclosed solid when lowered (see bleow). For most of the show the top half of the dodecahedron was raised up out of sight.

The dodecahedron fully closed.

The bottom half of the device was a masterpiece of ingenuity. The entire apparatus could be rotated through 360 degrees. All five “leaves” of the bottom half could be individually raised or lowered hydraulically and held at any elevation; it could opened up like a flower or closed to become a basin; each leaf could be lowered to become a ramp or raised to become a flat platform. The central 'floor' panel also held a concealed hydraulic lift in its centre, which could be lowered through the stage floor; allowing cast members to enter the dodecahedron without being seen when the leaves were raised. The lowest short walkway which crossed the back of the right-hand corner of the stage was also positioned so that, when a panel of the dodecahedron was lowered to the correct height, the cast could step easily from the walkway onto the dodecahedron. The inside of the dodecahedron was covered in a fawn-coloured fabric which provided a non-skid surface for the performers; the outside was painted silver to reflect the lighting and projections.

The dodecahedron, with three of the five panels raised, during the scene in which Jesus (Trevor White) preaches to his followers

A wider view of the stage showing the dodecahedron,  two of the walkways and the 'Caesar' backdrop. This photo shows the
 trial scene, just after Pilate (Robin Ramsay) has washed his hands, symbolically absolving himself of blame for Jesus' death.
The drama of the moment was heightened by Ramsey breaking open a concealed pigment capsule, which turned the water blood red as he plunged is hands into it.

The choice of a dodecahedron was no doubt inspired in part by Brian’s architectural studies, and the shape was eminently suitable to the subject matter, being rich in religious and mystical symbolism. The dodecahedron is composed of twelve pentagonal faces and is one of the five “Platonic solids”. The Platonic solids, also called the regular solids or regular polyhedra, are convex polyhedra with equivalent faces composed of congruent, convex regular polygons with equal sides and equal angles. There are exactly five such solids: the cube, the dodecahedron, the icosahedron, the octahedron, and tetrahedron, as was proved by Euclid in the last proposition of "The Elements". The Platonic solids are sometimes also called "cosmic figures".

The Platonic solids were known to the ancient Greeks, and were described by Plato in his Timaeus ca. 350 BC. Plato equated these polyhedra with the Greek elements: the tetrahedron with fire, the cube with earth, the icosahedron with water, the octahedron with air. Plato equated the dodecahedron with the æther, assigning it the role of "the fifth construction, which the god used for embroidering the constellations on the whole heaven". In 1596 Johannes Kepler published a tract called The Cosmic Mystery in which he envisioned the universe as consisting of nested Platonic Solids whose inscribed spheres determine the orbits of the planets, all enclosed in a sphere representing the outer heaven. The dodecahedron is representative of the universe, and therefore also of God, and the number of faces have been variously said to symbolise the twelve disciples of Jesus, the twelve months of the year and the twelve houses of the zodiac.

Each of the twelve faces of the dodecahedron is a pentagon, another shape of great and ancient symbolic importance. The pentagon contains the golden ratio, which enhances the dodecahedron’s associations with the cosmos. The pentagon also forms the centre of the pentagram (or pentacle), which symbolizes the human form, and which was also part of the official seal of the city of Jerusalem from about 300-150 BCE. In medieval Jewish mysticism it was called the Seal of Solomon or Solomon's Shield.

Both the pentagon and the pentagram also have a direct and ancient association with the planet Venus, and thus with the various female divinities of the ancient Near East with whom the planet Venus (as either the morning or evening star) was linked, from the Sumerian Inanna, through the Akkadian Ishtar (Astarte), the Egyptian Isis, the Greek Athena and Aphrodite and the Roman Venus. Each of these various goddesses has been shown to be the direct mythological descendant of its predecessor, and these various goddesses – notably Isis and Aprhodite/Venus -- were widely worshipped throughout the Mediterranean and the Near East until well into the early Christian era, but ultimately all these cults were subsumed into the worship of the Christian mother goddess, the Virgin Mary.

It is interesting to note that, because of its immense symbolic value, the dodecahedron was one of several shapes considered by director Stanley Kubrick when designing the alien artefact for his 1968 film 2001: A Space Odyssey. The other shape he considered was an octahedron, and several octahedral objects appear in one scene in the “Stargate” sequence near the end of the film. Ultimately though, Kubrick rejected both designs and settled on the now-famous rectangular monolith.

The other memorable feature of the production was Herod's car, a converted golf buggy which was fitted out with a custom-made gold fibreglass skull on the front, with headlights in the eye sockets.

The emblem used to represent Imperial Rome (above, left) featured on Pilate's robe and on the backdrop used during the trial of Jesus. The logo combines an image of the Emperor Tiberius (obviously based on a Roman coin of the period, like the one at right) with the letter "C" for Caesar, but the inclusion of the vertical lines also makes an obvious allusion to the "cent" symbol, implying the link between money and imperial power.

Rex Cramphorne's costumes matched Thompson's design perfectly. Most of the stage used dark or neutrally coloured materials, and this was echoed by the subdued tones used for many of the costumes, which were in muted blue, brown, cream, dark red and mauve. Jesus was dressed in a simple but striking bright red long-sleeved shift with a black stripe around the collar which extended down the centre of the front of the costume.

Judas, appropriately, was dressed for most of the show in a black sleeveless robe with white trim, but for the final scene in which he rises from Hell, he wears a black body stocking emblazoned with red arrows running up each arm and the centre of the costume, so that with both arms raised it creates a 'pitchfork' effect. His costume created a striking contrast to the costumes worn by the chorus during the finale -- white hooded robes, embellished with a broad red strip around the lower half.

The Priests wore long robes, and large conical white head-dresses which accentuated their height. In the original production, Herod wore a black-and-gold Roman style tunic, with his chorines similarly dressed in gold satin mini-skirt tunics which satirically recalled the short battle tunics of Roman soldiers. When Reg Livermore took over he wore a gold satin three-piece suit.

The most spectacular costume was of course the spectacular 'winged' robe worn by Pilate in the climactic trial scene. In royal blue, with white and black screen-printed designs, it featured a large two-winged train, printed with black rays ending in white hands; the two segments were raised up on poles by attendants during the scene. The robe also had large 'bat-wing' sleeves, with dark blue (or black) rays. As the photo below shows, with arms outstretched and train extended, the robe was very striking indeed.

Also most memorable were the sinister costumes for the Roman guards; they were dressed head-to-toe in black leather, with leather hoplite-style helmets surmounting white skull masks that concealed their faces. They carried long 'spears' of metallic silver.

SOUND AND MUSIC

The sound system for Superstar was a major breakthrough in Australian theatrical sound. It's easy to forget that high-fidelity, high-powered concert sound systems were still a very new innovation in 1972 and certainly nothing like it had been heard in Australian theatres before. It was LOUD, rock-concert loud, which was a totally new phenomenon in Australian theatre and it certainly must have shocked many patrons. Designed and built by John Morrison, the Superstar sound system was years ahead of its time and we know of several sound engineers who were so excited by what they heard on seeing Superstar that it led them directly into their future careers. John's credit as sound designer on Superstar was in fact the first time that this area of endeavour had been publicly recognised in a major theatrical production.

It's also worth noting that Superstar was staged years before the advent of radio microphones, so the cast had to contend with the perennial performance hassle of using microphones with long cords. Jesus, Judas and other key cast members used hand-held mics, but Morrison and Thompson employed some clever techniques to overcome tricky staging problems. In one instance they concealed a microphone in the top of a guard's staff so that Pilate could sing "hands free" during the trial sequence in which he has to wash his hands. Other mics were strategically placed around the stage to enable to solo singers and the chorus to be heard through the PA. We hope to be able to provide a fuller account of the sound design for this production in the near future.

Superstar's backing band was also notable and included two former members of highly-regarded progressive rock group Tully -- keyboard player Michael Carlos and bassist Ken Firth. It is believed that Superstar was the first Australian stage production to make use of a synthesiser for its musical backing. Many members of the Superstar Band went to the Rocky Horror Show in 1974 and later formed the core of the Baxter Funt Orchestra, which backed Reg Livermore on his acclaimed one-man shows. Carlos and the other members of Baxter Funt also provided regular backing for singer Jeannie Lewis, including her classic album Free Fall Through Featherless Flight.

PHOTO GALLERY

All images generously provided by Mark Ellison

Jesus (Trevor White) confronts Judas (Jon English, back to camera)

The crowd hails Jesus during the song Hosanna

Herod (actor unknown) and his followers deride Jesus. The front sectin of Herod's 'Skull-mobile" can be seen at left.

Herod (Reg Livermore) and chorus girls.

Mary Magdelene (Michelle Fawdon) pleads with Jesus after his arrest

Pilate (Robin Ramsay) symbolically washes away his guilt during the trial of Jesus. The white headdresses of the priests can be seen
just to the right of the guards holding the water vessel. This photo gives an excellent view of Rex Cramphorne's superb costume.

Judas (Jon English)

Judas (in the "pitchfork" leotard)  and chorus in the finale

Mary Magdelene (Marcia Hines)

Jesus (Trevor White)

NOTES ON THE CAST AND CREW

(under construction)

Trevor White (Jesus)



 

Jon English (Judas)



British-born singer Jon English was virtually unknown prior to his casting in the role of Judas. But he was already an accomplished singer, having paid his dues as lead vocalist with Sydney's Sebastian Hardie Blues Band (precursor to the renowned progressive group Sebastian Hardie). His electrifying performances as Judas won rave reviews, made him an instant star and launched his career; in the years following Superstar he established a very successful solo career and was one of the top male vocalists of the period, scoring major hits with songs like Hollywood Seven and Turn The Page.

Marcia Hines (Mary Magdelene, 1973-74)



 

Robin Ramsay (Pilate)


 

Reg Livermore (Herod)

ORIGINAL AUSTRALIAN CAST LP (1972)

Recording year: 1972
Label: MCA MAPS-6244
Length: 48:42
Tracks: 14
Conductor: Patrick Flynn

Singers:
Jon English
Rory O'Donoghue
Trevor White
Michelle Fawdon
Peter North
Robin Ramsay
Stevie Wright
John Paul Young

Track Listing:
1. Heaven On Their Minds
2. Everything's Alright (4:20)
3. Hosanna (2:00)
4. Simon Zealotes
5. Poor Jerusalem (4:42)
6. Pilate's Dream (1:35)
7. The Temple (4:38)
8. Everything's Alright (0:28)
9. I Don't Know How To Love Him (3:24)
10. The Last Supper (6:55)
11. Gethsemane (6:12)
12. Could We Start Again Please
13. Trial Before Pilate (6:34)
14. Superstar (4:03)
15. John 19:41 (2:20)
 

Many thanks to Mark Ellison for providing the photographs featured in this article

Andrew Lloyd Webber Online
http://www.westegg.com/unmaintained/alw/

Andrew Lloyd Webber biography
http://www.nodanw.com/biographies/webber_andrewlloyd.htm

National Library of Australia
"Michael Wade: It was 40 years ago today"
http://www.nla.gov.au/ntwkpubs/gw/56/p22a01.htm

Tim Rice
Dymocks/SMH Literary Luncheon
http://old.smh.com.au/news/literarylunches/rice.html

Sir Tim Rice - unofficial website
http://home.earthlink.net/~jsjb/tim/main.html

Michael Carlos biography
http://www.yamatohs.com/class66/biorant/mcarlos/

The Cast Album Database
musicals.eur.com/title.cfm?TNumber=320