Jesus the rock star is more popular than the Beatles

Jesus Christ Superstar, which begins a six-week run in Regent’s Park Open Air Theatre on Friday, packs a huge spiritual punch and raises some very pertinent questions about the founder of Christianity.

It is nearly 50 years since Andrew Lloyd Webber and Tim Rice’s intense rock opera first burst on to the scene. It began life as an album, recorded in November 1969 in the aftermath of John Lennon’s comment that the Beatles were more popular than Jesus. Plans to cast Lennon as Jesus and Yoko Ono as Mary Magdalene in a production at St Paul’s Cathedral sadly never materialised — nor did a proposed opening of the show with a one-off performance on the stage used for the Passion play in Oberammergau, Austria.

Rice…

Article source: https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/jesus-the-rock-star-is-more-popular-than-the-beatles-c6zvg9v2x