Production boasts superstar quality

JESUS CHRIST SUPERSTAR

(Mossley AODS, George Lawton Hall, Mossley)

MOSSLEY’S amateur company has a big reputation to uphold, and here manages to do so convincingly with the Lloyd Webber-Rice classic.

The company has attracted some of the best singers in the area for a production that pulls out almost all the stops and threatens to boost sales of throat sweets wherever these performers shop.

As I have said before, for me “”Superstar”” is a flawed, beginners’ show that remains firmly fixed in a rock idiom that went out of date years ago.

But the show’s bombastic tunes, quiet ballads and general “big event” air still have the power to impress when done right.

One thing you can usually expect of this company is that the stage will be awash with energy from the leads to the chorus, and as usual expectations are strongly fulfilled.

Director Lee Brennan moves his large cast around the extended stage with skill and introduces a couple of clever touches, the best of which is to have cast members, their fingers dipped in red paint, scratch across the body of Jesus — John Wood — as he is lashed, leaving him with red scars across his beaten torso.

There isn’t a weak link in the cast, which is where the show scores highest: John Wood has played the role before and brings to it a dignity and high-note frenzy of power singing.

Likewise Nick Ward and Hannah Davenport score very highly as Judas and Mary; he another strong, high-power belter, she sweet and conciliatory.

But the pleasures continue in the second rank too: Jon Crebbin is superb as Pilate, while Steve Maxfield, Rhys Nuttall and Dominic Dunne are remarkably assured as Herod, Simon and Peter respectively.

They are allowed to shine courtesy of a rock and roll lighting set up with motorised lanterns; but chiefly thanks to strong choreography by Liz Linden and a terrific band under the direction of Paul Firth.

John Buckley’s set is a clever mix of thrust stage and moving elements from below; the costumes are an unusual mix of sword and sandals fantasy and stormtrooper for the Jews, dark malevolence for the Romans and contemporary casual clothes for Christ’s followers.

The whole thing comes together extremely well — as the opening night standing ovation and a mere two seats remaining for the entire run attest.