The Village Theatre, 2011

Music: Andrew Lloyd Webber

Book & Lyrics: Tim Rice

Director: Brian Yorkey

Costumes: Melanie Taylor Burgess

Lights: Alex Berry

Sound: Gino Scarpino

"Matthew Smucker's main set is a refuse-strewn netherspace amid decaying buildings—conjuring images of Ground Zero, its dusty air pierced by Alex Berry's surveilling searchlights. The opening scene bodes wonderful urban menace, as street toughs crawl out of the shadows, scale a gigantic chain-link fence, and dance a mashup of rave, pop, and hoedown styles (percussively enhanced by Doc Martens on their feet). Jesus wears a hoodie, Judas is buttoned-down and scholarly, while Mary Magdalene is punked out with pink- and yellow-streaked hair. Caiaphas and his priests sport long white coats and cereal bowl–sized yarmulkes. Pilate's Armani mafia harkens to fascism. We meet Herod face-down, butt-up in a massage parlor, which makes his lyric "Jesus, I am overjoyed to meet you face to face" the funniest in the show. Yorkey also salts in references to glossy magazine culture, the Wall Street meltdown, torture, and even our own WTO protests, as helmeted jackboots rhythmically thwack batons on shields. It's a dazzling farrago of the topical and the spiritual." - Seattle Weekly

Production Photo Credits: Jay Koh and Matthew Smucker