"From the very opening notes, we had this slightly inexplicable reaction of 'Oh, wow. They’re really doing Jesus Christ Superstar.'"

"We don’t know that we honestly expected otherwise but we suppose in retrospect we assumed some sort of vaguely ironic, winking, American Idol-esque take. JCS is a beloved album, film and show, but theatrically, dramatically and at times even musically, it can get downright goofy. In addition, it’s tied very closely to a post-hippy, pre-metal sound and aesthetic that doesn’t always update well. Plus there’s the treatment of the subject matter, which can be seen as unquestioningly reverent or downright blasphemous, depending on your point of view. And let’s face it; some of those songs are nearly impossible to sing. But JCS Live 'solved' pretty much all of those problems by … simply ignoring them, it would seem... As a production it 'solved' the format problems so many previous musical theater television productions had by simply… putting on a show, in front of an audience, with an orchestra, some dancers, and some great singers with theatrical voices all moving around in a finite and limited space (also known as a stage). No one tried to over-think this one and that was entirely to the production’s benefit. Jesus Christ Superstar Live was the very best of the live network musicals, mainly because it didn’t try to be anything other than what it always was – goofiness and all."

Write Tom & Lorenzo (with much more at the link).