As Cynthia Erivo channels the Christian Messiah, her Judas is coming to her defense.
Ahead of this weekend’s star-studded Jesus Christ Superstar concert at Hollywood Bowl, Adam Lambert defended the casting of Erivo in the eponymous biblical role, which has drawn backlash from some circles over the Tony-winning actress being a Black LGBTQ woman.
“Cynthia’s brilliant. Her voice, presence, and simultaneous power and vulnerability absolutely blows my mind and working with her has been a dream,” Lambert told Billboard. “I’m excited by the challenge of presenting the audience with a production led by a female, Black ‘Jesus’ and encourage the audience to expand their minds a bit. Originally utilizing rock and roll, Jesus Christ Superstar is supposed to provoke and challenge, that’s the point. And shouldn’t the teachings of Jesus transcend gender?”
Erivo was cast as Jesus back in February, the actress addressed the discourse in an interview. “Why not? You can’t please everyone,” she told Billboard. “It is legitimately a three-day performance at the Hollywood Bowl where I get to sing my face off. So hopefully they will come and realize, ‘Oh, it’s a musical, the gayest place on Earth.’”
After the staging of Andrew Lloyd Webber and Tim Rice’s musical was announced, running Aug. 1-3, Lambert was cast as Judas, with Milo Manheim, Raúl Esparza and Phillipa Soo also joining the cast as Peter, Pontius Pilate and Mary Magdalene, respectively. After coming down with Covid, Josh Gad dropped out of playing King Herod this week, with John Stamos stepping into the role.
Directed and choreographed by Tony winner Trujillo, the Hollywood Bowl’s Jesus Christ Superstar is conducted and music-directed by Stephen Oremus (who worked on both the Broadway and film versions of Wicked). The show is produced in association with Neil Meron and Robert Greenblatt.
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