Jesus may be pretty fly for a white guy, but some argue that the best reason to see Jesus Christ Superstar is the flygirls, the troupe of seven hot-to-trot female dancers who really spice things up throughout the show with their sexy moves and even sexier costumes. They are like the fabled "cherry on top" of an already tasty treat of a show: they sing, they dance (do they ever!), at times they even kickbox, and they do it all in crop-tops and hip-huggers. The flygirls are a "character" or "presence" in the show as much as Jesus or Pontius Pilate (in fact, they also double as lepers, whores and other crowd members when they aren't dancing)--but they're a "presence" that is less a part of the plot and more a part of the music. They are a lot like the flygirls who appeared on the now-defunct TV variety show "In Living Color," kicking dance-ass and taking names while punctuating the story line with risque, hyper-energetic, musical exclamation points. To put it simply, they put the rock in rock opera.

The flygirls are not an entirely new creation: the original script by Lord Andrew Lloyd Webber and Tim Rice calls for a small group of singer-dancers called "Soul Girls" to appear ever so often in the show. However, it was James A. Carmichael '01, the choreographer for this production of Jesus Christ Superstar, who really gave the "Soul Girls" some soul: he added a dash of 'tude, a handful of sexy moves, and really transformed them into the hot-n-spicy, no-holds-barred flygirls they are today. (That's fly with a "ph," as in "Phlygurlz," their self-proclaimed moniker.)

So they're sexy, they're sporty, their enthusiasm may even be a little scary, but don't you dare call them the Spice Girls. First of all, they're women, not girls, and they are anything but bubble-gum pop vixens. Aside from their aforementioned bare-it-all costumes, the flygirls plan on doing the scene where Jesus comes before Herod in dominatrix-chic, complete with fishnet stockings and rhinestone brassieres (the scene was often treated in previous productions as a cross between a vaudeville soft-shoe and soft-core porn as envisioned by the cast of The Rocky Horror Picture Show). In the scene where Jesus is flagellated prior to his crucifixion, the flygirls re-enact what can only be described as climaxing, sensually twisting and turning in sync with the cracks of the whip.

If the flygirls aren't the Spice Girls, who are they? The Christian tradition on which Jesus Christ Superstar is based (in theory, at least) makes use of the via negativa to define who God is, outlining everything He isn't (e.g., "God is not mortal") and implying that He is everything else. A similar tactic works for the flygirls. They're not the Supremes, exactly, although in some scenes they do alternate their backflips with do-wop backup harmonies. They're not all TLC, despite their crazysexycool attitude and hip-hop flava (they describe their dance style as "hip-hop and jazz meets Tae Bo"). They are not so much the In Living Color flygirls as they are the dancers in the video for the Paula Abdul song "Cold-Hearted Snake."

As much as "Phlygurl" is a state of mind--it is just a state, after all--a type of character like whom someone may act within the walls of the Loeb Mainstage but not within the walls of their Mather single. Those expecting the seven women who play the flygirls to be just as saucy as the dishes they play onstage will find nothing of the sort. The characters may be a nice piece of sass, but the women who play them (Sabrina K. Blum '03, Shelby J. Braxton-Brooks '03, Jody E. Flader '02, Juliene James '00, Sofia A. Lidskog '01, Yayoi J. Shionoiri '00, and Jennie D. Tarr '01) are just plain nice. What these seven girls share most with the flygirls is their unbridled enthusiasm for the show. Despite the fact that they have one of the most rigorous rehearsal schedules in the cast--they have been excited about the show since the first time they came in contact with it--the "incredible" dance audition during Common Casting (one of the flygirls who initially had not wanted to do the show decided to take the part because she was so amazed at the audition). In a characteristic move of flygirl solidarity, the dancers all agree that they are each the others' greatest inspirations. The flygirls may not be Spice Girls, but the women who play them sure seem to echo the five pop tarts' girl power sentiments.