Ryan Shrime '00

Jim Augustine '01

Loeb Mainstage Through Nov.20

When Jim Augustine '01, as Herod, takes to the stage for "Herod's Song" during the second act of Jesus Christ Superstar, audience members look and listen. Emerging from the mostly overwhelming and often confusing action of the first act, "Herod's Song" is the most engaging musical number to demonstrate that there may be hope for this production. Unlike most of the preceding two hours, there is evidence of characterization, dynamic choreography and a sudden, long-awaited connection between performers and observers.

While it is certainly unreasonable to expect all student performers to exhibit the kind of stage presence that Augustine shows off to such delight, this moment serves as a reminder of all that this production could have been, and all that it usually fails to achieve.

The greatest hurdle for any production of Superstar is the material itself. The show is less theater than song cycle, a collection of simple pop-inspired numbers that are memorable only for the wrong reasons. The exhilarating score, at the time of its debut, excited hope in the theater community that Andrew Lloyd Webber could turn out to be a great talent, but it also reminds us of the disappointment of his subsequent work, which has failed to transcend Superstar's artlessness. Tim Rice's lyrics are even worse: they consist of a series of sentimental clichs liberally scattered with forced and ineffective rhymes which range from "spoon-moon" obviousness to "admired-despised" awkwardness.