Did you love Jesus Christ Superstar Live!? John Legend was in spectacular voice as Jesus and kudos also to Tony nominee (and one of my favorite Broadway stars) Norm Lewis as Caiaphas. But the scene stealer of the night was Tony nominee Brandon Victor Dixon who stole the show as Judas Iscariot. He was a glittering reminder, particularly in disco chainmail in the closing fantasy sequence (since Judas had already committed suicide), that live performing is a unique skill set. Imagine your average movie star trying to keep up that much physical and emotional energy for two plus hours while leaping around a stage and singing at the top of their lungs. If anything Dixon's energy only grew as the night wore on. Just stunning. (I'm not talking about his body, but that too.)
Though Jesus Christ Superstar! was in some ways an odd dated musical choice for a mainstream family event (it's not remotely 'funny' for one) it was the best produced "Live" musical since that became an annual thing. The set design and direction were amazing, culminating in a major wow of a finale. Still don't love the Andrew Lloyd Webber score and can't fathom why people doing the orchestrations for Lloyd Webber revivals never think to subvert the oh-so-70s electric guitar sound (also a weird issue with the 1996 Evita movie) but you can't have everything.
Since this particular production had all kinds of gorgeous men in fine voice and equally fine body, let's end this Easter weekend sharing photos of the hottest men to have ever played Jesus in the movies or on television before John Legend's go at it. The gallery is after the jump...
Willem Dafoe by Herb Ritts (1988) and Willem Dafoe by Martin Scorsese (1988)
Confession: I've never seen The Last Temptation of Christ (1988). That's a glaring miss in the annals of statistically crazy Best Director nominations.
Lothaire Bluteau in Jesus of Montreal (1989)
Victor Garber in Godspell (1973)
50s and 60s heartthrob Jeffrey Hunter as King of Kings (1961)
Jim Caviezel for Parade magazine in 2003 and Jim Caviezel via Mel Gibson in 2004
Christian Bale in 1999 photoshoot and 1999 Jesus portrayal
Ewan McGregor on the set of Last Days in the Desert (2015). He also played Satan in the same film.
Haaz Sleiman photographed by Michael Michaud (year unknown) and Haaz Sleiman as Jesus in 2015