Jesus Christ Superstar - Trivia, Questions and Fun Facts

[discussimdb]

Fan of Jesus Christ Superstar or just want to share your movie knowledge? This topic is dedicated to all trivia and questions related to Jesus Christ Superstar

[elmer]

According to the commentary, all the wind shots in the film were done with natural wind. No machines were used.

[ivan]

Norman Jewison based the "Last Supper" tableau on the famous painting by Leonardo Da Vinci, which is located on a wall of the refectory of Santa Maria delle Grazie in Milan, Italy. In doing so, he managed to give the dancers playing the Apostles specific character names. The only flaw is, the singer who plays "Peter", Paul Thomas, is seated in the wrong place. He is on the end, in the position Da Vinci painted "Bartholomew". In the painting, "Peter" is believed to be the apostle whispering to "John", the apostle seated immediately to Jesus' right, our left.

[carla]

The "39 Lashes" scene was so realistic that Ted Neeley's mother walked out on it. Mrs. Neeley had never laid a hand on young Ted in an anything but affectionate manner, and could not bear the sight of her son being whipped and tortured by anyone else, even though she knew it was just acting.

[camila]

Norman Jewison: the dubbed voice of the third man at Peter's Denial ("But I saw you too / He looked just like you").

[christina]

The song "Could We Start Again Please" was not on the original album, but was meant to capitalize on the popularity of Yvonne Elliman's "I Don't Know How To Love Him", which was released in 1970 and became a top ten hit. The song "Then We Are Decided" was not on the original album and was added to the show later as well.

[kristina]

In the 1980 book The Golden Turkey Awards by film critics Michael Medved and Harry Medved, Ted Neeley was given the award for "The Worst Performance by an Actor as Jesus Christ".

[gabriel]

The Roman soldier who nails Jesus to the cross was played by an Israeli who spoke very little English. He thought Ted Neeley was actually supposed to have nails hammered through his hands! Just in time, director Norman Jewison saw what was happening and screamed, "NO! NOT IN THE HAND!"

[riley]

Director of Photography Alex Thomson had to be replaced after a serious fall from a camera rostrum during filming.

[ray]

Norman Jewison had originally contacted Ian Gillan to play Jesus because Gillan sang the role on the original album version of the opera. Gillan refused, and his stated justification has varied over the years from a dislike of Jewison to his commitments to his band Deep Purple.

[stephanie]

Though 4-track magnetic stereo was prominently advertised in the initial release, the 35mm mag/opt prints were not 4-track stereo - there was no surrounds track.

[harry]

Norman Jewison claims in the DVD commentary that this is the last movie to be shot in Todd-AO; however, it is billed as being made in Todd-AO 35. The picture was later blown up to 70mm for engagements at Cinerama screen theaters (if this had been shot in genuine Todd-AO, no "blowing up" would have been necessary; the picture would have already been made in 70mm).

[bessie]

Ted Neeley met his wife on the set. She is one of the dancers in the "Simon Zealotes" scene.

[tom]

In the scene where Pontius Pilate first meets Jesus Christ, Barry Dennen had difficulty climbing to his spot on top of the hill, due to a scraggly path and ill-fitting shoes. Seeing this, a burly grip threw the actor over his shoulders and carried him up the hill. Director Norman Jewison then called from below for Dennen to come to the very edge of the cliff. (Recounted in the bonus segment of the Superstars (2015) documentary.)

[kenzi]

"Jesus Christ Superstar" opened at the Mark Hellinger Theater on October 12, 1971 and ran for 711 performances.

[javier]

"I Don't Know How to Love Him" had originally been published with different lyrics in the autumn of 1967, the original title being "Kansas Morning". The melody's main theme has come under some scrutiny for being non-original, being compared to a theme from Felix Mendelssohn's Violin Concerto in E Minor. In December 1969 and January 1970, when Andrew Lloyd Webber and Tim Rice completed Jesus Christ Superstar, Rice wrote new lyrics to the tune of "Kansas Morning" to provide the solo number for the character of Mary Magdalene (Rice and Webber's agent David Land would purchase the rights to "Kansas Morning" back from Southern Music for £50). Now entitled "I Don't Know How to Love Him", the song was recorded by Yvonne Elliman and completed between March and July 1970. When first presented with "I Don't Know How to Love Him", Elliman had been puzzled by the romantic nature of the lyrics, as she had been under the impression that the Mary she'd been recruited to portray was Jesus's mother, who is a very important presence in the Gospel story but surprisingly absent from the musical.

[ken]

In the otherwise funny commentary on DVD by Norman Jewison and Ted Neeley, both turned very sad when they remembered the recent death of their colleague and friend Carl Anderson.

[addison]

According to the book "The Bible On Film" by Richard H. Campbell and Michael R. Pitts (Scarecrow Press, 1981), page 169, David Cassidy and Micky Dolenz were also considered to play Jesus. Cassidy eventually went on to play Jesus in a stock production of "Superstar" in the 1980s.