Hello, theater fanatics! Since my last post on this blog was, at least partially, about a revival I proposed that will likely never occur, and also since I don’t have a lot of new things to say without starting to resemble my pal the Sweaty Oracle, I thought maybe I’d share a story about another Sleepless in Seattle moment where one of my favorite shows and I passed each other like ships in the night. After over a decade of being “almost famous,” I’ve got a million of these.
If you’re a member of the Jesus Christ Superstar Zone forum, then you’ve already heard this story twice: once back in the day when our message boards ran on SMF software and we had a blog section, and then again on the new forum when I got to reminiscing about four years ago. It’s a tale I often tell because everybody can relate to the best-laid plans of mice and men going awry, and also because it illustrates a basic fact of this industry that I don’t think is going to change even with sweeping much-needed reform: you must be driven to be in the theater, it has to be the only thing you could ever choose to be in, and you’ve got to have rhinoceros skin on top of that, or else the constant rejection and the “if only” of every missed opportunity will eat away at you. But it also makes for a great story later on.
So… if you’ve read this blog, or followed my exploits both on the JCS Zone forum or on my Tumblr specifically devoted to discussing Jesus Christ Superstar, you’ve probably seen, read, or perhaps even participated in the creation of my many concepts for how I would stage a production of JCS if I was given the chance to hold the reins. But did I ever tell you I almost did? (No need to respond, that’s rhetorical.) Here’s my recollection of the chance I got to be involved in just such an opportunity…