![]() Webber has admitted that the melody does sound like a theme from Felix Mendelssohn’s Violin Concerto in E Minor (1845). "Kansas mist at my window.") Later, while composing Superstar, the musicians refitted their old ballad with new lyrics, and Mary’s Act I solo was born. ("I love the Kansas morning," the song went. “Kansas Morning,” an ode to the Sunflower State, was co-written by Rice and Lloyd Webber and published in 1967. ![]() THE MELODY OF “I DON’T KNOW HOW TO LOVE HIM” WAS TAKEN FROM AN UNRELATED SONG CALLED “KANSAS MORNING.” "I was so frightened I'd lose it." But instead of getting a piece of paper, Lloyd Webber was handed a napkin-and he quickly jotted down the main theme of “Jesus Christ Superstar,” arguably the show’s most recognizable anthem, on it. I went into the restaurant and said 'Can you give me a piece of paper?'" He recalled. called Carlo's Place, and I knew the owner a little bit. In a 2015 interview, the composer said he couldn't recall exactly when the now-iconic melody first came to him: “What I do remember though, is that I forgot it.” Then, one day in 1969, he was walking down London’s Fulham Road when the tune popped back into his head. ANDREW LLOYD WEBBER WROTE PART OF THE TITULAR SONG ON A NAPKIN. Rice has described the Bible’s characterization of Iscariot as a “cardboard cut-out figure of evil,” and he set out to humanize Judas in Superstar. clearly Iscariot was not an unintelligent man, and how much was the whole thing in the end an accident of what was necessary given the politics of the day?” That lyric was “Did Judas Iscariot have God at his side?” from the 1964 song “ With God on Our Side.” Lloyd Webber later said the line was "Tim's starting point for the text. ![]() A BOB DYLAN LYRIC INSPIRED THE MUSICAL’S DEPICTION OF JUDAS. But doing it that way around worked so well, because in addition to making the work itself better, it promoted the work so well, so when it finally hit the stage, everybody knew the entire score.” The show made its Broadway debut in 1971. We didn’t really appreciate that at the time because, largely thanks to Andrew, we were trying to write for the theatre, not for records. “Doing it on record,” Rice said, “made it shorter, cut out the book, made it more contemporary, made it more rock, gave it more energy, and identified it more with a younger audience. Both men have argued that, by writing Superstar as an album at the onset, they were able to streamline the score more effectively than they otherwise could have. ![]() The apparent setback may have been a blessing in disguise. But Lloyd Webber and Rice couldn’t find anyone who was willing to produce the project as a stage show-Lloyd Webber recalled that they were told it was "the worst idea in history." So they transformed it into an 87-minute, two-disc concept album instead it was released in 1970. The pair envisioned a daring new rock musical that would retell-from Judas’s perspective-the story of Christ’s betrayal and execution. Next, the duo focused on another Biblical figure: Jesus of Nazareth. Lyricist Tim Rice and composer Andrew Lloyd Webber, who met in 1965 when they were 20 and 17, respectively, enjoyed their first taste of shared success with Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat in 1968. IT BEGAN AS A CONCEPT ALBUM BECAUSE NO PRODUCER WANTED TO PUT IT ON STAGE. Here’s everything you need to know about the show. In 2018, a live version starring John Legend as Jesus and Sara Bareilles as Mary Magdalene aired on NBC. The show also ushered in Broadway’s “British invasion” of the 1970s and 1980s, setting the stage for such mega-hits as Cats and Les Miserables. Though Jesus Christ Superstar's radical songs divided religious groups, they conquered the Billboard charts. In the 1970s, an opera about Jesus of Nazareth helped blaze the trail between rock ‘n roll and musical theater.
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