Iain Harvey’s Jesus in Inspired By Theatre’s Jesus Christ Superstar. Picture: Dan Crawfurd-Porter
WARNING: “This production contains intense scenes, frightening imagery, stylised violence and themes of death and religious conflict,” states the Joseph Rowntree Theatre website. Parental discretion and a minimum age of 12 are advised.
Such are the signs of 21st century times, whereas it is hard to imagine that 14th century performances of the York Mystery Plays would have been accompanied by such sensitivities. Or in 1951, when the plays were first revived, or indeed in 1971, when Andrew Lloyd Webber and Tim Rice’s debut musical was premiered on Broadway at the Mark Hellinger Theatre in New York City on October 12 1971.
Now comes Inspired By Theatre’s radical, boundary-pushing vision in old York city in rain-saturated 2026, one that has a rawness, frankness and starkness that emphasises why our more sensitive world labels emotional experiences in such cautionary terms.
After such startling shows as Green Day’s American Idiot in 2024 and RENT in 2025, company founder Dan Crawfurd-Porter now directs the York company in Jesus Christ Superstar, the rock musical in which he made his debut as Peter for Ripon Operatics in 2021.
As with American Idiot and RENT, his directorial style is visceral, the drama confrontational, the ensemble bond so strong among his cast as he delivers on his promise of a “gritty, cinematic and unapologetically powerful” show.
“What defines this production is its intensity,” said Crawfurd-Porter in his CharlesHutchPress interview. “Our staging is bold, the choreography [by assistant director Freya McIntosh] demands everything from the cast, and the individual performances are so powerful. There’s no coasting, no safe choices.”
Without recourse to technological trickery or projections, Crawfurd-Porter puts his trust in physicality, movement, bold lighting (by Daniel Grey) and contrasting costume (lighter colours for the good, dark for the villains of the piece, from Judas to Pilate, Herod to Caiaphas and Annas).
As trailed in his remarkably striking publicity photographs, make-up is all important too, just as it was for David Bowie’s Aladdin Sane, bringing internal character to the surface and providing spectacle when Gi Vasey’s set of moveable, plain building blocks is designed to have more impact in terms of shape-shifting, becoming towers for Pilate, Caiaphas and Annas, or seating for Jesus’s followers.
The raised central dais is not ideal for McIntosh’s choreography when calling on the cast to move across the stage at pace in the opening number, enforcing some awkward leaps and landings, but from then on, the ensemble work has momentum, climaxing with Act Two’s title number.
Movement matters – and flows well under Crawfurd-Porter’s direction – but this sung-through rock opera stands or falls on the strength of its singing; after all, Deep Purple’s Ian Gillan sang Jesus’s part on the original 1970 concept album.
Iain Harvey hits the high notes spectacularly with absolute assurance while bringing grace and fervour to Lloyd Webber and Rice’s somewhat morose depiction of Jesus. You sense his burden, brought to save the world and to sacrifice himself for God on the cross. In the one passage where Jesus speaks, perhaps too exhausted to sing, unlike in opera’s finales, he cries out to his mother: the moment that reinforces what a devastating performance Harvey has given.
In Crawfurd-Porter’s most inspired casting, the treacherous role of Judas goes to Kelly Ann Bolland, whose prowess as a classic rock musician “with a strong affinity for music driven by raw energy and power” drives her outstanding performance, singing Heaven On Their Minds. Judas’s Death and the climactic Superstar with harrowing, turbulent vigour, even venom. At the same, the hand rubbing, the awful realisation of the consequence of Judas’s actions, recall Shakespeare’s Lady Macbeth.
Rianna Pearce’s Mary (Magdalene) impresses too, from leading Everything’s All Right to bringing heartfelt candour to chart hit I Don’t Know How To Love Him and revitalising Could We Start Again Please? with Richard Bayton’s substantial, volatile Peter.
Joseph Hayes’s basso profondo is suitably deep and dark for Caiaphas, joined in condemnation of Jesus by Gi Vasey’s Annas and Josh Woodgate’s exasperated, hand-washing Pilate, while Mickey Moran pops up from lead guitar duty in the orchestra pit for a scene-stealing, ultra-thespian, heavy-metal frontman cameo in King Herod’s Song. Kailum Farmery’s Simon leaps to the fore in Simon Zealotes, his tattoos and shaved cranium providing a bridge to modern times.
Lloyd Webber and Rice cut their musical teeth on Jesus Christ Superstar and musically it is very much a rock opera of its Seventies’ time, more direct, more thrusting, more emotionally in your face than their later works. Mathew Peter Clare’s musical direction captures that thrill of an early work, one that predates the classical embellishments of Lloyd Webber’s later arrangements. You will love the moment too where the instruments falls away for an a cappella finale too.
What’s the buzz, tell me what’s a’happening? Inspired By Theatre have once more delivered exhilarating musical theatre with purpose, passion and panache.
Jesus Christ Superstar, Inspired By Theatre, Joseph Rowntree Theatre, York, tonight, 7.30pm; Saturday, 2.30pm and 7.30pm. Box office: 01904 501935 or josephrowntreetheatre.co.uk.