Highbrow sceptics who have it in for Andrew Lloyd Webber and Tim Rice’s “gospel rocker” "Jesus Christ Superstar" should know that the great modernist composer Dmitri Shostakovich was a big fan, said Robert Gore-Langton in The Scottish Mail on Sunday.
When the ailing Russian visited London in 1972 to put on his "15th Symphony", he found time to see the musical – not once but twice. As this revival proves, Shostakovich knew whereof he spoke, because “this is a feverish, thrilling night out – and a welcome return of the Bible belter to the West End”.
Timothy Sheader’s stripped-back, concert-like production originally wowed the critics 10 years ago at Regent’s Park, said Sarah Crompton on What’s on Stage. This incarnation, which transfers to Drury Lane ahead of a national tour next year, is on a much bigger scale – but remains intelligent, boldly dramatic and utterly captivating.
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With his “angelic voice and Jesus-like looks”, the pop star Sam Ryder – the UK’s Eurovision runner-up in 2022 – is a physical fit for the lead role, said Dominic Cavendish in The Telegraph. Initially, you worry that he is too “meek and mild a hero, even anodyne”. Yet just as the exhilarating score keeps changing gear and mood, so “Ryder ambushes us with surges of emotional force”, turning on his hippy-like groupies, and on Tyrone Huntley’s “hectoring, haunted, pitch-perfect Judas”.
And when Ryder “applies his falsetto and lung-busting heft” to "Gethsemane", it prompts a deserved standing ovation. “You go in anticipating gimmicks. You leave chastened, having witnessed a searing masterpiece.”
Ryder’s singing is often “sensational”, said Sarah Hemming in the Financial Times. Alas, he is “not yet enough of an actor to convey fully his character’s emotional turmoil ... or the charisma that so inspires devotees and terrifies authority”. While his lack of dramatic heft does affect the storytelling, this is still a “smart, spectacular staging, peppered with wit”. There are many terrific performances – notably from Desmonda Cathabel as Mary Magdalene – and Drew McOnie’s choreography is “blistering”.
London Palladium, until 5 September; Theatre Royal Drury Lane, 16 October–9 January 2027
