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Cynthia Erivo is an extremely talented singer and actress who is probably best known for her starring role in the live-action version of the musical “Wicked.” However, it was just announced that Erivo is slated to play Jesus in an upcoming production of Andrew Lloyd Webber’s rock opera “Jesus Christ Superstar.”
This will mark a return to musical productions for the Hollywood Bowl and the LA Philharmonic since the COVID pandemic shut them down five years ago. Erivo is particularly prepped for this debut, having done a concept album with an all-female cast in 2020 wherein she played Mary Magdalene.
In “Jesus Christ Superstar,” the plot follows the relationship and dynamics of Jesus and Judas Iscariot during the final few days of Jesus’s life. Judas, who clearly doesn’t believe that Jesus is God, sings a whole song about how Jesus is letting all the admiration get to His head.
This apocryphal take was clearly written by men who were working through deep theological questions such as, Who is Jesus as God? Why did He come when He did? Was He just a man with good teachings? As a Christian watching this show about a defining story in my faith, I couldn’t help coming away from it sad, knowing that the writers missed everything important about Christ and the Resurrection. In fact, the writers leave out Jesus rising from the dead altogether because they want to make it clear that they lean toward the notion that Jesus was only a man. They also add in a love story with Mary Magdalene, which adds to the next critique I’ll get to below.
All her talent notwithstanding, having Cynthia Erivo play Jesus is deeply insulting and perverted on many fronts. Jesus was a real person. He was not a woman. While musicals have a history of gender-swapping certain roles, this is one in which it is not appropriate to do so. Jesus is God. Portraying Him as a woman in a musical (with a love interest, no less) is blasphemy and anti-Christian bigotry. One of these is more serious than the other, and as bad as bigotry is, the harm to the soul is greater.
Yet in a depressing way, having Erivo play Jesus is fitting. Her casting underlines what a farce the musical itself is in retelling this story. It’s not a biblical representation of the true story.
It gets all the main details wrong, particularly regarding Mary Magdalene. She has often been maligned as a woman of the night without evidence. She was a woman whom Jesus freed from demonic possession. (See Luke 8:2 and Mark 16:9). There is no evidence that she was even a young woman. After Jesus released her from the demons tormenting her, she, along with other women, followed Him. Some speculate that she would have been able to do this because she had an independent source of wealth, had no family, was unmarried, or perhaps a widow. Mary Magdalene’s claim to fame was that she was the first person Jesus appeared to after He rose from the grave. For an excellent breakdown of this amazing woman of God, I recommend Twelve Extraordinary Women by Pastor John MacArthur.
In the musical, Jesus is portrayed as a man in all His flawed glory. In real life, Jesus was fully God and fully man. He had the privilege and sorrow of living through all of men’s temptations with the weakness of men’s flesh — while at the same time still being perfect. Unfortunately, that is not the portrayal of Him in “Jesus Christ Superstar.” This is not a musical you go see to understand the last days of Jesus’s life.
While this announcement of Cynthia Erivo playing Jesus is sad, it also doesn’t shock. We live in a culture that mocks Christianity and God. My prayer is that, through this experience, Erivo and all those around her come to know the real Jesus and that they’d all be changed for the good.
