Plot Summary JCSS

Act I

The play opens with the actors arriving in a desert, laden with their costumes and props. In the film version, a battered bus slowly makes its way across the desert into the foreground. The actors ready themselves, slipping into costume and character, preparing to give a performance of the last seven days of Christ's life, as much for their own sakes as for the pleasure of the audience. The largest, most awkward piece to unload is the heavy wooden cross. Judas observes these preparations from afar, edgy and already aloof from the rest of the group.

Act I: Heaven on Their Minds

As Judas watches the others, he begins to formulate and to articulate to himself just what is bothering him about Jesus: his superstar status, his moving from a vehicle of God's message to a show in and of himself. The followers think ‘‘they've found a new Messiah,’’ and Judas worries about their anger when they discover Christ is just a man. Meanwhile Jesus shares his peaceful message to an adoring crowd.

Act I: What's the Buzz

At the house of Simon the Leper, the apostles press a tired Jesus to tell them where their group will go next, to begin a political and religious revolution, demanding, ‘‘When do we ride into the Jerusalem? " The apostles fail to notice that Jesus needs to withdraw and rest, but Mary Magdalene offers solace, saying "Let me try to cool down your face a bit.’’ Christ tells them that only Mary knows what he needs.

Act I: Strange Thing Mystifying

Judas cannot stand that Jesus lets a former prostitute (‘‘a woman of her kind’’) attend to him, but Christ hurls back, "If your slate is clean, then you can throw stones / If your slate is not, then leave her alone.’’ Mary sings ‘‘Everything's Alright,’’ but Judas continues to prod, saying that the money for her "fine ointments ... could have been saved for the poor.’’ Jesus admonishes Judas and the apostles not to waste their precious time, since he knows he will not be among them for long.

Act I: This Jesus Must Die / Hosanna

The next morning, the Jewish Priests convene to decide what to do about the "rabble-rouser" whose mad mob can be seen and heard singing ‘‘Hosanna! Superstar!’’ in the background. Annas, father-in-law of the High Priest Caiaphas, emphasizes the danger, since the Romans, who occupy their land, will surely punish all Jews for the revolutionary behavior of one man and his band of wild followers. Caiaphas decides that "like John before him, this Jesus must die.’’ Jesus addresses Caiaphas and the priests gently, explaining that "nothing can be done to stop the shouting,’’ while the ecstatic followers wave palms and joyfully anticipate their triumphant entrance to Jerusalem.

Act I: Simon Zealotes

The now rather large crowd moves in choreographed rhythm with Jesus, asking to be touched, kissed, acknowledged. Simon sees that this powerful force of ‘‘over fifty thousand’’ has political potential. ‘‘Keep them yelling their devotion,’’ he advises Jesus, "But add a touch of hate at Rome." Perhaps they can oust the Romans and regain their land. Jesus responds with a simple gesture of peace.

Act I: Poor Jerusalem

As Jesus begins to sing, the crowd quiets and sits in a circle around him. His song expresses his worry that his followers, although they chant their adoration, do not truly understand power and glory. The end of the song shifts inward, when he both realizes and explains that ‘‘to conquer death you only have to die.’’

Act I: Pilate's Dream

Pontius Pilate is a Roman Governor disturbed by a dream he has had, in which a Galilean is martyred and he, Pilate, takes the blame. Pilate is a man usually comfortable with his station and power, but the dream leaves him unsettled.

Act I: The Temple

Moneylenders, prostitutes, wine-, goat-, and carpet-sellers have taken over the temple. Christ strides up to them and angrily turns over tables, protesting, "My temple should be a house of prayer.’’ After shouting for the ‘‘den of thieves’’ to ‘‘get out,’’ Jesus sinks into a reverie, summing up his three years on earth, but even in this private moment he is besieged by the sick and poor, who crowd him until he screams at them, ‘‘Heal yourselves!’’

Act I: Everything's Alright (Reprise) & I Don't Know How to Love Him

Mary Magdalene once again soothes Jesus to sleep, and then goes into her own reverie about her conflicting feelings, both platonic and romantic, for this man.

Act I: Damned for All Time

Meanwhile, Judas, in anguish but armed with resolve, offers to betray Christ's whereabouts to the priests, who give him thirty pieces of silver for his service. The priests plan to have Jesus arrested and turned over to the Romans for execution.

Act II: The Last Supper

The apostles indulge in the Last Supper as a meal and not as sacrament, until Jesus sings, "This is my blood you drink / This is my body you eat.’’ But their blank faces tell Jesus that they will forget him after he dies. His announcement that one of them will betray him raises protests from all but Judas, who takes it up as a challenge to do so. Judas departs, the apostles drift off to sleep, and Jesus sinks into lonely contemplation. He begins to question his fate, to question God and his own earthly mission. As his resolve fades, he accuses God, "You're far too keen on where and how but not so hot on why.’’ But getting no cosmic encouragement, he steels himself for the ordeal to come, so that he can see God at last. At the end of the scene, Judas kisses Jesus on the cheek, and Jesus asks him, ‘‘Judas, must you betray me with a kiss?’’

Act II: The Arrest

As the Roman soldiers arrive to arrest Jesus, the apostles struggle awake and sleepily retrieve their swords. Jesus calms them and goes willingly with the soldiers, who shove him along. On his way, a crowd surges around him, including Annas and Judas. Some taunt, ‘‘Now we've got him,’’ while others quiz the prisoner like copy-hungry television reporters hounding a film star, ‘‘What would you say were your big mistakes?’’ Caiaphas confirms the arrest with the gravity of a judge, sending the prisoner on to Pilate, who alone has the power of sentencing to death.

Act II: Peter's Denial

A maid and her grandfather recognize Peter as one of the prisoner's followers, which Peter three times denies. Mary reminds him that Jesus had predicted his behavior.

Act II: Pilate and Christ

Pilate reluctantly interviews the prisoner, realizing that he lost a measure of his control due to the crowd's zeal to kill this man. He finds Christ's calm amazing and wants not to hurt him. As a way of avoiding responsibility, Pilate then sends Christ on to King Herod (who was half Jewish), since Herod has legal jurisdiction over the Jews, "You're Herod's race! You're Herod's case!’’

Act II: King Herod's Song

King Herod is an overweight, self-indulgent, and corrupt king surrounded by sycophants and living in depraved luxury. In a tightly choreographed ragtime song and dance, he taunts Christ to perform a miracle on demand, and when Jesus does not stir, he angrily sends him away. Meanwhile, Mary and Peter sing, ‘‘Could We Start Again, Please?"

Act II: Judas's death

Judas, wracked with guilt, accuses Annas and Caiaphas of hurting the victim he turned over to them. They repulse him, and his anguish increases as he sings an apology to Christ, shifting to his own rendition of Mary's song, ‘‘I Don't Know How to Love Him.’’ Realizing too late his own guilt, he hangs himself. The choir chants, ‘‘So long Judas / Poor old Judas.’’

Act II: Trial before Pilate

Caiaphas brings Jesus back to Pilate for a definitive execution. Still Pilate feels it too heavy a duty, and his interview of the prisoner seems like an attempt to find any excuse to release him, ‘‘I'll agree he's mad / Ought to be locked up / But that's no reason to destroy him." Jesus once again fails to supply anything but further proof of his divine immunity. Pilate agrees to flog Christ with thirty-nine lashes, an extreme torture. Afterwards, Pilate tenderly lifts the broken man, but when Jesus tells Pilate he has no power, Pilate goes into a rage and allows Christ's "great self-destruction" to take place.

Act II: Superstar

Judas, somehow resurrected, presides over the walk with the cross and preparations for crucifixion, assisted by three choirs of "angels" who sing the "Superstar" reprise. Judas asks Jesus whether he shouldn' t have staged this show in a better era, since ‘‘Israel in 4 B.C. had no mass communication.’’ Christ dies simply, on the cross.

Act II: John Nineteen Forty-one

The show over, the actors repack and variously board the bus, some in a brisk businesslike manner and some, like Mary, casting a last wistful glance back at the set. The curtain falls.