i never thought i'd come to this

every time i look at this, i don't understand why i let the things i did get so out of hand

[literallyjcstrash]

it has been a full year since the day i discovered JCS and i still have not gotten over the fact that Judas comes back from the dead (after his tortured mental break and suicide) to mock Jesus as he goes to his own (bloody, horrific) execution.

[literallyjcstrash]

Regarding lyrics to JCS… (part 5 of many)

Hello again, gdelgiproducer here! I’m back with more lyrics from JCS, covering both the changes to the show over the years and also doing a little extended analysis. I wanna start this particular entry off by thanking literallyjcstrash for giving me a platform, especially when I’m using it to do what I very easily could have done at my own blog jcs-study, which is now basically on a respirator like many projects that I lose my initial enthusiasm for. (Honestly thinking of asking them to consider a merger where I port some of my posts from there over here. Not kidding.) They fired up my years-long but frequently comatose enthusiasm for the show and got me thinking about it again, which is always great – coming back to an old love with fresh perspective isn’t something one can do very often (outside of Hollywood movies), so I’m glad I can do it here.

Today, we glance at what I feel is one of the most important songs in JCS, which is mildly ironic considering it only appeared in the 1973 film version and has rarely appeared in stage versions of the show since (usually in Europe). I speak, of course, of “Then We Are Decided." Believe it or not, this song sharply divides fans of the show. A certain amount of people like it; a fairly equal amount of people don’t care for it at all. Even Tim Rice sort of slides past its existence when writing about the film in his autobiography, saying merely that ”… Andrew and I did expand one of the High Priests’ scenes in a futile bid to quash further anti-Semitism charges at the pass.“

It’s not like that didn’t need attention. For those who don’t know JCS very well, Caiaphas and Annas, the Jewish High Priests, come off as sort of the only one-note figures in the original album and stage versions. Their motivation is basically hand-waved and sounds like typical "baddie” bullshit, they sing the same musical themes throughout the show (they do; check literally every song the priests appear in, every single melodic motif they perform is tied in some way to “This Jesus Must Die”), and they smack of the old Christ-killer stereotype. How much of that is due to ingrained anti-Semitism in the story thanks to the original Gospel texts is up to the viewer (or listener) to decide. Tim and Andrew certainly didn’t set out to tell an anti-Semitic story, I totally buy it when they say that, but the conventions of musical theater unfortunately wind up placing the portrayal of the “villains” squarely in the old-fashioned, all-too-familiar “Passion Play” territory.

I mean, look at the treatment other characters get compared to Caiaphas and Annas. Everyone looks at JCS as “the piece which humanizes Jesus and Judas,” but it really doesn’t stop there. In reality, the piece offers the chance to any who might take it to humanize the story in its entirety. Pilate was a person, with conflicts and reservations; Mary was a person with desires, both emotional and sexual; Peter was a person, with regrets and hope. Tim Rice takes these cardboard cut-outs from the Bible and infuses them with psychological motivation, with flesh and blood, with life. He puts the stakes back in the story… except where Caiaphas and Annas are concerned.

(Okay, and Herod, but he only has, like, one song to establish himself in, and while he shouldn’t be played as broadly comic as he has been, in my opinion, he’s basically just comic relief to break some of the tension in Act Two – more about that when we get to him. Anyway, getting sidetracked…)

And that’s part of why I like “Then We Are Decided,” personally. It breaks up the monotony of the priests’ material a bit, and Caiaphas and Annas’ specific motivations are particularized in a way that they aren’t elsewhere in the show. Yes, for the purposes of the story they are (technically) the antagonist, but it is far more interesting to watch human beings struggle with a decision than it is to watch comic book villains verbalize what their purpose is. The audience should be frightened not by their appearance, costumes, characterization, or the pathos surrounding them; it should be the fact that they are able to come to the conclusion that this man (Jesus) is such a threat to their power, and that they prize their power so much, that they decide the only course of action is his death. This decision, and the zeal with which they pursue their goal, should be what is frightening, not the priests themselves. Caiaphas, Annas, and the other priests were real human beings, too; let them be three-dimensional figures!

(Now seems an important moment to note this: I find it most interesting that, at least in my estimation, Caiaphas and Annas seem to generate the most head-canon in the JCS Tumblr fandom of any secondary character in the show, and I think it’s partly because their motivations and background are among the least explored of anyone’s in the show – again, aside from Herod, and maybe Simon or Peter.)

Anyway, time to give you some motivations and background before we dive into the lyrics (which have never changed all that substantially, same as “What’s the Buzz,” but then I still love an excuse to talk about the show):

Caiaphas, as High Priest, was the chief religious authority in the land, with important responsibilities including controlling the Temple treasury, managing the Temple police and other personnel, performing religious rituals, and serving as president of the Sanhedrin (sort of the Jewish Supreme Court, which ruled on both religious [always] and civil [where Rome granted them jurisdiction] matters). Unlike other Temple priests, Caiaphas lived in Jerusalem’s Upper City, a wealthy section inhabited by the city’s powers-that-be.

The Bible suggests Caiaphas was closely advised by Annas, the older former High Priest, who served as a sort of high priest emeritus to his younger son-in-law. Yes, Caiaphas was married to Annas’ daughter, which incidentally is probably how Caiaphas got the gig. (That doesn’t mean you should stop writing slash fic; hell, adds a whole creepy new layer if you ask me.)

The priests had to toe a fine line between serving as the spiritual leaders of their people and cooperating with Roman authority. This left them respected for their positions, but despised by some for actions the priests had to take, or in some cases actions that they thought the priests took.

So, with that context, let us set the scene for “Then We Are Decided.” It’s after hours, or they wouldn’t be able to snag a minute alone to converse about this matter, between the faithful asking for prayers and blessings, fellow priests bothering them with office politics, the sacrifices, preparation for the upcoming Passover festival, whatever shit Rome is ladling into their tureen that day, etc. So this is the only moment available – and this is key – for Caiaphas to seek Annas’ advice on a most pressing matter: a Galilean rabble-rouser growing in popularity. Annas’ first instinct is to be hands-off, but Caiaphas feels the need for more direct action.

Why is that key? Well, for some reason, it feels like the 1973 film stages it the opposite way, with Annas pressing Caiaphas’ buttons to push him toward the decision (seriously, take a gander at some of Kurt Yaghjian’s facial expressions, especially on “He’s a craze” – dude would have killed it in a Seventies version of Bates Motel), but the lyrics strongly suggest that Caiaphas is trying to convince Annas to back up his position, not being pushed into a firmer stance by a weasel-voiced toady. With the added historical context above, it’s not hard to read “Decided” the way it was likely intended to be performed.

And now, the lyrics!

CAIAPHAS We’ve been sitting on the fence for far too long…

ANNAS Why let him upset us? Caiaphas – let him be All those imbeciles will see He really doesn’t matter

CAIAPHAS Jesus is important We’ve let him go his way before And while he starts a major war We theorize and chatter

ANNAS He’s just another Scripture-thumping hack from Galilee

CAIAPHAS The difference is they call him king – the difference frightens me What about the Romans When they see King Jesus crowned? Do you think they’ll stand around Cheering and applauding? What about our people If they see we’ve lost our nerve? Don’t you think that they deserve Something more rewarding?

ANNAS They’ve got what they want – they think so anyway If he’s what they want why take their toy away? He’s a craze

CAIAPHAS Put yourself in my place I can hardly stand aside Cannot let my hands be tied I am law and order What about our priesthood? Don’t you see that we could fall? If we are to last at all We cannot be divided

ANNAS Then say so to the council But don’t rely on subtlety Frighten them or they won’t see

CAIAPHAS Then we are decided?

ANNAS Then we are decided.

See how that works? Now to get to some more opinion on the song, and its place in the show!

There are two reasons “Then We Are Decided” is rarely included in the stage show. The first is that, at least in America, the copyright for the song belongs to the film studio, and it’s not part and parcel of the stage production, like later changes (including “Could We Start Again Please”) were. To use it in a stage production would need a separate negotiation/fee, and productions in the U.S. that have slipped the song into the show in the past without getting rights (such as a production in the Eighties by the Candlewood Playhouse) have been legally censured by the licensing agency. 

(Part of me wonders if that’s going to change in the near future. Andrew Lloyd Webber recently started his own licensing agency in the U.S., The Musical Company, which has taken over the licensing for all of his shows and his song catalogue in the States. The thing I’ve noticed about productions in the States vs. Europe including “Then We Are Decided” is that it happens way more often in Europe than over here, and I’ve theorized that this may be the case because Webber’s Really Useful Group handles everything in-house overseas with regard to publishing of individual songs and licensing said songs, whereas in America the rights situation has always been more complicated, needing to go to Universal to beg for permission separately from the rights one would hire from an agency like R&H, which handled JCS until recently. Thanks to Webber’s new licensing set-up, “Then We Are Decided” and the rights to JCS are under the same roof in North America for the first time. It would certainly make getting the permissions easier since one only has to go to one shop. Time will tell if my theory is correct and it was just a matter of lining up all the ducks in the same row, metaphorically speaking. Again, tangent, sorry, moving on…)

The second, and less explored owing to its rarity, reason is that its position in the film simply does not work on stage. On film, one is able to cut away from “Strange Thing, Mystifying” (“they only need a small excuse / to put us all away”) and increase the tension by showing the authorities are already thinking of dealing with the problem (e.g., Judas’ foreboding is not unfounded). On stage, however, interrupting the scene that incorporates “What’s The Buzz,” “Strange Thing, Mystifying,” and “Everything’s Alright” with “Then We Are Decided” ruins the arc of the scene — an uninterrupted rising dramatic line of tension, if you will.

A few of the productions that have used it over the years have tried to solve this problem by slotting it in after “Everything’s Alright” instead of before it, sticking it right before “This Jesus Must Die.” On paper, it makes sense – Caiaphas trying to convince Annas to back his position before the big council meeting, and then both of them making the pitch to the council. But in execution, put so close together, it only belabors the point of “the priests feel they must deal harshly with Jesus, and here’s why”; you hear two songs right in a row discussing basically the same plot point, with one of them being only slightly more personal (or interesting, for that matter) than the other. That’s called, in any style of writing, “beating a dead horse." An audience may or may not be as intelligent as we challenge them to be, but no audience likes feeling like the creative team believes they’re stupid enough that they have to be bludgeoned to death with story.

A friend and fellow JCS fan (who now works in reality TV – as they say on The Flintstones, "It’s a living!”) once came up with a novel suggestion: use “Then We Are Decided” as a prologue before the Overture. Right at the top of the show, you’ve got the priests, you establish their problem, they make the fateful decision, and we go right into the show knowing this man’s days are numbered and wondering what that’s about, with some foreboding sounding rock music to boot. Done right, I think it would be an interesting touch.

I then discovered that great minds must think alike, because a friend named Greg alerted me to the fact that director Ken Gargaro has been doing it this way for roughly 25 years with Pittsburgh Musical Theatre’s annual production of JCS. Precedent established, I feel way more confident putting forward this proposal, and I’ve even come up with how to make the musical transition seamless: instead of repeating the guitar intro to “Decided” at the end after Annas’ last line (which comes with a nice little helping of “Poor old Judas…” from – I believe – brass and lower woodwinds dumped over it on the film soundtrack that isn’t there in the movie), you cut the instrumental coda and go right into the Overture, likely accompanied by a bit of staging for dramatic effect to signal the transition into the show proper.

Just picture it…

Anyway, enough reverie. Coming soon: “Everything’s Alright”!

[raoulchagnee]

this is why the collage happened the meme got wild what fun times

[judasisgayriot]

I kind of HAD to

[literallyjcstrash]

JCS continues to be clever

the Gospel of John says, “One of his disciples--the one whom Jesus loved--was reclining next to him” (John 13:23; NRSV). according to the footnotes in the version i’m reading, “while reclining next to Jesus” in the next sentence literally means “while leaning on Jesus’ chest.” 

now, in the actual Biblical context, it’s very unclear who this beloved disciple is. however, these footnotes clarify that “the disciple reclining next to Jesus would thus be to Jesus’ right.” this might sound vaguely familiar because--

...and remember, I’ve been your right hand man all along...

--taking the Gospel of John into account, then, yes. Jesus Christ Superstar is in fact saying that Jesus and Judas are gay for each other. especially considering that the next few chapters emphasize that Jesus loves all his disciples, and yet, this one particular disciple was pointed out as beloved above the others.

just saying.

(now, okay, this disciple is mentioned in other contexts that make less sense if it’s Judas, but it’s still not unimaginable, and within JCS, it works.)

[vahanians]

someone else commented and was like: judas despised him and jesus knows it and is trying to protect his feelings by saying he Knew the Whole Time and that the betrayal wouldnt hurt as much bc judas hated his guts

like?????????? judas has never despised him. been angry with, been jealous over, been worried out of his goddamned mind over, yes. but to look at judas’s death (i dont know how to love him/why he moves me) and literally a l l  of their interactions and to go yeah no jesus believes judas despises him and he’s RIGHT is ????? mindblowing how do u do that also judas didnt betray him bc he despised him afsajkfsj he betrayed him bc 1 (in the musical at least) he was manipulated 2 jesus’s whole “im the messiah lol” thing was, according to canon, going against absolutely everything the twelve once stood for and making things spiral way out of control and judas was like holy fuck dude this is Bad and admittedly betraying jesus was Not the right thing to do At All Holy Fuck Judas Priorities it ultimately came from a place of worry and fear and hope that this would calm things down a bit also 4) judas had no way of knowing that this would ultimately kill jesus god damn he did not send jesus away to be murdered bc he hated his guts he was bribed and not in a place to be making these kinds of decisions

[literallyjcstrash]

from a different but related post:

#hale.docx  #txt  #jcs salt tags ahead watch out  #some1 just rbd a post i made awhile ago asking about the moment jesus calls judas a liar in the last supper of the 2012 arena tour and  #was like well obviously jesus knew for a fact that judas was lying about despising him and thats the only reason he would have called him  #out on it  #but like  #did we watch the same musical  #bc the way he yells it??? so heartbroken and raw like come on  #theres something desperate there hes trying  #to convince himself that judas doesnt hate him bc he wouldnt be able to handle it if he really did and also telling judas  #u dont hate me and you know you dont  #but a lot of it is jesus's fear and desperation over losing his closest friend and arguably the light and love of his life  #bc if judas were to actually hate him he would lose the most important thing to him in this iteration at least  #bc the drama btwn judas and jesus takes precedent over even jesus' eventual death and sacrifice in jcs  #its the whole story  #writing off that fear is irresponsible let jesus have feelings  #jesus christ superstar  #im tagging this so i can find it later but yeah this is a salt post that im writing in sociology bc i am steamed up over this  #for the record they were gay and in love (via @summerlesbian​)

(...in a continuing trend of posts about The Last Supper...)

i was definitely the person who reblogged it recently, but not the person who claimed Judas despised Jesus all along, which i definitely agree, is ridiculous. it’s such an intense point in the musical, though--emotionally, that’s probably the climax, forget Trial Before Pilate or Superstar, which are both important, but not the emotional height that The Last Supper reaches. because you’re exactly right, the musical is about the conflict between Jesus and Judas above all else. 

and exactly, Judas’s decision is the best thing he could have done in that situation! in a scenario where there are no good options, he has to take the least bad one, and without knowing what the priests were up to...

dramatic irony, man. we all know exactly how the story’s going to end. everyone except Judas.

[literallyjcstrash]

something i noticed in the first couple days of my JCS obsession, but faded from my mind later--Heaven on Their Minds is really brilliant. this line is what i’m referring to in particular:

Listen, Jesus, to the warning I give. Please remember that I want us to live...

it gives away the central conflict of the musical immediately! Judas is concerned with staying alive--he’s focused on their earthly existence and the continuation thereof. Jesus doesn’t put nearly as much importance on their staying alive; he’s worried about heavenly matters and ensuring everyone’s future after they die. and this miscommunication of ideals is the whole problem.

then you get to see Judas seem to echo some of the same concerns, starting with Damned for All Time, but he definitely doesn’t let his fear of being damned interfere with his betrayal of Jesus. even later, during Judas’ Death, he’s not worried about damnation; he emphasizes “I shall be dragged through the slime and the mud”--seemingly synonymous with my reputation will be ruined or this is what I will be remembered for, rather than I’ve ruined my chances at heaven. and he’s only coming to this realization because of what’s happening to Jesus’s body. 

whereas Jesus himself doesn’t care about what he’s physically going through, as he trusts in a spiritual redemption to happen soon enough. he dismisses the apostles’ worries, he urges against open rebellion, he only cares when the status of people’s eternal souls are on the line (see: The Temple). 

it’s nothing more than a difference of priorities that sets Jesus and Judas into opposition, and Heaven on Their Minds demonstrates that instantly. 

please remember that I want us to live...

[greisekinderschar]

fangirl challenge ♠ [10/10] pairings:  Jesus + Judas » jesus christ superstar

I don’t know how to love him. I don’t see why he moves me. He’s a man. He’s just a man. He’s not a king, he’s just the same as anyone i know. He scares me so.. when he’s cold and dead. Will he let me be? Does he love me, too? Does he care for me?

[starwaurs]

are any of my followers theater geeks

because i’ve been working on a production of jesus christ superstar

and can i just say that damned for all time might be one of my all time fave songs from musicals.

i mean it’s just so badass but at the same time it has meaning behind it because wow judas is really conflicted internally and he has no idea what to do and basically he is questioning the hardest decision of his life

anyone with me?

[vahanians]

so during the last supper, judas says “to think i admired you, well now i despise you”, jesus yells right after “you liar!!!” 

my question is, is he calling judas a liar because he thinks judas really doesnt actually hate him, or is he just trying to convince himself that judas doesnt hate him? because its a pretty desperate outburst that could go either way. im in favor of the interpretation that jesus cannot handle the possibility of judas hating him (judas, who was arguably the closest to jesus, the only one who saw past the messiah stuff to the man he was, judas who really did love jesus), so he calls him a liar in an attempt to reassure himself that its not true 

[judasisgayriot]

I have had discussions bout this before omg this is truly Important. I think it also has a tinge of ‘you don’t hate me and you know you don’t’ (which is true) but yes I don’t think jesus can handle the idea of judas hating him either

[the-napoleon-of-crime]

I’m 100% sure he means Judas is lying when he says “I admired you”, Jesus is saying he believes Judas has never been on his side and has always despised him to some degree. I don’t think he really feels this way, it’s like he’s trying to protect his emotions by saying it dosent hurt because he knows Judas despises him so he can’t be hurt by his betrayal ??

[literallyjcstrash]

i’ve always taken it as Jesus’s actual thoughts as opposed to him trying to convince himself. and he’s right, of course--Judas actually doesn’t hate him, as evidenced by literally the rest of the musical. 

[literallyjcstrash]

I'm playing JCS in a month!! I'm a professional bassist and I've always wanted to play this show and now I finally am!

that’s amazing!! congrats! feel free to submit anything you’d like about the show or your particular production!

[literallyjcstrash]

Andrew Lloyd Webber intended Superstar to be a shocking, powerful and thought provoking show. He wanted it to be dark and make the audience rather uncomfortable by the end, if you watch the "making of" on YouTube

oh, definitely–there’s a whole category of musicals that intend to do that, and JCS is absolutely on that list. i’ll also check out the ‘making of’ video, thank you!

[pileofstarstuff-deactivated2016]

Trial Before Pilate by AnneSQF

[literallyjcstrash]

piercesuperstar said:

So glad I follow you. It's good to know others have thought these things too.  When I heard the Ballad of Booth the first time, I felt so much emotion, and knew instantly it was gonna be up there with JCS. What's great about both of them is it's about what you do in life before you die, how you die, and how you're remembered.  People often overlook these two great shows because they're looking at the show that these two basically created, Hamilton.

(first of all, thank you!) 

i absolutely feel that about Ballad of Booth--for most of my favorite musicals, i know instantly upon listening to the first song whether or not i’ll become obsessed with it completely. Assassins was definitely one of those. (though then, of course, i felt guilty about liking it so much, because, assassination, and Guiteau’s whole “I will be remembered” thing conflated with the fact that i actually was remembering him... i wrote my college application essay about that musical.)

i’m glad you brought up Hamilton, because i constantly go back and forth between “well, at least more people are into musical theatre” and “there are so many better shows that could have gotten noticed, why Hamilton?” it’s objectively a good show (the wordplay alone is phenomenal), but it’s not even in my top five. 

[corofmare]

[literallyjcstrash]

how about a comparison to a totally different musical?

as i just learned my college will be putting on a production of Assassins (probably my favorite musical) this spring, i’ve had that show on my mind. and okay, yes, there’s very little that Judas and Booth have in common in general, but how about this verse:

Damn my soul if you must, Let my body turn to dust. Let it mingle with the ashes of my country. Let them curse me to hell, Leave it to history to tell. What I did, I did well, and I did it for my country. Let them cry “dirty traitor”, They will understand it later. The country is not what it was...

...and immediately afterwards, Booth shoots himself--which isn’t historically accurate, but definitely draws more parallels between him and Judas. 

the situations aren’t interchangeable--betrayal and treason aren’t always synonyms--but some of the lines from Judas’ Death and Ballad of Booth echo each other:

You’ll be remembered forever for this // Leave it to history to tell

I shall be dragged through the slime and the mud // Let them cry “dirty traitor”

What you have done will be the saving of Israel // and I did it for my country

and of course a callback to Damned for All Time:

Damn my soul if you must // Just don’t say I’m damned for all time

but then there’s also the fact that, while singing this pre-suicide song, Booth is commending his own actions while Judas condemns his--though Judas did what today is the more morally ambiguous of the two crimes and Booth’s is more definitively bad. exactly the reverse of what would be expected. 

i kind of want to go into other characters’ reactions to them and their role after their deaths, but this has already gotten to be a more complicated comparison than i intended, so maybe later. (plus there’s the analogy Booth makes earlier in the song comparing himself to Brutus, who killed Caesar, who is part of the reason Jesus died--linking the two musicals in an entirely different way.) 

[literallyjcstrash]

i’m not the first person to talk about this by any means, but i still haven’t gotten over these lines from Trial Before Pilate:

“You’re a fool, Jesus Christ. How can I help you?”

“Pilate, crucify him, crucify him!”

because the crowd might not be responding to him purposely, but they’re still answering the question--the way Pilate can help Jesus is to crucify him because that’s what needs to happen.

it’s such a good pair of lines.