Jesus Christ Superstar

(My Part in his downfall)

Well this is my page dedicated to the production of Jesus Christ Superstar a Walsall Town Hall. The pictures will be added as & when & I get them.

The auditions were first held back in Nov of 2003 & although the turnout was ok, not enough blokes went along. In this story the blokes are quite important. So it was on Jan 11th that the blokes turned up & the roles were given out. I actually auditioned for the role of Herod as being a lazy bastard I just thought I could sing one song then have a sit down, a couple of fags & enjoy watching the show. But oh no! They decided to give me the main role as MC JC, the son of God & the bane of Israel circa 30AD. I must admit, I shit myself.
We rehearsed every Sunday without the orchestra, but with Andy Collis playing the piano (sometimes the vandal even destroyed strings when his sexual frustration over the "Jo Saga" grew too much for this mild mannered musician to handle). All this time, we referred to each other in our character names ( for 2 reasons: a. it helped us focus on the character roles we were given & develop a mindset to play the afore mentioned roles the the best of our ability & b. We were lazy bastards & couldn't remember each others names). I became known as Jesus (as my beard grew, there were some that partially belived me to be the anointed one), Dave became known as Judas (& was accordingly booed when he walked in) and Pilate became known as Pilates (pronounced Pill-ar-tays).
We all became really enthusiastic about what we were doing as many of us had never done a show before & we knew we were doing well. Andy actually let slip on one occasion while slightly inebriated that all the production team were surprised on how fast we had picked it up & the level of performance.
As the opening weekend approached, we all added more enthusiasm into the show (especially the leper scene where I was pawed, mauled & violated on some occasions) & we really put 110% into what we were doing.
On the night before the opening show (14 April 2004) Simon Pugh took some amazing photos of the production that you can see here. We all went out & got pissed over Yates (the friendliest pub in Walsall- yeah right) to calm the nerves & get ready for opening night.

Thursday 15th April 2004
The day arrived & I got to the Town Hall at 3:15pm thinking other enthusiastic members would be there to start getting ready. No-one was there except Harry (Peter). So there we sat for ages, talking & waiting. Half an hour later? No-one. So off we trundled over to Yates to await the exodus of members, but no-one arrived for an hour. We were joined by Annas(Jim Heritage [ or Anas as I hilariously called him every bloody day]) & a guard (Andy)so the 4 of us sat there with stage fright & a longing for an hour long wee, waiting for everybody to arrive. As everyone arrived, we rushed over to the Hall & started getting ready. Some people were cool as cucumbers, some people were shitting themselves like pedo in an orphanage. I was given my wig to wear which nobody could belive wasn't my real hair & actually looked pretty cool (as you can see in the pictures!) When it came to "House Lights Down" we all got this massive rush of adrenalin as we put on a blinder of a show. Herod (Ian Smith) managed to nearly garrote priest/apostle (Ian Cheadle) by tying his head scarf to the scenery as everyone walked forward in the lashes scene. When it came to the bows, I had enough after 2 & walked off leaving everyone to amble about then make a quick exit.We all went over to Yates & celebrated only as we could by getting half pissed, pulling each other & stumbling up to The Stein Bar (an excellent drinking hole) where we carried on until the wee hours dancing & cavorting.
Friday 16th April 2004
We all got there a little bit later (with heavier heads than the night before) & got ready for the second night ready to blind them with our brilliance! Unfortunatly, they were a bit anally-retentive & didn't really know if they should clap after songs which pissed a few of us off, but with our professionalism kicking into gear (ha ha) we managed to pull it off. I got more injured by being dropped on my wrong side & landing on my microphone box. Ow! Again I bollocked up the bows when I gave a wave & again turned round & left after the 3rd bow, patting the cross on the way out (I was getting better anyway). When it came to celebrating, this time, we gave up the miserable faces of Yates & headed to The Wetherspoons & enjoyed another night of drinking & back slapping.
Saturday 17th April -The Double Whammy-
We knew the afternoon show was going to be a bit strange as it wasn't totally black in the Town Hall, but we had a great show. The audience was mostly pear drop sucking pensioners & elderly relatives but they really enjoyed the show & clapped in the right places. There were a number of old people that my mom overheard saying “We didn’t mind paying for that. It was very goooooood”. So that’s where the extra fiver the government gives them for heating goes. Anyway, we all went off and got our luch (some solid, some liquid) as we prepared ourselves for the show we had been looking forward to in some ways (we all agreed to give our 150% best) and dreading at the same time as we knew we weren’t going to see other for a while.
7pm came & we all started our warm ups (that I never got understand Ba ba ba be ba by WHAT?!?!) and our “Many Mens”. I personally had my BAAAAAYBAY Mmmm Mmmm which proved very useful & quite popular due to it’s superior volume & subject content. What Judas (Dave Hayward) & myself hadn’t told anyone, was that at The Last Supper, we were really going to go for each other. I mean really go for it! So we started the show & I don’t know about anyone else, but I gave it my all while being a little bit upset that this was it. No-more singing these songs. The first half went great. Even Ciaphas (Eric Simpson) got his words right in This Jesus Must Die!!! I nearly cheered (only joking mate ha ha). When it came to the Last Supper, I really played it nice & sweet when I blessed the bread & everything, then when mad when Judas & I started on each other. He pushed me really hard, I pushed him back. Then when I sang “Save me your speeches I don’t want to know, GOOOOO” we both went to hit each other & everyone grabbed us. Judas was really pushing & I was trying to get to him. He came back at me & I was all ready to forgive him when (as scripted) he rushed out to betray me (for about the 19th time). This time, as he rushed out all pumped up from our argument, he barged Harry out of the way & knocked him flying onto his back with his legs up in the air (giving everyone the view that I’d had in the Gethsemane rehearsal). It was the last show that we saved our tip of the hat to The Passion Of The Christ. While I quickly got my loin cloth on & a bit of make up, the 2nd priest/ apostle (Ste Parrish) bought over the blood for the whipping scene & I made myself look like it should have been the Passion rather than Superstar. When I was being whipped, Lame boy/apostle (Daniel Berrow) & Ste P decided to make this on the bloodiest 39 lashes of the lot. I was dripping by the end of it, but it did look the dogs danglies. After the show, there were a few tears as we all said goodbye & I rushed into the dressing room to get the hair off my face so I could go to the bar looking respectable rather than like a burglar. We had a few drinks & congratulated Stephen on the show, then it was onto The Stein Bar where we went mad again & had a great time until 3. Gabbys boyfriend John was there as well as Kylie & some strange bloke that kept introducing himself to me & the rest of the cast. Oh well, that’s stardom for you ha ha.
So that was the end of the Jesus Christ Superstar experience that I had! I couldn’t have met a nicer, funnier (& sometimes just damn weird!!) group of people & it was a real pleasure working with everyone. I really hope we do another show cos I’m counting the days since Superstar.
Well I’ve written a bit of a poem for everyone so read & enjoy
(apologies to anyone I’ve missed out by name!)


The Walsall Superstar Experience

Jesus was the musical
It played for just 3 days
But there’s so many memories
and lots for me to say

With Judas & his hangovers
Jesus with his wig
Mary with her stolen clothes
& Annas’s hat that’s big

Stephen always shouting
”Could you keep it down!!”
Walking to the corner shop
& drinking in the town

Herod with his “little friends”
That helped him dance & sing
Pilate knowing every word
& playing everything.

Gabby with her headscalf
”& keep all those arms straight”
Nichola with all her texts
Being everybodies mate

Lame Dan always laughing
with Jo just having fun
Kate was always dancing
While we all looked at her bum!!

Alex with his lucky book
Simon with his phone
I count it as a blessing
This was the cast I’d known

Photos below!!


Judas (Dave Hayward) & Jesus (Michael A Hunter) just before Judas was a very, very naughty boy

Thanks to Nichola