The Life of Christ as Told by The Harvard-Radcliffe Dramatic Club

Contributed by David F. X. Army

On the eve of Holy Week, with the last showtime falling on Lazarus Saturday, the Harvard-Radcliffe Dramatic Club (HRDC) in conjunction with the Harvard College Black Community (HCBC)¹ put on the show Jesus Christ Superstar, an Andrew Lloyd Webber musical that debuted on Broadway in 1971. In contrast to the multiple Tony-nominated original, the Harvard production was set not in 1^st century Jerusalem but in 1970s California and told through the lens of black activism. According to the HRDC website, their production “tells the story of Jesus as an activist figure struggling with a frenzy of followers, surveillance by the government, and labels from the media and closest comrades.”² To this end, the Roman authorities were replaced with a racist state government, the Sanhedrin replaced with a City Council, and the violent Roman guard who scourged Jesus replaced by an equally violent (and racist) white cop. Opposing them, the disciples were replaced with dispirited black men at the tail end of the civil rights movement, who had found a charismatic leader, à la MLK or Malcolm X, in the person of Jesus.

I attended this event because art is a barometer of the culture. To get a sense of the health or virtue of a culture or a people, one only has to look at what they produce. A good and healthy culture will produce good art, and a depraved one will produce wicked art. With this in mind, the play was of particular interest in part due to its proximity to Easter and in part due to its prima facia blasphemous nature.

Surprisingly, none of the script or songs were changed from the original show, only the set, costumes, and the race of the actors. Instead of being dressed in the traditional robes of a Roman governor, Pilate was besuited and strikingly Caucasian. Judas Iscariot, the one made infamous for his betrayal of Christ with a kiss, was a young blonde Caucasian woman, dressed in baggy streetwear and occasionally sporting an oversized Army BDU blouse. From this “skater-boy” depiction, I was left wondering whether Judas wanted the money from the sale of the perfumed oil to give to the poor or to fund his heroin addiction. Most shocking of all was the character of Christ, who was played by a black woman.

If liberties were taken in the casting of Jesus, how much more so the apostles! A tall black man, clad in dark baggy jeans and a black beret, reminiscent of the uniforms of the Black Panthers, played the Apostle Peter. Any conception I had of St. Peter as a poor Jewish fisherman from Capernaum dissipated instantly upon seeing someone who looked like he was imported directly from a 1995 Notorious B. I. G. music video. The Sanhedrin, the Jewish religious authorities who first urged Pilate to condemn Jesus to death, were played by actors dressed in pinstriped banker’s suits. By far the most on the nose representation came in the form of the Roman guard, played by the aforementioned white actor.

Despite the overt messaging, the play was well worth going to see. The pit orchestra was outstanding, the actors’ vocal range and talent was beautiful and impressive, and the choreography, despite a few slip ups, was well done. Yet the reader might be tempted, as I was when I went to cover the show, to dismiss it out of hand as nothing more than blasphemy under the guise of social justice, further proof of the fall of a once great institution. Nevertheless, two things should be noted before that conclusion is applied ipso facto.

The first is that nothing was changed from the original Jesus Christ Superstar, whatever truth was contained in the original was kept, and whatever blasphemy was contained in the original was also kept. The HRDC faithfully depicted Jesus's prophecy of his impending death,³ His triumphal entry into Jerusalem, the Last Supper, Judas’s betrayal with a kiss and his subsequent suicide, and The Passion of Christ.

The second element that bears consideration is the fact that in order or disorder the Truth is still preached.⁴ Whether a black woman was cast to play the role of Jesus,⁵ or whether the Gospel story took place in 1970s Los Angeles,⁶ the truth of the story is not impeached. Moreover, just as the Apostle Paul says to be all things to all men,⁷ these alterations allowed the Gospel to be understood by many. For there were doubtless people in the audience who were neither churchgoers nor had any plans of attending a church service on Easter Sunday.

An assessment of the health of Harvard’s culture through the examination of this production reveals that Truth, despite perennial attempts to kill it, still resides at this institution. It is neither dead nor hiding. The Gospel, while it got a racialist/activist gloss, was still acted out at Harvard. That fact in and of itself is a win. This institution is deeply sick, and it has fallen far from its prior glory, yet we may hold fast to hope. Even in the most secular corners of this university, the Gospel of peace is preached, and in this case it is preached by the secular to the secular. As we approach our Lord’s Passion, let us remember what our thespian comrades at the HRDC have so eloquently and beautifully depicted and go forth edified by their depiction, for if the HRDC were silent, then the bricks of Memorial Hall themselves would cry out!⁸

Correction: An earlier version of this piece misspelled the name of Andrew Lloyd Webber. The spelling has been corrected.

1. N.B The pit orchestra as well must be commended for their outstanding performance.

2. https://hrdctheater.org/shows/jesus-christ-superstar/

3. John 12:1-8, Matthew 26:8-12, Mark 14:6-9

4. Philippians 1:15-18

5. Galatians 3:28

6. Hebrews 13:8

7. 1 Corinthians 9:22

8. Luke 19:39-40