Last night I saw Jesus Christ Superstar for the first time on stage. Come to think of it, I've never seen the movie in its entirety either. I tried watching it, but they lost me when the Roman guards were dressed like Lord Dark Helmet's guards from Spaceballs.

Having said that, seeing this musical on stage has been on my list since college. As with most musicals I love, I know all the music by heart. I was really looking forward to putting a "visual" with the "audio."

Despite the fact that I have this rock opera memorized, I never realized that the "narrator" of the story is Judas. Pretty brilliant angle on the whole thing, in my opinion.

The main selling point in the advertising for this production was that Ted Neely, the guy who played Jesus in the movie (in 1973) was resurrecting (no pun intended) his role. If you do the math, that means that last night, Jesus was 67. I didn't think that would bother me so much until I saw a 20 something Mary Magdalene fawning all over him. To be honest, that was pretty creepy. No disrespect to Ted, but at times he looked kinda like a homeless guy. And then I started worrying that he might break a hip while being tossed around by the guards.

I'm pretty sure I'm the only person in the audience who had these thoughts. Ted brought the house down every time he came out on stage. I got the distinct impression that he has a bit of a cult following. I mean...he's 67...playing a man half his age. Your fans must really love you to forgive that age difference.