{"id":2443161,"date":"2019-04-18T16:32:00","date_gmt":"2019-04-18T22:32:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.aspentimes.com\/news\/methodist-church-presents-jesus-christ-superstar-for-good-friday\/"},"modified":"2019-04-18T16:32:00","modified_gmt":"2019-04-18T22:32:00","slug":"methodist-church-presents-jesus-christ-superstar-for-good-friday","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/local-news\/methodist-church-presents-jesus-christ-superstar-for-good-friday\/","title":{"rendered":"Methodist church presents Jesus Christ Superstar for Good Friday"},"content":{"rendered":"
Jonathan Gorst<\/strong>
Kyle Mills \/ Post Independent<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Jonathan Gorst put on \u201cJesus Christ Superstar\u201d for the Riviera Supper Club\u2019s quarterly dinner theater because he wanted to do something that fit with Holy Week in the days preceding Easter when Christians celebrate the passion, crucifixion and resurrection of Jesus Christ.<\/p>\n

Gorst\u2019s show gets a second act at two Glenwood Springs churches for Maundy Thursday and Good Friday services.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe show is really based on the last week of the life of Christ. It\u2019s a very loose interpretation of it,\u201d Gorst said. Still, all three nights of the dinner theater performance, which included seven songs from the musical paired with seven Middle Eastern, Hebrew and other dishes, were sold out.<\/p>\n

The biblical story of Christ\u2019s Passion presented in a rock-opera musical may seem as strange a pairing now as it did when Andrew Lloyd Weber and Tim Rice wrote the show in the late 1960s.<\/p>\n

\u201cAndrew Lloyd Weber was in college when he wrote that show, dreaming of being a British rock star and writing some amazing musical theater,\u201d Gorst said.<\/p>\n

No one in the London stage scene would produce the show, but it was released as a concept album in 1970 and became an instant hit. It only took a year for the show to make a debut on Broadway.<\/p>\n

The show is not scripture, but is retelling a story told in the gospels, with a twist: The production is told from the perspective of Judas Iscariot, who betrayed Jesus to the authorities to be sentenced to death on the cross.<\/p>\n

\u201cFifty years on, I don\u2019t think we really appreciate what an edgy, and fresh, and dare I say radical perspective this work presents of our Lord, and of Holy Week,\u201d Carol Lillie, pastor of First United Methodist Church in Glenwood Springs, said in an interview.<\/p>\n

Lillie remembers wearing out her first record of \u201cJesus Christ Superstar\u201d when she was young.<\/p>\n

A SECOND ACT IN THE SANCTUARY<\/p>\n

The idea for \u201cScenes for Reflection: Jesus Christ Superstar,\u201d to be performed today at 6:30 p.m. at United Methodist Church, started last fall when several of the local Protestant churches met to think of ways to collaborate on music and other events.<\/p>\n

In February, Gorst began discussing sharing the Riviera\u2019s production to Holy Week services and Lillie began working on a program that incorporated two of the songs.<\/p>\n

\u201cFor me, every time I approach either Christmas or Easter, I try to bring these stories that we think we know so well to mind, and have people consider the relevance in our modern lives. It\u2019s a question of how your faith makes a difference in your life today,\u201d Lillie said.<\/p>\n

Arthur Williams, who assists the choirs at Glenwood Springs High school and Middle School and plays the eponymous lead role in the Riviera\u2019s dinner theater production of \u201cJesus Christ Superstar,\u201d will join Gorst\u2019s piano accompaniment and Pontius Pilate for two critical scenes reenacting the time leading to Jesus\u2019s crucifixion.<\/p>\n

Gorst and Williams also performed a selection of the musical as part of a Maundy Thursday service and meal.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe pretty much keep it the same as we did at the Riviera. The only difference is we didn\u2019t get the whole band. So there won\u2019t be a guitar and drum set,\u201d Gorst said.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat\u2019s probably not a bad thing for being in a sanctuary,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n

tphippen@postindependent.com<\/a><\/p>\n

via:: The Aspen Times<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Jonathan GorstKyle Mills \/ Post Independent Jonathan Gorst put on \u201cJesus Christ Superstar\u201d for the Riviera Supper Club\u2019s quarterly dinner theater because he wanted to do something that fit with Holy Week in the days preceding Easter when Christians celebrate the passion, crucifixion and resurrection of Jesus Christ. Gorst\u2019s show gets a second act at […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[49],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-2443161","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-local-news"},"acf":[],"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-06-16 22:55:59","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"distributor_meta":false,"distributor_terms":false,"distributor_media":false,"distributor_original_site_name":"KSPN The Valley's Quality Rock","distributor_original_site_url":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn","push-errors":false,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2443161","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2443161"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2443161\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2443161"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2443161"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2443161"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}