| Ted Neeley - Jesus Christ Superstar | |
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Posted by: |
steven_stuart 11:39 pm UTC 10/30/10 |
| There is an interesting discussion going on in the page before this one, in the "Disturbing Films For Halloween" thread. It is about Ted Neeley (who played Jesus in the film version of "Jesus Christ Superstar"). Unfortunately the newer posts are now lost in the previous page, so please forgive me for starting a new thread (although it is also a different subject that deserves its own thread. It came up in that thread because I thought LordRahl dressing up as Ted Neeley for Halloween every year during his childhood was very amusing). Ryan replied: "Speaking of Ted Neeley, I'm not the only one who's noticed him mentioned here quite a few times. Is it because of the Meat Loaf connection? Or the fact that many of us have come to admire him for his performance in "Jesus Christ Superstar" (he IS the definitive Jesus, in my mind, the way Elaine Paige is the definitive Grizabella, and Michael Crawford is the definitive Phantom, though Anthony Warlow is very good.) I still have the autograph that Gibson sent me as a present once. He even tried to get me to speak to Ted on the phone, calling all the way from the theatre to Australia on a hot afternoon as we were preparing for Mum's 50th, and Gibson was about to meet Ted, but then the phone died, but I still got my autograph in the post and Ted writing me to say that he wished me all the best with my writing. And Gibson and Ted have spoken many times now. Ted, in addition to being a sensational truly iconic talent, has always been terrific with his supporters. And his Jesus will go down in history with all the other great musical theatre portrayals." Ryan, I think Ted Neeley first came up on the board because someone was talking about Meat Loaf's "Dead Ringer" movie and when I looked at the link they supplied, I noticed that Ted Neeley was one of Meat's backup singers. I was actually very surprised because I thought of Ted as the star of one of my favourite movies and here he was listed as a backup singer. But Gibson (who knows Ted, as you pointed out) told me that Ted really loved that period and has very fond memories of working on that tour (I think it was the 1981 tour). BTW, what does everyone think of the "Jesus Christ Superstar" movie? I heard that it was considered a failure when it came out (I think in 1973) for both artistic and financial reasons. Maybe people had just had enough of JCS mania when it was released. Personally I love that film (unfortunately I have never seen it in a cinema). I love Ted, Yvonne Elliman (another link to Jim of course), the chap who played Herod and the chap who played Judas. LordRahl replied to Ryan: "I wish I had known Gibson was friends with Ted. I would have asked him to let Mr. Neeley know that I was in the audience of his touring JCS show this past February! Ugh. Failed :-( Id do anything to just say thank you for being such a great inspiration in my life. He and Jim and Meat..." LordRahl, you are really lucky to have seen Ted live. Ryan, have you ever seen him playing Jesus live? Has anyone else seen him live? Does he ever tour the UK with JCS? Gosh. I guess we have to give credit to ALW and Tim Rice for writing JCS in the first place (and also to Robert Stigwood and David Land). Was it Tim's idea or Andrew's idea? | |
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| Previous: | just put it below the others... sorry. - Markus 10:04 am UTC 11/01/10 |
| Next: | re: Ted Neeley - Jesus Christ Superstar - rockfenris2005 03:55 am UTC 10/31/10 |
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