Jesus Christ Superstar is returning to the West End at the Palladium, the theatre owned by its composer. It probably wasn’t too difficult for the show to obtain the booking, but I’m glad to say that the work has continued to be performed all around the world in myriad versions, in many languages, even in venues Andrew does not own, since he and I wrote it in 1969-70. It was our first real success and, like many artistic endeavours, was initially rejected out of hand by almost everyone of any importance in the theatre world. Christianity is 2.5 per cent older now than it was when we finished writing it, and almost 5 per cent older than it was when I first became intrigued by the roles mere mortals played in the Jesus story, courtesy of Eagle, the revolutionary postwar comic for boys. Christianity seems to be hanging in there although Eagle, sad to say, is no more.
Because of the lack of West End enthusiasm, we accepted what we (very) briefly thought of as better than nothing – a deal with MCA-UK, then the new London branch of the giant US entertainment corporation. A 45 r.p.m. vinyl single of the title song ‘Superstar’, sung by Murray Head (who had let me sing a song or two at a May ball with his excellent band, the Blue Monks) was released and promptly flopped in our home country. This was annoying because it almost certainly meant MCA would not follow through with the album of the entire show.
