Adam Lambert sits on a rickety picket chair simply outdoors the primary chapel on the Hollywood United Methodist Church on a break from rehearsing the musical “Jesus Christ Superstar.”
Wearing beige shorts and a vest with matching mid-calf boots, Lambert wears his trademark glitter eye make-up with thick black liner. He’s calm and picked up, content material to spend his lunch break chatting, although the rehearsal schedule is a breakneck 9 days complete. He chalks up his easygoing demeanor to the high-wattage professionalism of the forged, and his familiarity with the music.
Lambert first heard the soundtrack on one in every of his dad’s vinyl data when he was about 10 years outdated.
“I’ve always wanted to do that musical. I’ve always wanted to play Judas,” he says with a smile. “And when they told me Cynthia [Erivo] was interested, I was like, ‘Wow, this is gonna be crazy.’”
Lambert, a fan-favorite “American Idol” runner-up who started performing with Queen in 2011, performs Judas to Erivo’s Jesus within the Hollywood Bowl manufacturing directed by Tony-winning choreographer Sergio Trujillo.
Josh Gad, who portrays King Herod, calls the forged “the musical theater version of the Avengers.” He’s referring to Erivo and Lambert, along with Phillipa Soo as Mary Magdalene, Milo Manheim as Peter, Raúl Esparza as Pontius Pilate, Tyrone Huntley as Simon and Brian Justin Crum as Annas. The sold-out present runs from Friday to Sunday.
Tyrone Huntley performs as Simon throughout a rehearsal of “Jesus Christ Superstar” on the Hollywood United Methodist Church in Los Angeles.
(Etienne Laurent / For The Occasions)
Judging from the continued commentary and controversy over the casting on social media, a queer, Black, feminine actor enjoying Jesus and a homosexual actor portraying Judas really feel like a revelation to followers grappling with mounting considerations about civil rights in America. Over the past six months, the Trump administration has curtailed variety, fairness and inclusion applications and tried to roll again key authorized protections for sure members of the LGBTQ+ group.
“The challenge for the audience of seeing a female Black Jesus is so exciting. And we all feel the excitement,” says Lambert, including that the present doesn’t change lyrics or pronouns. “Maybe it doesn’t have to do with male or female. I don’t really know if it matters what gender Jesus was, because it was about the teachings and the love and the connection to faith. So shouldn’t it transcend gender?”
Energy — who has it and who doesn’t — has emerged as a defining narrative in 2025. That was additionally the case 2,000 years in the past when Pontius Pilate ordered the crucifixion of Jesus, who posed a critical risk to the non secular and political primacy of the Pharisees, the Herodians and the Romans. The 1971 musical by Andrew Lloyd Webber and Tim Rice imagines the ultimate days of Jesus’ life, together with his agony, earlier than he in the end accepts his destiny.
Gad is keenly conscious of the notion of energy as historic through-line as he approaches his titular quantity, “Herod’s Song,” wherein the King of Judea coyly mocks Jesus earlier than taking a daunting flip into true menace.
“This is a man who’s so insecure he can’t afford to let Jesus out of his chains in order to actually face him without the help of soldiers around him,” Gad says. “My hope is that I’m getting to bring one of the greatest hypocrites to life in a way that will both make people laugh and also make them recognize that archetype.”
Brian Grohl, left, Josh Gad, Adam Lambert and Sergio Trujillo are bringing “Jesus Christ Superstar” to the Hollywood Bowl.
(Etienne Laurent / For The Occasions)
The musical was first launched as an idea album in 1970 and performed on the Hollywood Bowl in 1971, earlier than debuting on Broadway later that yr. Throughout its run, protests outdoors the stage door had been commonplace, and though the musical has reached the head of success through the years, it has remained controversial.
Huge summer time musicals have been a staple of the Hollywood Bowl since 2000, however the reveals went darkish because of the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020. Except “Kinky Boots” in 2022, “Jesus Christ Superstar” is the primary of what Bowl leaders hope will probably be an annual resumption of the beloved programming.
“We wanted to make sure that when we came back, it was the most spectacular thing we could do,” says Meghan Umber, president of the Hollywood Bowl and chief programming officer on the Los Angeles Philharmonic.
“Jesus Christ Superstar,” was at all times on the high of the Bowl’s musical wishlist however wasn’t obtainable till now, provides Brian Grohl, affiliate director of programming for the L.A. Phil.
“The number of titles that can sustain three nights at the Hollywood Bowl is a narrowed-down list already,” Grohl stated, so securing the title resulted in a number of leaping and shouting across the workplace. And when it got here to who would play Jesus, Umber and Grohl each say Erivo topped the listing. Her “yes” made all of the others observe.
Adam Lambert performs Saturday throughout a rehearsal of “Jesus Christ Superstar.”
(Etienne Laurent / For The Occasions)
Gad calls Erivo — who was not current at a current rehearsal due to a earlier engagement — a “generational talent.” And he’s removed from alone. Speak to anybody on the forged or crew and they’ll instantly maintain forth on her extraordinary items.
“I see the hand of God in her,” Trujillo says reverently. “Even now, me being in the room with her, I hear it and I see it, and it is transcendent.”
Trujillo determined to return to the musical’s roots as an idea album and is staging the present as a bare-bones rock live performance. As an alternative of elaborate scenic design, there are black street containers, microphones and cords. Even the costumes are up to date with nods to their lineage. A rhythm band will play onstage and a 37-piece orchestra will carry out behind an enormous LED display screen that may create the phantasm that the musicians are hovering within the sky above the motion.
Preserving the present within the current and infusing it with the uncooked power of youth tradition was essential to Trujillo’s imaginative and prescient, he says, including that within the spirit of rock ‘n’ roll, the musical “reflects the turbulent political times that we’re living in.”
“As I set up each one of the characters, they’re at a microphone singing and then they take the microphone and they step into the scene. I always want to remind the audience that we are in a concert, but we’re also telling the story,” says Trujillo. “Every single person understands the opportunity that we all have to take this monumental story, this monumental score, and to do it justice. So everyone is coming at it with such goodwill and so much joy.”
At a Saturday rehearsal within the church gymnasium, Trujillo’s phrases ring true. The ensemble forged of greater than 20 proficient dancers and singers, in sweats and hoodies, run by “What’s the Buzz.” Gad watches and cheers from a desk on the sidelines subsequent to conductor and musical director Stephen Oremus, who smiles and nods his head with the beat.
“If you need me to stand in for Jesus, I’ll do it,” Gad jokes.
Phillipa Soo, who performs Mary Magdalene, sings a heartfelt rendition of “I Don’t Know How to Love Him.”
(Etienne Laurent / For The Occasions)
Lambert mesmerizes the assembled crew and onlookers with a potent rendition of “Heaven on Their Minds” and Soo brings tears with a heartfelt efficiency of “I Don’t Know How to Love Him.”
“The more time I spend with this musical, the more brilliant I understand it to be,” says Manheim throughout a short break. The 24-year-old, who‘s gained a tween following after playing Zed in Disney Channel’s “Zombies” franchise, is a part of the youth cohort Trujillo wished to forged. He wasn’t as acquainted with the rating because the older forged members — which is a part of the purpose.
“It’s cross-generational,” says Trujillo of the present. “This is the gift that you give to your children and then it just gets passed on.”
