It may be the greatest story ever told, but it hasn't inspired the greatest commercial
musical ever produced--far from it. It may depict The Passion, but there is nothing
impassioned about it--only high-decibel manipulation.

The subject under discussion is the revival of Tim Rice's and Andrew Lloyd Webber's
Jesus Christ Superstar. Though the now-celebrated pair concocted the property when they were in their twenties--initially, as a concept album--it may still be fair to characterize the result as juvenalia. Much worse, however, can be said about the sung-through show that follows Jesus during the brief span of time between his triumphant arrival in Jerusalem and his brutal crucifix[...]