NEW YORK – In a bare church basement lined with empty chairs and coffee cups, Jesus Christ Superstar Live is nearing its climactic finish.
Jesus, played by singer/actor John Legend, has just arrived at the Last Supper, where he passes his disciples an empty bottle of wine and a roll of paper towels.
"For all you care, this bread could be my body," Legend warbles, raising the temporary props toward the heavens during a Saturday morning rehearsal in late February.
The Grammy winner is getting in all the practice he can for NBC's live-musical event (Sunday, 8 ET/PT) before he jets off to Asia for a three-week tour — a test of endurance made all the more difficult by a recent bout with the flu. Today, he's running through The Last Supper, a fiery duet with Judas (Hamilton's Brandon Victor Dixon), and Jesus' emotional power ballad Gethsemane, which he opts to murmur rather than belt in between sips of leafy green juices and tea.
Singing Gethsemane "is especially hard when you're recovering from a cold," Legend says later. "Emotionally, the subject matter is tough, because it’s previewing the fact that he’s about to die, and he’s questioning why it has to happen and he's talking to his Father. But physically as well, it’s quite a challenging vocal number."
Gethsemane is one of the most iconic songs from Jesus Christ Superstar. Andrew Lloyd Webber and Tim Rice's 1970 rock opera about the last days of the Messiah's life was nominated for five Tony Awards and spawned a top 40 hit in I Don't Know How to Love Him, Mary Magdalene's torch song.
Mary is played by pop singer Sara Bareilles in the new production, which will be performed in modern dress in front of a live audience at Brooklyn's Marcy Armory (designed to look like someone has "taken a hammer to the Sistine Chapel," director David Leveaux says).
Bareilles, 38, was introduced to Superstar via the 1973 movie starring Ted Neeley, and later saw a community theater production. She was drawn to Webber's music — particularly Love Him, in which Mary confesses her unrequited feelings for Jesus.
"The song itself is an 'if it ain't broke, don't fix it' kind of scenario, so it's really just about trying to bring an honest interpretation of the lyric and storytelling that's already there to life," Bareilles says. "It's just a simple, beautiful moment in the show, and I feel special that I get to be the one to do it."
Legend, 39, was not as familiar with the musical, although he recalls singing a few of the songs in his high school show choir. Born in Springfield, Ohio, he was raised in what he calls a "very, very religious home": His grandfather was a pastor, his grandmother a church organist and his mom a choir director.
"I grew up around a bevy of preachers and singers in the church, so I'm very familiar with this story, and what it means to so many people," Legend says. "What's cool about this show is how Andrew and Tim reimagined the last few days of (Jesus') life and really connected to his humanity.
While he has played small roles in high-school theater productions and most recently La La Land, Jesus marks the biggest acting role of Legend's career — a challenge he has met with intense dedication and humility, Leveaux says.
"For people who have acquired that degree of fame in their own right, they don’t necessarily need to be open to anything else," Leveaux says. "John is a bit of an explorer, so I’ve loved that part of him. He’s very willing to learn the character, not just sing the songs."
Echoes Bareilles: "He's just cool as a cucumber all the time and has a great sense of humor about him, but is taking the work really seriously. He really sets the tone for everybody (in the cast)."
NBC is banking on the star power of Legend, Bareilles and rock icon Alice Cooper, as King Herod, to help sell Superstar to the masses. The network reignited the trend of annual live-musical events in 2013 with The Sound of Music Live! starring Carrie Underwood, which pulled in 18.6 million viewers. But subsequent offerings have seen diminishing returns, with rival Fox's A Christmas Story Live! drawing just 4.5 million last December. Plans for live productions of Bye Bye Birdie (on NBC) and The Little Mermaid (on ABC) were shelved.
"The Sound of Music was such a revelation out of the box," says executive producer Neil Meron. "Ratings aren't as high these days for practically everything, but in the realm of producing these for the network, they're still very, very buzzy events and have a very significant audience that tunes in. We are still spreading the gospel of musical theater and for us, that's a reason to continue to do it."
And with its timely message of love and responsibility to our fellow humans, NBC believes audiences are ready to embrace the musical.
"It's a story people will never get tired of hearing, especially on Easter Sunday," Meron says. "The resonance of Superstar is probably more profound these days than when it came out in the '70s."
