Did critics crucify Jesus Christ Superstar?

Matt Trueman, WhatsOnStage

★★★

"On a stage of rusted girders that suggest the ruins of the Twin Towers, a giant steel cross lies toppled on the floor. Ours, Sheader argues, is a world without faith and Jesus's followers, dressed in the baggy urban greys of All Saints, have something of the Occupy movement about them."

"Drew McOnie's riveting choreography – often the most interesting thing onstage – rocks out with religious ecstasy at first, then turns righteous fury into trance. "

"And yet, and yet. Sheader's format snags between two stools. Handheld mics get in the way of acting; acting gets in the way of a genuine gig… Only Tyrone Huntley, displaying vast vocal dexterity as Judas, cuts through the pretence."

Dominic Cavendish, The Telegraph

★★★★

"A simple praise-be is owed to Timothy Sheader for mounting a proper theatrical realisation at Regent’s Park; as someone who grew up in the '70s with almost every catchy-as-hell number more firmly embedded in my mind than any Sunday school catechism, this first face-to-face encounter with the show has been a long time coming. And doesn’t disappoint."

"And each song is sung with such feeling that the soul of the piece, as embodied in the restless whirl of sounds, so volatile in tempo, comes roaring through. Superstar‘s youthful potency and its Christ-like radicalism – courting sacrilege, achieving an essence of spiritual intensity – is reborn in the nick of time. Hallelujah!"

Fiona Mountford, The Evening Standard

★★★★

"In the second act, as we near the death of Jesus, the show bursts into magnificent life. Timothy Sheader offers some of the most stylish direction I’ve seen all year, sculpting each segment into something distinct, vivid and compelling. Look out for Herod and his metres of shimmering gold fabric, like a crazily over-extended pierrot."

"Jesus (Declan Bennett, underwhelming) and Judas (Tyrone Huntley, charismatic) power through their personal conflict. This work has a distinctly human rather than spiritual dimension — on a set backed by a large iron frame with a huge crucifix lying across the stage."

Andrzej Lukowski, Time Out

★★★★

"Tom Scutt‘s set is a yawning skeleton of a building, huge, industrial girders suggestive of crosses, the stage a more explicit crucifix shape. Lean, bearded (well, some of them) and buff, the cast are dressed in varying shades of raggedy grey, and look like a warrior tribe from some sort of culty '70s dystopian drama."

"Pausing to doff my crown of thorns to Drew McOnie’s pulsing, rhythmic choreography, what really makes the show is its truly excellent cast."

"Bennett’s ambivalent Jesus – whose divinity is never confirmed nor denied – is a rugged everyman who spends the first number rolling a fag; if his voice sometimes feels a bit ‘light’, he absolutely nails his operatically emosh act two number, ‘Gethsemane’."

Quentin Letts, Daily Mail

★★★★★

"Shorn of hippy excesses, infused with melancholy, this production is a work of rare mission and artistic merit."

"Declan Bennett is superb as Christ. From the start he is gripped by the daunting nature of his character's destiny. Tyrone Huntley demonstrates vast vocal range as an energetic, needy Judas. Cavin Cornwall's Caiaphas — the temple priests are done up with cloaks and rods that turn upside down to form microphone stands — has a bass as deep as the Jubilee Line."

"How wrong some preachers were 46 years ago to attack this modern mystery play."

Jesus Christ Superstar runs at Regent's Park Open Ait Theatre until 27 August.