This was a fairly exciting once-in-a-lifetime event for me. I am a massive massive fan of Tim Minchin and I managed to procure (pretty damn good) tickets to the o2 to see him in the one-night-only return performance of Jesus Christ Superstar. Andrew Lloyd Webber’s famous musical (one of his three arguably good ones) retells the final week before Jesus Christ’s crucifixion in a modern setting and was last year remodeled for an arena tour in the UK. It has since done a world tour and returned to the o2 this month for this single performance. Starring Tim Minchin as Judas, Mel C as Mary Magdalene and Chris Moyles as King Herod, the show was still missing an actor for the title role. In order to get their hands on a Jesus, Webber set up one of his infamous television talent contests, which eventually produced Ben Forster.

Put simply I didn’t expect anything amazing. I knew Tim Minchin would be brilliant (he was incredible), but I expected Mel C to be dire, Chris Moyles to be a poor singer and especially Ben Forster to be a pretty poor Jesus, having been found on one of these awful TV shows. Suffice to say I was, on the whole, rather incorrect. Naturally Minchin was phenomenal, putting his highest (and they really are high) notes up multiple tones from how they’re written. Mel C was a better actress than I expected, though her voice was irritatingly ‘poppy’. Chris Moyles did speak most of his one song but admittedly got every note that he did sing fine, and could have been a lot worse. And Ben Forster. I take it all back. Ben Forster was incredible, easily mirroring Minchin’s standard; his voice was phenomenal and his acting was spectacular, making the show far more moving and powerful (mainly through his song Gethsemane) than anyone else managed. Almost as impressive and far more underrated were the superb Alex Hanson (Pontius Pilate) and Gerard Bentall (Annas). It did seem ridiculous to me that Moyles got an extra bow with Jesus, Mary, Pilate and Judas, when all he did was ‘sing’ one song, while Ciaphas and Annas are far more difficult and praiseworthy roles. But that’s just me and my bizarre perfectionism when it comes to curtain calls.

All in all the staging is seemingly minimalist but quite unique. The stage is made entirely of large steps and other than that there is no set. However the cyclorama (is that is the right word) is put to good use, projecting backdrops as well as mock CCTV footage and social media posts (on which I couldn’t really make up my mind, they did make me cringe rather), but mainly huge live footage of what was occurring on stage. This was executed very creatively and one particular shot sticks out in my mind when the chorus was crowding round Jesus far upstage and a cameraman came directly up in front of them (they did this often and it was less off-putting than one might expect) and filmed crouching, looking up so that the cyclorama itself was visible in the projection. This mean that the image of the chorus was projected multiple times within itself, getting gradually farther and more distant, giving an impression of endless crowds, and it looked excellent.

The other technical highlight was that of the cross. Judas descends from the sky (having already committed suicide) at the start of the title song, standing on a descending lighting rig, and once it has lowered enough he jumps off. By the end of the song, Jesus has been hoisted up, hanging from the horizontal rig, while another gradually swings through behind it to become vertical and the other beam of the cross. As Forster performs The Crucifixion, a dim spotlight focuses on him, while the lights on the cross slowly grow brighter in contrast to all the other lights dimming. On the final crash after his words, “It is finished”, all the lights cut out, leaving the singular sight of the cross lit up, blazing into the audience – a very powerful image, enhanced by the chorus’s next entrance, processing through the audience with solitary candles.

Finally the entirely live, powerful orchestration was brilliant, and as much as I am not the greatest fan, it was exciting to see Webber himself, accompanied by the arguably more talented lyricist Tim Rice, who has risen in my estimations due to his scathing remark about Webber’s ITV shows. All in all it was an excellent night and certainly a brilliant event to be my first experience of the o2 (shocking I know)