Javon King has a controversial take on history's most famous traitor: he doesn't think Judas was a villain at all. "I genuinely believe he was misunderstood," says the actor, who plays the role in the touring production of Jesus Christ Superstar arriving in New Zealand this October. Strip the famous names away, he argues, and you're left with two close friends who simply stop seeing eye to eye — one trying to rein the other in, with tragic consequences.
That reading fits the show itself. Andrew Lloyd Webber and Tim Rice's rock musical, first staged in the early 70s, retells the final days of Jesus from Judas's point of view rather than the Bible's. This high-energy, prog-rock-styled production won the Olivier Award for Best Musical Revival in 2017 and carries the songs people actually know: I Don't Know How to Love Him, the raw Gethsemane, and the show-stopping Superstar.
King's co-star Luke Street, who plays Jesus, joined the tour as the Judas understudy before being offered the lead mid-tour — a call that arrived just as his wife was due with their second child. He stayed for the birth, then flew to the Philippines four days later to take the role. A lifelong fan of the soundtrack thanks to his mum's road-trip playlists, he brings a rock kid's sensibility to it: his Jesus is less divine icon, more a human celebrity whose fame spirals out of control.
That celebrity-culture angle is part of why the show has aged so well, Street suggests — audiences idolise people, then tear them down, a pattern as familiar now as it was 2000 years ago. Both actors describe the production as closer to a rock concert than a traditional musical: non-stop, heavily choreographed, and physically punishing. Street calls the finale's pin-drop silence his favourite moment of the whole show.
For travellers, the practical bit: the international tour lands at The Civic in Auckland for a seven-week season from October 21 to November 15. If you're in New Zealand this spring and want a big, loud night of theatre — whether or not you know the story — it's an easy sell. The 50-year-old score holds up, and the production's whole point is to make you question what you think you already know about its two leads.
