John Legend as Jesus
John Legend's Jesus shlumps around like Olivia Pope after a bad day at work, all wine cardigans and cleavage. (And wine, although I have it on good authority it was water until recently. ZING.) I also just mentally recast half this show with people from Scandal, and whoa, Joe Morton is Herod. THE ORIGINAL COMMAND. Unless that's technicall Pilate, but whatever, let's not ruin the image.
Brandon Victor Dixon (Judas)
"Did you say cleavage?" Brandon asked, while showing Leather that until this moment it did not truly understand how to be sexy.
"Yes. Cleavage. And I shall raise you some shapely holy sidebosom."
"SHALL WE BOSOM-DUEL?"
I also need to point out that these shoes, as also well-evidenced in the previous slide, made John Legend look like he is clown-footed.
Also starring Veronica Sawyer from Heathers as an acolyte.
Ben Daniels as Pilate
"If I had JUST thought to patent my exercise system in which people work their core and then spend a lot of money to strap themselves into a machine. I am SIMPLY KICKING MYSELF."
All kidding aside, he looked AWESOME. That gold shirt is everything, and the oxblood leather pants and trim on his matching coat -- and the gloves -- are superb. Prince William had better suit up thusly for his brother's wedding.
This is a better shot of the coat's two tones.
Sara Bareilles as Mary Magdalene
Mary fared quite well in the costume department, although I'm not sure the scarf was terribly helpful to her.
I loved that the villains all looked vaguely like alien overlords from a Superman movie, as if it's the Council of Zod or something.
Caiaphus and Annas
Seriously, the texture and shape of those coats is super. If you were in the rafters and couldn't hear what they were singing, you'd still know they're eeeeeevil.
Norm Lewis as Caiaphus
And speaking as I was of Scandal, you might recognize Norm here as Edison, a recurring lover of Olivia Pope. He has a rich, deep, lovely voice, and apparently sang the role of Javert for the 25th Anniversary of Les Miserables concert -- which, once you hear him, is a total OH OF COURSE HE DID kind of moment. I bet he was great. (And EEEEVIL. Javert would love that coat.)
Alice Cooper as Herod
I mistyped his name as "Alive Cooper" at first, and yes, he is alive, and I'm delighted for it. His suit of golden flames is also amazing.He was so much campier during his spoken-word bits, and the ramped-up stuff at the very end. Otherwise, he didn't really MOVE that much, which is a bummer.
Luckily, they had dancers to give it all some oomph.
This was great, though -- he accepted affection from his "people" after his song, while also pretending to wave off but also encouraging applause from everyone, and it was so haughty and perfect.
The star for me though was BVD coming out later, after his suicide but before the crucifixion, to cue up the dance party in a CHAIN MAIL TANK TOP and glitter pants.
Seriously, sir, you make being a traitor look like a whole lot of fun.
I enjoyed this accidental success of a screen grab, in which our silver-bedecked singers pull all the literal focus and everyone else is a blur. That's how it felt.
After Jesus died on the cross, they raised it up further, then opened up the set in the shape of a cross and pulled him backward through it. Such a striking thing to see, and I bet live it was really breathtaking.
This equally accidental screengrab gives you a sense of the ensemble gaping and beginning to kneel before Jesus as he leaves. They haven't read the book so they don't know he'll be back eventually. SPOILER: It's all going to work out, y'all.
