Should Madonna get the lead role in the film remake of Jesus Christ Superstar?
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M$2 Answers
Unequivocaly no. There is no way that Madonna would be a good fit as Jesus.
A gender reversal in the role will completely destroy the central themes of Jesus Christ Superstar. The whole movie is inextricabally tied to the life and times of Jesus. To have a woman in the role, any woman, shatters that premise and removes the suspension of disbelief as a moviegoer.
It becomes absurd. The women at that time in Rome had no power. There is no way that Jesus could be portrayed as a woman.
Now if you mean, should Madonna cross genders and play Jesus as if he was still a man? Again I think this is impossible because people will still see her as Madonna. The singing parts are not in Madonna's vocal range. Why not just get a man to play it?
Also, you are talking here about a very specific piece of art. The musical, Jesus Christ Superstar, songs by Andrew Lloyd Webber, lyrics by Tim Rice. It's got a specific, set story and several songs and themes. To simply drop a woman into the main role, or have a woman play the main role as if she was a man, does not work.
Now, I could see *some* adaptation of Jesus' life, somewhere, that portrayed a woman in the role of Jesus, or that portrayed Jesus as a woman. But Jesus Christ Superstar can't really handle it.
I am sorry that I am not providing sources, but in this case, this is largely an opinion based question. I can provide sound reasoning as to why I believe what I believe, but I do not think that the question lends itself well to source material. Nevertheless, I'll try to dig some up below in replies.
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M$
Vandal913, the answer requires assertions that can be backed up by sources. For example, djscram says that "Any thing Madonna does is going to be about Madonna." He could have provided a movie review where the reviewer says that she was playing herself rather than the story's proper role. Then djscram says, among other things, that this is bad if the movie is to depict "Jesus from a religous perspective". Why and how? He could have provided a description of how Madonna differs from or resembles Jesus (religious perspective) and sources showing evidence for those differences or resemblances.
Okay, well I'd say it's bad if you want the movie to be about any of the following:
Jesus from a religious perspective
Jesus as portrayed in the Andrew Lloyd Webber Musical
The life and/or character of Jesus
But if you want to take the musical and turn it into a critique on modern religion, perhaps Madonna is the kind of icon you're looking for.
Oh, sorry, sources:
Well here's a search for the number and types of stories about Madonna that appear on Google News (over 18,000, mostly gossip):
http://news.google.com/news?q=Madonna&sourceid;=navclient-ff&rls;=GGGL,GGGL:2006-37,GGGL:en&um;=1&ie;=UTF-8&sa;=N&tab;=wn
Here's a search for Jesus Christ Superstar: (330, many listing tickets for sale)
http://news.google.com/news?sourceid=navclient-ff&rls;=GGGL%2CGGGL%3A2006-37%2CGGGL%3Aen&um;=1&tab;=wn&nolr;=1&hl;=en&q;=Jesus+Christ+Superstar&btnG;=Search+News
Agreed with dj..although I don't consider Madonna a good actress. albanian I'm not sure how you want people to cite sources for responses this question; whether Madonna 'should' play the role or not is a completely subjective question, there is nothing fact-based about it.
So is that a good thing or a bad thing and what are your sources?
That still doesn't make sense; a movie review is just another subjective opinion. So we are supposed to support our subjective opinions with other people' subjective opinions? The fact is you are asking for responses that ultimately judge a person's character, which is rarely, if ever fact-based; it's entirely focused on opinion.
Now you have a reasoned answer with sources. I hope someone else will do the same with another viewpoint.
You have forgotten though that Jesus was supposed to be a Jew not a Roman, and Jewish women had a different culture.
On the other subject, my favorite "pants" role for women is Prince Orlovsky (an adult prince usually wearing white tie and tails and a small mustache). That works well enough in Die Fledermaus to be standard casting.
Then I don't understand your quesion. Could you please clarify?
A reasonable reply but to the wrong question. I understand that the lead role is the Jesus character and that is indeed the one I meant that she would play. I recall that she has depicted herself in that role before in some music video or stage act which caused a controversy.
Almost all women playing men are playing boys. It's very hard for a woman to pull off a convincing man.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=giQFjf6ih80Peter Pan with Mary Martin:
Shakespeare in love, where a woman disguises herself as a boy, Thomas Kent.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shakespeare_in_Love
Orlando, a movie where a 16th century man changes into a woman and lives 400 years. Movie role is played by a woman.
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0107756/
Wikipedia entry talking about cross-dressing, is primarily men dressing up as women, but good historical examples of women posing as men:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cross-dressing
Info about treatment of women in Roman times at the time of Jesus http://www.womenintheancientworld.com/women_in_ancient_rome.htm showing that if Madonna played Jesus *as if he was a woman* there is no believibility that he could be a well-known and well-respected rabbi
http://www.theshiznit.co.uk/feature/top-20-worst-casting-decisions-ever.php summary of some bad casting decisions to give some perspective.