Good Friday

Jesus Christ Superstar awards, Part II...
Best Pilate--Oh, Barry Dennen, hands down. Just the way he hisses "You hypocrites! You hate us more than him!" when the crowd is declaring its allegiance to Caesar would let him win it. Or when he whispers the last words of his lines after he has Jesus flogged: "You've got to be...careful. You could be dead...soon." His Pilate has pathos and tragic hero potential--which is all the more impressive given that he's a middle manager/bureaucrat. I love how Dennen takes us through Pilate's sneering dismissal of Christ to grudging respect to fear for his safety and final anger mixed with sadness.
Best Mary Magdalene--Again, there's no contest. Yvonne Elliman owns this role. Like Dennen, she packs everything into her performances. The "brown album" version of "Everything's Alright," for instance, has self-assurance to the point of swagger, but also a kind of gentleness and vulnerability.
Best Jesus--This is tough, but I think I have to give this to the Jesus of the original Japanese cast recording, whoever he may be. He always makes the right choices for how to deliver his lines. He doesn't belt out the high notes on "Gethsemane," for instance, which would seem to be an instant disqualification, but everything he says is invested with believable emotion. He also brings a dignity, a gravitas to the part which is too often lacking.
Best Judas--I'll be honest--it's tempting to just say Carl Anderson here. But I cannot get over Roger Daltrey in the BBC2 rendition. Wow. Carl Anderson may own the role, but Roger Daltrey is schooling everyone on how you put on a rock opera. (Just listen to the music on the video I've linked.)