Meet this week’s campus celebrity, the marvelous musical director, Andy Bewley. We managed to drag him off stage to chat to us about his up and coming production Jesus Christ Superstar. For all you lucky ladies with an audition, read on to find out a tip from the man himself.
We know you have been incredibly busy at the moment with Jesus Christ Superstar, can you let us know what it is all about?
JCS is a rock-opera. The story is based around the last seven days of Jesus of Nazareth’s life. However, what makes it such a remarkable piece is that the ‘greatest story ever told’ is retold through the eyes of Judas Iscariot. This creates a piece of theatre that is hard-hitting, contentious and most importantly, awesome. The piece is generally a rather camp and flamboyant affair, but we have revitalized and revised it. Our vision is to create a gritty and harsh world full of angst, hardship and inhabited by a society who’s humanity is waning. This will fuel our transformation of Central Hall. It will be a city jungle-Jerusalem held together by dilapidated scaffolding, scribbled all over with screaming graffiti and crucially for the show…it will be really, really cool!
What tip can you give someone who has an audition slot?
Obviously try your best and all that jazz. But breathe. It’s amazing how easy things are when you just enjoy a good deep breath. Take your time and take risks as well because we can always redirect you if we think you’ve done too much or too little.
When do tickets come on sale and when is the show?
The show is in February and we will be releasing tickets early 2014. However, we are going to be having all sorts of events to build a buzz, raise funds and have a laugh. CHMS, our society, is branching out massively this year and by the end of it we want to be attracting students from all walks of university life, who simply look a good musical.
Who would be your dream character to play in any musical?
Clare Balding in a musical about myself.
Something for the girls, if you had to take a girl on a date to a musical, what would it be?
I’ll go for ‘Little Women’. I could fall for a girl whilst watching that show…
Here’s your chance to give us all a final push to convince people to come and see Jesus Christ Superstar…take it away Andy…
I am honored and very lucky to have the opportunity to direct JCS, but in all honesty and with as much humility as one can muster, it’s going to be very special.
If you want more information about the show, like Andy’s Jesus Christ Superstar facebook page https://www.facebook.com/chmspresents