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To hear Claude McNeal tell it, it wasn't Alan Freed, Elvis or
Little Richard who gave us rock 'n' roll.
McNeal's "Rockspell: The Gospel According to Rock," running at American Cabaret Theatre through May 15, suggests rock's origins go back further -- much further. Think the Bible story when a "rock" miraculously "rolled" away from the door of a certain tomb.
And while no one is saying God predated Elvis as rock's original King, "Rockspell" comes pretty close.
Conceived and directed by McNeal and Mary Lou Szczesiul, "Rockspell" draws on rock songs from the 1960s and '70s to retell the Gospel story. The show, which premiered at ACT in 1998, features rock icons sitting in as deities: Elvis is God (late Elvis, that is). John Lennon is Jesus. Jimi Hendrix is the Holy Ghost. Bob Dylan is John the Baptist.
"Rockspell" unfolds its story entirely through classic rock lyrics and a "slide narrative" that flashes onto large screens flanking the stage everything from rock-star pin-ups to pop-art images to Bible verses.
The trippy approach to the Greatest Story Ever Told is problematic. After all, Lennon sang, "Imagine there's no heaven." To equate him -- even by implication -- to Jesus is trivializing and brings the show dangerously close to blasphemy. Besides that, many of the songs come off as a "forced fit."
The destiny of Christ is foreshadowed in "Blowin' in the Wind," sung by Dylan/John the Baptist. Jesus restores the sight of a blind man (Stevie Wonder) to "Sunshine of My Life."
The show has its moments: Jesus warns his disciples about temptation; he departs, only to have a disciple light up and pass a joint. The cast troops around singing "Everybody must get stoned" from the Bob Dylan song "Rainy Day Women #12 and 35."
In another scene, Jesus/Lennon, bent under the weight of the cross, falls to the stage, while Hendrix/Holy Ghost solos on "All Along the Watchtower." The Holy Ghost casts down his guitar, picks up the cross and finishes feigning the solo on it.
Lisa Posson, as Mary Magdalene, combines a radiant presence, lovely voice and fleet dancing. Jeff Owen, as Lennon/Jesus, brings to the role equal measures of beatitude and rock-'n'-roll snarl. Perhaps most entertaining is Jake Haley, who, as spastic Jim Morrison/Judas, stops just short of pulling a favorite trick of the Lizard King and exposing himself on the stage.
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