“Jesus Christ Superstar” | Rush Musical Society

“Jesus Christ Superstar” | Rush Musical Society

Sinéad Lightley, as Choreographer, ensured that her cast were well-prepared in plenty of high energy entertaining dance routines. For me, the most interesting number was the first one. There was something hypnotic about it. It appeared to mix what looked like sign language with slow, quirky folk dancing that seemed unique and unlike much of what I have seen before. There were also a number of abstract freezes, which were cool. If I am honest, I thought it was setting the tone for something more quirky and inventive, but the rest of the routines reverted to more face-forward-and-dance choreography. It was clear that a lot of work went into these numbers, however. The cast had clearly been well-rehearsed by Sinéad and they executed the routines with energy and commitment, ensuring some highly entertaining uptempo numbers. The ensemble grew increasingly frantic in ‘What’s the Buzz?’ The crowd surfing in ‘Hosanna’ was awesome, really capturing the meaning of the number. ‘Simon Zealotes’ employed a lot of highly effective armography, which was probably simple enough but worked so well at creating lots of big movement. Formations were good here, with two interconnected groups sometimes doing different things. The six dancers in ‘Herod’s Song’ were great and their reaction to his entrance, as though irritated by him, was funny.”

Ciarán Mooney AIMS AWARDS Saturday, April 7, 2018