‘Jesus Christ Superstar’ Arena Tour Hits DVD & Blue-ray

A live performance of the arena tour of the highly popular stage musical Jesus Christ Superstar has just made its way to DVD and Blu-ray. The rock opera created by Tim Rice and Andrew Lloyd Webber was released yesterday (September 10) for fans to enjoy compliments of Universal Studios Home Entertainment.

In a statement, Andrew Lloyd Weber shared his excitement over the show’s release on DVD and Blu-ray saying, “I have waited 42 years for Jesus Christ Superstar to play arenas in the UK, and it is great to finally see the show as it was originally intended, as an arena rock opera. I’m thrilled that Universal will be filming the new arena tour of Jesus Christ Superstar for DVD and Blu-ray, which allows us to capture this amazing production and share it with the world!”

Jesus Christ Superstar debuted on Broadway in October 1971 at the Mark Hellinger Theatre in New York.  The show had 720 performances and closed two years later with more than $2.8 million in box office sales. Webber won the Drama Desk Award as Most Promising Composer for his work on the show. Since then, the show has grossed more than $120 million and has been professionally produced in 42 countries around the world.

The production tells the story of the last seven days of Jesus Christ’s life leading up to his crucifixion. The dynamic musical features hit songs such as “Superstar”, “Hosanna”, “I Don’t Know How To Love Him”, and “Heaven On Their Minds”.

Two different film adaptations of the play were created, one in 1973 and one in 2000. The 1973 film Jesus Christ Superstar, which was directed by Norman Jewison received an Oscar for Best Adapted Score. The 2000 film release was a special version of the UK tour which was filmed at Pinewood Studios for DVD release. The DVD went on to win an International Emmy Award and sold over a million copies.