Based on a concept album project written by Andrew Lloyd Webber and Tim Rice, and the subsequent long-running Broadway performance, this film tells the story of the final 6 days in the life of Jesus Christ through the troubled eyes of Judas Iscariot. Too often mis-labeled a musical, this film is a “rock opera.” There are no spoken lines, everything is sung. —IMDb
Receiving his undergraduate education at Malvern Collegiate Institute, Victoria College and University of Toronto, Ontario-born director and producer Norman Jewison also studied piano and music theory at the Royal Conservatory. Following service in the navy and a brief sojourn as a cab driver, Jewison worked as an actor and scenarist in London. From 1953 through 1958, he was one of the top directors with the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation television service; he continued to turn out top-ranked TV work when he was signed by CBS in New York, winning three Emmys between 1958 and 1961. His first feature film was 40 Pounds of Trouble (1962), which led to a long-term contract with Universal. In 1963, Jewison took on the daunting task of executive producing the much-troubled Judy Garland Show, emerging from this failed 26-week project with little if any egg on his face. The first of Jewison’s films to be greeted with the same critical effusion as his TV work was The Cincinnati Kid (1965… read more