CHRISTIANITY New musical puts a modern spin on life of Jesus

The story of Jesus gets a contemporary makeover.
ST. PETERSBURG TIMES
So there's this black man with dreadlocks in New York City. A real charmer, this guy. He gives a speech in Central Park, and people swoon as he mouths off about love and peace. He has even persuaded a few to quit their jobs and follow him.
He's like a star, more inspirational than the pope and Oprah combined. Throngs grab at his clothes, beg him to visit a drug addict or a kid shot in a drive-by. They think he can heal them and change their bad habits.
Police say he's a sham.
So do people who knew him growing up. They remember when he was born in a small steel town in Pennsylvania, a city called Bethlehem.
Did the Bethlehem thing give it away?
That's one of a few clues that the musical "!Hero, The Rock Opera" is a story about the life of Jesus.
This is a modern Jesus, who descends from his heavenly throne and drops in on New York City, a gritty world of "playas," hip-hop and rock, corrupt police and fear. He's not called Jesus. He's Hero. He sings rap, rock and R & amp;B.
The musical is the latest effort to make Christianity compatible with modern living.
What's changed
Slowly, the hymns have given way to Christian rap, pop, rock, country and jazz. Christian fiction and romance novels line shelves at bookstores. The Bible got a face-lift this year when Transit Books released a glossy magazine version of the New Testament, Revolve.
Was the cool black Jesus far behind?
Eddie DeGarmo, president of EMI Christian Music Publishing, polished the concept and backed it with a media campaign. DeGarmo co-wrote the musical and commissioned author Stephen R. Lawhead and his son, Ross, to write a trilogy of Hero novels and comic books. The first novel, "City of Dreams" (Navpress, $12.99), was released last month, along with a two-disc CD of the play's music.
The play's Web site, www.herouniverse.com has had more than a million hits, and a 19-city tour begins today in Wabash, Ind., and ends Nov. 23 in San Antonio, Texas.
Performers
Hero is played by Michael Tait, a Christian rock singer best known as part of the Grammy-winning group dc talk.
Mark Stuart, lead singer for Dove award winner Audio Adrenaline, plays Petrov, the biblical Peter. And Grammy winner Rebecca St. James is Maggie (Mary Magdalene). Christian singers and rappers Grits, T-Bone, John Cooper of Skillet and Matt Hammitt of Sanctus Real round out the racially diverse cast and CD project.
Before its first performance, "!Hero" is being compared with Andrew Lloyd Webber's "Jesus Christ Superstar." Weber's 1970s rock opera chronicled the last seven days of Jesus' life through the eyes of his betrayer, Judas. The musical was daring for its time.
DeGarmo said "!Hero" pushes the envelope further.
"I feel like that, in my way, I've stayed, in some respects, more true to the intent of the story but have probably become more outlandish in the way that I've displayed it," he said.
The true message of the Gospel had been glossed over with Easter eggs and such, DeGarmo said. People today don't understand that as a Jew, Jesus was ostracized. Most laughed at his message of love, even his own people in Nazareth. He was shunned and ridiculed.
This, DeGarmo said, is why he wanted Tait to play Hero. DeGarmo is white, but he said he can see parallels between the lives of black people today and Jews in Jesus' time.
Tait didn't hesitate to take the role.
"As a little boy growing up in the inner city of Washington, D.C., being the son of a pastor, at my dad's church and other churches around the city, I'd always see these pictures of this blond-haired, blue-eyed Jesus," he said.
As he got older, Tait studied the Bible and realized that Jesus likely was not white, and he probably wasn't black, either.
"The truth is, he probably looked more like a terrorist, if you really break it down," Tait said. "I mean Jewish, Middle Eastern, dark, woolly hair. But the fact is, it's provocative."
One of his goals in playing Hero, Tait said, is to show that Jesus' appearance doesn't matter.
DeGarmo said he wants the project to invoke discussion. Petrov, who represents Peter, is wearing a Confederate flag on his chest when he meets Jesus.
"I think it will invigorate people to get involved in the real gospel story," DeGarmo said, explaining that the biblical Peter might be described as prejudiced today.
"You read where he and Paul would get into dialogue and Peter did not want to reach out to the Gentiles because he thought he was above that because he was Jewish," DeGarmo said. "And Paul would say, "Hey, man, we're here for all people.'"