I've only seen Jesus twice in my life, once at a rest stop on I-95 in Maryland and the other while behind the counter at the video store. Back in 1990 my parents and I were driving from Virginia to PA. While at a rest stop we stopped off for something to eat at Burger King. While in line we saw Jesus in his long white tunic and red coat coming out of the restroom. My mom started laughing, the long ride had finally gotten to her. I wasn't quite sure what he was doing there, and I was too afraid to approach him and ask for directions or make some other kind of small talk. As we were driving away in our car we again saw Jesus talking to some people pumping gas at the Mobil station. It would be several years till I saw Jesus again. This time I was working a Saturday night at the store when a man with long hair in a ponytail and a small goatee approached the counter. He was dressed in jeans and a plain shirt and looked to be in his late fifties. He looked familiar but I could not place him. He asked to rent several movies all about or dealing with Rasputin. We had a few titles in stock... Rasputin, Rasputin and the Empress, Rasputin the Mad Monk. I asked the gentleman if he had ever rented at our store before, he said "no". So I asked for some identification and he produced a driver's license. While taking the info off of his card I noticed his name was Theodore Neeley. Neeley? I know I've seen that name before. Theodore? Ted? Ted Neeley? That's it, he was Ted Neeley who played Jesus in the 1973 film, Jesus Christ Superstar. He confirmed this to me and was quite surprised that I knew who he was. A coworker and I both chatted up his performance in the film, and he obliged nicely. It turned out he was rehearsing a new musical in development about Rasputin and he needed the films for research. I at the time was understudying a role in a play at a theatre where his director was the current artistic director. We chatted, I even sold him a membership to our club, but it was short lived since he was only in town while the play rehearsed. To this date I have not run into Jesus anyplace else but will keep you all posted as to his next sighting!
2 comments:
According to the Six Degrees of Separation Theory, since I know you (although not personally) now I’m only, just only one degree of separation away from Theodore Neeley. Another famous person to add up to my list.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Six_degrees_of_separation
I was delighted to have the privilege of auditioning for the very same production of RASPUTIN starring the incomparable Ted Neeley. His singing in J.C. Superstar was raw and amazing! I was up for the role of Usipov but could not portray the role due to schedule conflicts. The author and music writer/lyricist is a talented gent by the name of Michael Rapp (short for Rappagnani). He wrote many other musicals based on historical or famous characters including ULYSSES and QUASIMODO.
Ted Neeley is a close and personal friend to Michael and treated everyone in the cast with respect and dignity. They all loved him.
Keep up the great blog and until the next Jesus siting...CPL
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