Few musical forms have fallen into such low repute as the rock opera. Through the bombastic efforts of a handful of well-meaning composers, the whole enterprise has become almost synonymous with egotism in the minds of pop music consumers. Yet the form continues to have its adherents. A stage revival of The Who's trailblazing Tommy opened to packed houses on Broadway in 1995. And Jesus Christ Superstar, the mind-blowing 1970 rock opera about the last days of Christ, continues to work its magic on theatergoers the world over in countless touring company and summer stock productions.

Originally conceived as a stage musical, Jesus Christ Superstar was the brainchild of two enterprising English whiz kids, composer Andrew Lloyd Webber, who was twenty-three, and lyricist Tim Rice, who was twenty-six. The pair's 1968 collaboration, Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat, had set the Old Testament story of Jacob's feuding...