Ted Neeley Turns 80

I’m not certain I’d have done a post on actor/singer Ted Neeley (b. 1943) on the strength of his most famous role alone. This blog is more conducive to exploration of Ted Healy than Ted Neeley. But not long ago I came across this:

The Texas-born singer started out with his own combo The Teddy Neeley Five. They were part of the local L.A. rock scene in the mid ’60s. They signed with Capitol in 1965 and released their self-titled debut record two years later. You can see their name on a marquee in the pilot episode of Dragnet 1967. The above pic depicts them on The Smothers Brothers Comedy Hour performing the Burt Bacharach–Hal David classic “There’s Always Something There to Remind Me”. During this same period he and his band played The Tonight Show with Johnny Carson, Playboy After Dark, The Beautiful Phyllis Diller Show, et al. Neeley already had that breathy, legit sounding voice at that early stage. In the context of a pop band, the effect was not unlike that of Paul Revere and the Raiders. Despite their high profile, though, they seem not to have much chart success.

Like fellow Texas rocker Meat Loaf, Neeley found himself gravitating toward theatre. In 1969 he played the lead role of Claude the L.A. production of Hair. This led to his getting cast in the chorus of the original Broadway production ofJesus Christ Superstar (1971-73), understudying for the role of Jesus. From there, he went on to play the lead in the L.A. production and in the 1973 movie directed by Norman Jewison. Interestingly, Neeley originally wanted to play Judas, which reveals some self-knowledge on his part, I think. He sings great, and he looks roughly like conventional depictions of Christ from paintings, but there is something kind of “wrong” about him in the role of the Messiah, I think. Does he seem a little creepy, a little sleazy to you? Yes, he’s wall-eyed, but that’s not completely it. He has a sort of coldness about the face, and he radiates a kind of vanity. One doesn’t read peace, love, compassion, or the light of God in his visage. He looks more like the drug dealer who parks his van behind the high school.

Now, that actually kind of works in Jesus Christ Superstar, because part of the brilliance of the script is that it allows us to understand the doubt of some of his followers. “He’s just a man”, as the lyric goes, and so he has many of the same frailties as other people. But does casting Neeley overcompensate? I guess producers don’t think so, for Jesus Christ Superstar has been Neeley’s bread and butter ever since. He’s played the part countless times in revivals, as recently, you will be troubled to learn, as 2010…when he was 67 years old. And in years since, he has continued to dine out on the show in concert versions.

Jesus famously bore a cross for humanity’s sins, but I’m pretty sure that all the cares in the world still wouldn’t make a 32 year old man look like this.

We have a tendency to think of Neeley strictly as Rockin’ Jesus, and only that, but it would be more accurate to characterize him as a star of rock musicals in general. Not only did he lead casts of Hair and Jesus Christ Superstar, but he also played the lead in an early stage adaptation of The Who’sTommy (1973), as well as the part of Billy Shears in The Beatles’Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band on the Road (1974). Neeley and his music are also at the center of the Robert Altman movie A Perfect Couple (1979). He also wrote the music for an obscure movie called Blame It on the Night (1984), scripted by Len Jenkin from an idea by Mick Jagger, and directed by Gene Taft, producer of Willie Nelson’s Honeysuckle Rose.

As a straight actor, Neeley appeared in the films McLaren’s Riders (1977), The Shadow of Chikara (1977), Hard Country (1981), and a made-for-tv remake of Of Mice and Men (1981) with Robert Blake and Randy Quaid, as well as tv shows like Starsky and Hutch, Man from Atlantis, and Tucker’s Witch. In 2012 Quentin Tarrantino cast him in a small role in Django Unchained, and also used some of his music on the soundtrack.

In addition to JCS revivals, he has played other stage roles over the years, including the part of Rasputin in an eponynmous 1999 musical (now, that sounds like PERFECT casting), and the part of Lucky in a revival of Waiting for Godot.

Keep up with Ted Neeley’s current doings at his official website here.