Adam Lambert is championing Cynthia Erivo in Jesus Christ Superstar, despite backlash surrounding her casting as the titular role.
In Andrew Lloyd Webber and Tim Rice’s musical, the Tony Award winner portrayed Jesus alongside the American Idol alum as Judas at the Hollywood Bowl for the first three nights of August.
When news of Erivo’s casting was announced, it was criticized because she is a Black queer woman. However, Lambert doesn’t share the same concerns, and admitted in an interview with Billboard that he was “excited by the challenge” of the Oscar nominee leading Jesus Christ Superstar.
“Cynthia’s brilliant. Her voice, presence, and simultaneous power and vulnerability absolutely blows my mind and working with her has been a dream,” he said. “I’m excited by the challenge of presenting the audience with a production led by a female, Black ‘Jesus’ and encourage the audience to expand their minds a bit.”
Lambert added, “Originally utilizing rock and roll, Jesus Christ Superstar is supposed to provoke and challenge, that’s the point. And shouldn’t the teachings of Jesus transcend gender?”
The Wicked star previously responded to the backlash of her being cast as Jesus in the musical in a June interview with Billboard.
“You can’t please everyone,” Erivo said. “It is legitimately a three-day performance at the Hollywood Bowl where I get to sing my face off. So hopefully they will come and realize, ‘Oh, it’s a musical, the gayest place on Earth.’”
Jesus Christ Superstar kicked off its consecutive three-day run at the Hollywood Bowl on Friday night. Erivo will next been seen on the silver screen in the highly anticipated Wicked: For Good, the followup to Jon M. Chu’s Wicked, on Nov. 21.