Christian trolls are losing their tiny minds over the fact that out actress and singer Cynthia Erivo has been cast as the lead in an upcoming production of Jesus Christ Superstar. Maybe they just don’t know how to love her.

Last week, Los Angeles performance venue the Hollywood Bowl announced that the Wicked Oscar nominee will play Jesus in its upcoming production of the Tim Rice and Andrew Lloyd Webber rock opera from the early 1970s.

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Almost immediately, the venue’s social media posts were flooded with comments like “Jesus was a man” and “This is not MY Christ.” Others accused the production of disrespecting the Christian faith and even “blasphemy” for casting a Black queer woman in the role.

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Notably, the comments on the Hollywood Bowl’s Instagram post were also filled with fans cheering the announcement. Not so much on Elon Musk’s X.

As Forbes notes, Jesus Christ Superstar has always been controversial. First produced as a concept album with music by Webber and lyrics by Rice in 1970, it opened on Broadway the following year and was later made into a 1973 film. The musical is loosely based on Christ’s final week before his crucifixion and takes an irreverent approach to the Biblical story, infusing it with a late-60s countercultural sensibility that questions both Jesus’ celebrity and the wisdom of his biggest fans.

Actor and singer Ted Neeley, who was an understudy for the title role in the original Broadway production and starred as Jesus in the film adaptation, told TMZ that Jesus Christ Superstar faced backlash from the moment it premiered.

“We were protested every single day out in front of the theater at Broadway and 52nd,” Neeley told the outlet.

Neeley declined to comment on Erivo herself, noting that he has not seen Wicked and has never heard her sing. But, he said, “I feel that it’s up to the director and producer to decide who’s playing what character in the show. So, I can’t badmouth anybody. All I can do is just say I hope that you do a great job and the show’s wonderful.”

Rice, meanwhile, said during a recent interview with LBC’s Nick Ferrari that while Erivo’s casting may be “a bit of a stretch,” he finds it “quite exciting.”

“She is such a wonderful performer, great singer. I worked with her a little bit already some years ago,” Rice said. “She is just a great, great singer.”

The Emmy, Grammy, Oscar, and Tony winner added that he has seen women play the lead role in Jesus Christ Superstar before. “The first time I saw it was at my daughter’s school, an all-girls school did it. And it really worked, and they were amateurs and they were teenagers,” he recalled.

Erivo herself sang the role of Mary Magdalene on She Is Risen, a two-part all-female concept album featuring songs from Jesus Christ Superstar released in 2020.

“I think a piece that is established, there’s no reason it can’t be done in lots of forms,” Rice told Ferrari. “And I think Cynthia, who is one of the best singers on the planet, will do a great version.”

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