While actual critics are raving about Cynthia Erivo’s recent star turn in Jesus Christ Superstar — the Los Angeles Times called her performance “divine”; Forbes said the production, co-starring Adam Lambert, “needs to tour” — conservative blowhards and Christian social media influencers are just raving mad, describing the queer Grammy, Tony, and Emmy award winner as “demonic.”

On Sunday, Erivo wrapped up a three-night stint playing the title role in a much-anticipated revival of the Tim Rice and Andrew Lloyd Webber rock opera at the Hollywood Bowl. The Wicked star’s casting had been controversial since it was announced back in February, with social media trolls flooding the Los Angeles performance venue’s Instagram announcement 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 as Jesus.

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Christian trolls are furious that Cynthia Erivo is playing Jesus
The ‘Wicked’ Oscar nominee has been cast in an upcoming production of ‘Jesus Christ Superstar.’

Erivo laughed off the uproar in a recent interview with Billboard, telling the magazine, “You can’t please everyone.”

“It is legitimately a three-day performance at the Hollywood Bowl where I get to sing my face off,” she said. “So, hopefully [critics] will come and realize, ‘Oh, it’s a musical, the gayest place on Earth.’”

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Unfortunately, Erivo may have underestimated the Christian right’s commitment to outrage.

On Sunday, actor Kevin Sorbo posted a video clip from the show on X showing Erivo and Lambert. “This is demonic,” Sorbo wrote.

Anti-trans activist Riley Gaines reposted Sorbo’s post, adding that “My heart breaks.”

As The Christian Post noted, Sean Davis, CEO of right-wing media outlet The Federalist, went so far as to compare Erivo’s appearance to that of Max Schreck in 1922’s Nosferatu.

“It’s no surprise she looks exactly like how demons have always been portrayed,” anti-choice activist Kristan Hawkins wrote of Erivo on X. “And let’s be real… if you dress like a demon, act like a demon, and mock God like a demon… don’t be shocked when people call it what it is.”

“This is intentional blasphemy from Hollywood,” Hawkins added.

Responding to photos of Erivo from the show, rightwing commentator and convicted felon Dinesh D’Souza wrote that he would now like to see “a white woman play Martin Luther King, Jr.”

In a long comment to D’Souza’s post, conservative radio host Christopher Calvin Reid described Erivo as “a woke liberal actress” and her casting as “a vile assault on Christian doctrine.”

“This isn’t art; it’s evil—a blasphemous middle finger to God, cheered by Democrats who’d rather bow to Hollywood than the Bible,” Reid’s unhinged rant continued. “Christians must reject this sacrilege, for it erodes the sacred, inviting divine judgment while the left cackles in their echo chambers.”

As Lambert told Billboard last week, the point of Jesus Christ Superstar has always been “to provoke and challenge.” Loosely based on Christ’s final week before his crucifixion, the musical 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.

Earlier this year, actor and singer Ted Neeley, who starred as Jesus in the 1973 film adaptation, likened the uproar around Erivo’s casting to the protests outside the original Broadway production in the early 70s.

As for Erivo, she seems to be simply basking in the generally glowing reception to her performance. On Tuesday, the actress and singer reposted a clip from the show first posted by Wicked co-star Ariana Grande, and also posted a gif of herself with Superstar co-stars Lambert and Brian Justin Crum.

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