JESUS CHRIST SUPERSTAR

British musical theatre star Ben Forster describes winning ITV’s 2012 Superstar competition as “the hardest experience of my life but I would do it again.”

The TV show was designed as a talent search series to find the lead role in Andrew Lloyd Webber’s revived Jesus Christ Superstar. Forster beat out 11 finalists to take the role of the world’s most famous man.

“If you talk to anyone from the musical theatre world it is the most epic, hardest part for a man to play,” he explains.

No stranger to that world, Forster has been training and performing since he was a child. “When I was 16 my parents re-mortgaged their house to send me to London,” he shares.

It was a move that paid off, with the success of Forster’s turn as Jesus about to bring him down under for the Australian run.

Set in a contemporary world, this latest production puts the classic story in a modern frame.

“The director saw the opportunity to drop this show on the streets right now,” he says. “It’s a timeless story.”

With an Aussie sourced cast featuring an “unbelievable” Tim Minchin and Andrew O’Keefe alongside former Spice Girl Melanie Chisholm, Forster describes Jesus Christ Superstar as, “such a beautiful production, so epic and in-your-face.” (LL)

June 7-9, Sydney Entertainment Centre, Haymarket, $95-149, (02) 9320 4200, jesuschristsuperstar.com