“It proved that you could make a lot of money on a show that critics don’t particularly like,” added Bial, who said “Superstar” was one of the first shows to use word of mouth and advance sales to promote the show before it opened. According to Bial, these tactics created enough momentum to launch “Superstar” as one of the first mega musicals — “it became almost a brand in and of itself,” he said.
Surprisingly, Recla, the seminarian who staged the bootleg version of “Superstar” at Gettysburg College, isn’t a fan of the musical. “I haven’t seen any of the other productions, because it’s not the same,” he said. Instead, he’s a devotee to the event that took place 50 years ago in Gettysburg. That iteration, which preceded the Broadway production by seven months, used an entirely different approach, Recla said, that prioritized music over pageantry and staged a resurrection at the show’s conclusion.
For Recla, the biggest miracle involved was the show itself. “Being part of the show demonstrated what can happen when people of a variety of differences are of one mind with a mission,” said Recla. “It meant that I would, for the rest of my life, believe in miracles.”
This article was originally published here.
