Flashback: Watch Legend, Sara Bareilles & Dixon Get Ready for JCS

Hello, I'm Richard Ridge for Broadway World

NBC is presenting Tim Rice and Andrew Lloyd Webber's Jesus Christ Superstar live in concert

Easter Sunday, April 1st, with a stellar cast, including John Legend, Sarah Bareilles, Alice Cooper, and Brandon Victor Dixon

And we caught up with the company during a break in rehearsal. I'm so excited. I mean, what a great role, what a great show

And the chance to play Jesus Christ, I mean, I couldn't turn it down. Let's talk about the songs you sing, Gethsemane

I mean, what's it been like working on that song and creating it for this live telecast

It's a challenge, you know. Obviously, whenever I told someone I was going to do this role, they were like, oh, Gethsemane

Because that's the song that really stands out that Jesus sings in the show. And it's a huge challenge vocally because it's such a dynamic vocal range and so much emotion that goes into it

And so I've started working on it, and I feel like in a month I'll be ready to go

A lot of your fans will be tuning into this and sort of be turned on to this new genre of live musical theater on TV

It's going to change their lives, what that means to you. I love it. I love that a lot of people are going to connect to musical theater from watching shows like this on television

And hopefully it mean a new generation of young people will be doing these kinds of things in their high school productions And they be the artists that entertain us in the future How excited are you Superstar Live Oh my gosh it just a freaking dream come true

This is so exciting. It's like this cast of characters and this particular material and

when it's airing. I mean, it's just, it feels like this beautiful cosmic moment. I'm really proud

What about your songs that you do in this? I know, I get these beautiful, beautiful songs

you know I just feel lucky this is one of those scores that I

I could listen to ad nauseum I just can you know you get to the end you want to start it over

again and Mary's songs in particular are really near and dear to my heart I just think

you know she's got such vulnerability and such power at the same time which I think is

what is so fascinating about her as a character in the show so

I love that. Working with this cast Ugh, forget about it. Day one, goosebumps the whole time

Brandon Victor Dixon opening his mouth for singing Heaven on Their Minds

I was standing in the back of the room and just like jaw on the floor

Our ensemble is phenomenal. We just, John is just otherworldly. And it really has been exciting

Was this always a dream show you wanted to do in a dream role No I actually never even thought about it But Heaven on Their Minds I always loved And I was always like if I could just sing this at an audition somewhere And I did I went in for like a random audition

for something that like small that I was never going to do. But just so I could sing the songs like 10 years ago

And so I've kind of just had it in my pocket. So then when this came up, I was like, and also I didn't even think too much about it

I was like, I mean, I don't know who they're going to cast. And it's not going to be me. But I'm going to go sing this song

So I went in there and I just kind of did my version of it because I love singing it

but I didn't even think about doing the show. It wasn't until like two weeks ago

that I kind of got word that they were going to call me back in, and I was like, oh, this is actually possible

Oh, okay. And here we are. What's your Judas going to be like

My Judas is going to be very honest. My Judas is going to be very emotional. He's going to be a very sensitive Judas

I'm a very sensitive person. I'm not a very good actor. I pretty much just play myself all the time

And I'm in like a sensitive place where I'm dealing with challenges of ideologies

and philosophy and religion and government. You know, that's like, that's where I am

That's where we are. And that's exactly the moment at which we reach this story. This kind of, this confluence

these approaching elements of religious ideology and of government and of society and of inequality

And it all comes together in a head right here. And it ends with, you know, this large event

How excited are you two We totally bummed That fantastic No I mean you know what could be more reckless or exciting than this What about collaborating you two what that been like

It's an honour. It's rare that you get to work with fellow directors on shows and these

live one-off events, because of their scale and complexity, is one of the few opportunities where you get to do these synergies

with two directors. But I think it's a very supportive process. It's great to be able to

share concerns and worries and strategize across the space of many mums

But it's great. I mean, it's a real privilege. We've been very much connected to the hip since the get-go

All the conversations about design, of course, and all of that because it's a visual, it's a narrative thing

But there's also something, and Alex has more experience in this than I do, in terms of what this genre involves as it evolves

And it's completely fascinating to me what the language of this kind of a telecast

from a live performance in a space actually requires. And so, in a sense, it's a fantastic learning curve

They're unique entities. They're very much their own genre, in a sense

They're hybrids of so many other different formats. And I think that's one of the special things about them

that you get to work and pull from so many different areas of production

into creating these unique properties