I absolutely love Jesus Christ Superstar and I research it all the time. When I saw this recording in a nearby store, I stnached it up. It was pretty good. My first impressions weren't all that great. But as with most things, it got better and better. I have to say, Steve Balsamo as Jesus was absolutely wonderful. He has all the high notes well within his reach and he puts power and emotion behind every one of them. He is one the best Jesus's. Zubin Varla as Judas was pretty good. He has a great voice I have to admit, but he doesn't put a lot of dimension behind it. He always, throughout the entire recording, sounds mad at everything. I do realize that he is Judas and that singing mad is a good way to hit high notes, but he should have given us a little break between madness and anguish, which he never seemed to express with his voice. Joanna Ampil as Mary I wasn't too fond of. She had a really quirky voice and seemed to over express everything to the limit. But she did do a good job. Peter Gallagher (who plays a priest in the new stage production movie) did an okay job as Caiaphas. He could hit the low notes with a good tone, but he kinda sounded old and decreped with his expression. Glenn Carter as Simon does an excellent job (he plays Jesus in the new stage production movie). And who can say that Alice Cooper as King Herod is nothing but absolutely hysterical in the role that has become a star train? I am a little picky about certain things but over all this recording is among the best so I reccomend it to those just getting into JCSS and those who have already loved it.

2014 and 2015 are two different programs from a functional scoping perspective and should have been sold (or be warned) as such. You removed 30 to 40% of the functionality of 2014 and charged me to boot.