ROCHESTER, N.Y. — A live rock opera returns to Rochester this weekend. "Jesus Christ Superstar: The Classic Brown Album Performed Live" is in final rehearsals before taking the stage at The Theater at Innovation Square in downtown Rochester. We got a backstage experience of this super ‘70s gig ahead of the big show Saturday.

What You Need To Know

  • "Jesus Christ Superstar: The Classic Brown Album Performed Live" is Saturday at 7:30 p.m. at The Theater at Innovation Square in downtown Rochester
  • Fourteen of the most talented singers and musicians from Rochester are in the show
  • The performance includes all 21 songs

There is no doubt you’ll be sitting in this tune all day.

“Jesus Christ Superstar, who are you, what have you sacrificed.”

Singer, composer and producer Steve Bartolotta, along with music director and orchestration master Tim Henke, have assembled the who’s who of Rochester’s live music party band scene — and wow, can they jam!

“We are devout on doing the album in its rock-n-roll form. In fact, most of Deep Purple played on that album. Like Ian Gillan plays ‘Jesus,’ he’s the lead the singer for Deep Purple. So it was really a rock album,” said Bartolotta. “I cast all the vocalists. I took lead singers from other bands and whose voice sounded as much like the person on the album. So I have Jenna Riddell who is in Karma, she's in The Misfit Toys and Brass Taxi and she plays Mary Magdalene. She’s a dead ringer for it. And then Mike Cosco is here and a lot of very talented friends of mine who decided to jump on board. Which I’m grateful for.”

It is a concert. It’s all singing and music. They’ll perform all 21 songs, the entire album. It’s kind of a rock opera biblical interpretation of some incredible stories.

“I think that we all strive to sound as much like the ‘Brown Album’ as possible yet still have a real good time doing it,” said Henke. “We all appreciate the music. We’ve all seen the musical on Broadway or the movie. This is a definitely different. It’s got a little bit more heart and soul to it.”

The last two performances of this rendition Of "Jesus Christ Superstar" in Greater Rochester sold out. There are still tickets available to Saturday's show. Tickets are $35 and can be purchased online at theaterais.com or at the box office the night of the show. They’ll take the stage at The Theater at Innovation Square in downtown Rochester at 7:30 p.m. It's located at 131 Chestnut St.