“Wicked” star Cynthia Erivo is brushing off MAGA outrage over her casting as Jesus in an upcoming production of “Jesus Christ Superstar,” calling the backlash overblown before taking a swipe at President Donald Trump.
“You can’t please everyone,” Erivo told Billboard in a new interview where she responded to conservative anger – some of it driven by Elon Musk – after the Tony, Grammy and Emmy-winner was cast in the lead role for a three-night run at the Hollywood Bowl in August, according to The Daily Beast.
“It is legitimately a three-day performance at the Hollywood Bowl where I get to sing my face off,” Erivo said. “So hopefully they will come and realize, ‘Oh, it’s a musical, the gayest place on Earth.’”
Outrage erupted online earlier this year when news of Erivo’s role was first announced, with some critics calling her casting “blasphemy” and “anti-Christian bigotry” by “Hollywood,” The Daily Beast reported. Musk fanned the flames in an X post where he replied with a raised-eyebrow emoji to a user who wrote, “Imagine doing this to any other religion,” above a link to Erivo’s casting news.
“What seemed lost on several critics was the tone of the show itself,” according to The Daily Beast. “The 1971 Andrew Lloyd Webber rock opera has always been a provocative, at-times critical take on Christ’s life, that over time became a cult favorite among queer audiences.”
ALSO READ: This Republican move will let Trump rule as a dictator
But many of Erivo’s detractors appear to have missed that detail.
“Why not?” Erivo said of taking the role. “The more yourself you are, the more you are in front of people who don’t necessarily understand, the better understanding starts to happen.”
She also took a swipe at Trump’s recent takeover of the Kennedy Center, telling Billboard, “I don’t know who gains what from that. I hope that it comes back. It’s really sad to have to watch this happen to it. The Kennedy Center is supposed to be a space of creativity and art and music for everyone.”
“I want to encourage people to not decide to just tuck away and start hiding and not being themselves anymore,” she added, “because that is exactly what they want.”
"Jesus Christ Superstar" runs August 1-3 at the Hollywood Bowl.