AD/BC: A ROCK OPERA (2004)

I swear I’m not going to turn this feature into a pure Matt Berry appreciation spot. But the fact that the creator/performer/musician is finding newfound popularity stateside thanks to What We Do In The Shadows means it’s time to strike while the iron is hot!

One of my favorite projects that Berry ever worked on is 2004’s AD/BC: A ROCK OPERA. It aired on BBC Three in 2004 and features a lot of the usual BBC comedy suspects that seemingly always work together: Berry, Richard Ayoade (who also directed and co-wrote the lyrics with Berry), Julia Davis, Julian Barratt, Noel Fielding, Matt Lucas, and more. It’s a hilarious parody/homage of those hippie-influenced Christ musicals Jesus Christ Superstar and Godspell. AD/BC especially skewers the movie adaptations of those plays, with their anachronistic blending of modern props with the BC setting, erratic camera moves and dizzying editing, awkwardly rhyming lyrics, and the free flowing (and rarely good) choreography.

The plot summary is as follows:

AD/BC is a parody rock opera with music by Matt Berry and lyrics by Matt Berry and Richard Ayoade. An all-singing, all-dancing, star-spangled musical leap around the biblical story of the Nativity, set in 1972. With a comic twist, this familiar story is brought to life through the eyes of the innkeeper. Despairing after a bad year, he contemplates suicide but his attempt is stalled by a voice from above who points out that King Herod is coming to town.