Cynthia Erivo will be the most talked about Jesus of 2025 – but women have long retold the gospel

The recent casting of award-winning actor Cynthia Erivo as Jesus Christ in Tim Rice and Andrew Lloyd Webber’s iconic rock opera, *Jesus Christ Superstar*, at the Hollywood Bowl, has certainly ignited discussions. Erivo, known for her powerful roles including *Wicked*, took to the stage from August 1 to 3, 2025, in a performance that has garnered significant attention.

Predictably, this casting choice for the role of the Son of God sparked considerable debate across social media platforms. Accusations of blasphemy quickly surfaced, with critics pointing to Erivo’s gender, sexuality, race, and even her hairstyle as points of contention. UK-based Christian magazine Premier Christianity even dedicated articles to explore whether a female Jesus was "inclusive" or "offensive," though Erivo reportedly "laughed it all off."

However, an expert in Biblical narratives, Sarah Parkhouse, posits that the current outrage overlooks a significant historical truth: women have been actively involved in re-envisioning and recounting the story of Jesus for centuries. Far from being a modern novelty, this tradition stretches back to antiquity.

Consider the earliest gospels themselves; they were originally written anonymously and only later attributed to male authors like Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John. Within mere generations following Jesus's death, a text known as the *Gospel of Mary* emerged, offering Mary Magdalene's viewpoint and portraying her as Jesus's favored disciple and keeper of hidden knowledge. The text even depicts the male disciple Peter challenging Mary precisely due to her gender, hinting at the author's awareness of prevailing gender dynamics within early Christian discussions of authority.

As Christianity gained state recognition within the Roman Empire in the 4th and 5th centuries, notable women continued this tradition. Elite poet Faltonia Betitia Proba and Byzantine empress Aelia Eudocia created their own gospel retellings, skillfully weaving in verses from classical works by Virgil and Homer. These ancient works stand out for their distinctively female perspective, carefully highlighting the experiences of female characters often sidelined in traditional narratives, such as the profound maternal grief of Mary witnessing her son's crucifixion.

These retellings are not obscure anomalies but belong to the same rich literary tradition as the four canonical gospels widely known today. Much like Matthew and Luke adapted and rearranged scenes and phrases from Mark, the *Gospel of Mary* reimagines the resurrection scene from John, and Proba and Eudocia creatively combined gospel material to tell the story anew. This shows an ongoing dynamic of adaptation and reinterpretation.

This imaginative reinterpretation of the Jesus story continues vigorously into the present day, often with a renewed focus on female characters. In Edinburgh, director Suzanne Lofthus has dedicated two decades to crafting and staging the city's annual Passion Play. Her 2024 and 2025 productions, for instance, boldly re-examined Jesus's masculinity and placed women's experiences at the core of the narrative, depicting Jesus engaging in "women's work" like bread-making and questioning the culpability of the man in the famous adultery story.

Filmmaker Catherine Hardwicke, acclaimed for directing the first *Twilight* movie, also offered a tender portrayal of Mary's journey through pregnancy in her 2006 film *The Nativity Story*, emphasizing the women surrounding her. Hardwicke herself drew a clear distinction between her work and more brutal, hypermasculine depictions like Mel Gibson’s *The Passion of the Christ*, notably remarking on the stark difference in "quarts of blood per frame."

Furthermore, women have frequently taken on the role of Jesus himself in various productions. Cynthia Erivo previously sang the part of Mary Magdalene in a 2017 New York concert, which subsequently inspired two all-female concept albums controversially titled *She Is Risen*, where singer and actor Morgan James performed the role of Jesus. Just last year, an all-female cast delivered a performance of *Jesus Christ Superstar* in Santa Barbara, California. Additionally, a gender-blind casting decision led to Mina Kawahara portraying Jesus in a 2017 production of the musical *Godspell* at Villanova Theatre, continuing a trend of female leads in that particular show.

In 2010, Yuko Takeda, a Japanese woman, embraced the role of the Son of God in the Helsinki Passion Play, another casting choice that caused a stir among some conservative Christians. The play's female director, Miira Sippola, explained that this decision aimed to free the audience from preconceived notions based on medieval artwork, which already diverges significantly from the historical Jesus. More recently, in 2023, a 15-year-old American girl portrayed Jesus in a New Jersey passion play, undertaking the arduous task of carrying a 12-foot cross barefoot for over two miles. These are just a few of numerous such examples across the globe.

Ultimately, the current debate surrounding Cynthia Erivo’s casting in *Jesus Christ Superstar* says more about contemporary cultural assumptions than it does about historical precedents. The Hollywood Bowl’s production stands as a powerful continuation of a rich, albeit often overlooked, tradition of women who have long contributed to retelling, reshaping, and performing the compelling story of Jesus—whether on the page, on screen, or on stage.

This perspective is shared by Sarah Parkhouse, a British Academy Research Fellow at the Centre for Biblical Studies, University of Manchester, and was originally published by The Conversation.