!Hero Rock Opera

My copy of !Hero finally arrived yesterday. Haven't listened to it all yet, but it's pretty enjoyable so far, but with some qualms (see below). It reminds me a lot of Jesus Christ Superstar. There is a character called Maggie who at first I'd thought was bound to be the Mary Magdalene figure but it seems that she is the Samaritan woman from John 4. Mary the mother of Jesus is fairly prominent too, and as usual there's a Peter (Petrov) and Judas (Jude). It's in the tradition of harmonising the Gospels, with the Wedding at Cana quite early on, then to Rejection at Nazareth (Brooklyn Synagogue) then the Samaritan woman; later the beatitudes (influenced from both Matthew and Luke -- "Blessed are the poor -- blessed are the poor in spirit") and Jairus' Daughter. Musically it's kind of rock / hip hop with elements of the big musical, reasonably varied in styles, sometimes a bit predictable but often quite powerful. I'm a bit concerned at this stage about the character KAI, the "chief rabbi" and clearly a baddy and a composite of Caiaphas and Pharisees & scribes from the Gospels. He is in collusion with Devlin, the police chief, who corruptly allows KAI to run his "tiny neighbourhood". Looks like it could be perceived as being as anti-Jewish as Jesus Christ Superstar. More when I've finished listening.