LOS ANGELES TIMES
This messiah rocks
 By Mike Boehm, Los Angeles Times Staff Writer
Sebastian Bach, ex-Skid Row singer, picks up a newcross as lead in 'Jesus Christ Superstar.'

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Talk about crossing over. For the next nine months or more,
             Sebastian Bach metal dude is going to be transformed eight
      times a week into Jesus Christ Superstar.
      The former singer of Skid Row cut a swath in the late '80s
  and early '90s as one of hard rock's most profane and
             unbridled wild boys. Now, at 34, he is continuing his
        out-of-the-blue parallel life as a star in Broadway
       musicals. He plays the perplexed, just-a-man,
     dog-whistle-tenor-singing Jesus in a touring production of
        the Andrew Lloyd Webber-Tim Rice rock opera that opened
                        Friday at La Mirada Theatre for the Performing Arts and is
    scheduled to travel the country at least through July.

         Bach, still a touring rocker when not otherwise engaged,
     emerged as Broadway 'Bastian in 2000, when he spent four
                        months playing the twin leads in "Jekyll & Hyde." The
                        rocker, who claims more than 20 million worldwide album
                sales, hadn't dreamed of doing musical theater. But when the
   "Jekyll" producers needed a new star, Jason Flom, the
                        Atlantic Records executive who signed Skid Row, tossed
         Bach's name into the hat. Bach, who grew up in Peterborough,
                        Canada, collecting horror and fantasy comics, seized the
                        chance.

        Last year, he spent two months on Broadway as Riff-Raff in
        "The Rocky Horror Show." Now he gets to hang on a cross,
         clad in nothing but a loincloth -- and plenty of body paint
       to cover the raving demon tattooed on his left forearm and
    the "Youth Gone Wild" and "Carpe Diem" mottoes drilled into
       the right.

         In person, Bach comes off as Jesus Christ Puppy-Dog -- 6
     feet, 3 inches of long-limbed energy and enthusiasm devoted
     to making the moment enjoyable for himself and those around
    him.

   But he was infamous in 1989, when he cracked a girl's skull
    with a bottle he'd flung angrily into a concert crowd i
  Springfield, Mass. And, despite many subsequent apologies,
        he still hasn't completely lived down the episode that same
        year when he was photographed wearing a T-shirt with a
        homophobic slogan.
  Now, in an interview, Bach shows that he can be as engaging
  as he once seemed outrageous: a clasper of shoulders, a
    tapper of knees and a bestower of big parting bear hugs. He
   claps his hands, lets out a wheezy laugh and throws his head
    back merrily when he comes up with a bon mot, such as: "When
   I was a kid, Black Sabbath was as heavy and evil as you
   could get, and now they're playing for the queen -- and
  Sebastian Bach is Jesus Christ. The Lord works in mysterious
    ways."

    Among those Bach has charmed is Robin Phillips, an
       old-school British stage director known for guiding the
  likes of Laurence Olivier, Peter Ustinov and Maggie Smith
                        through turns in the classics. It was his job, as shepherd
                        of "Jekyll & Hyde," to deliver a novice actor from Skid Row
                        to Broadway.

                        Phillips lauds Bach's eagerness to learn, his work ethic and
                        his constant gratitude and good humor -- then pauses. "I
                        sound as if I'm going overboard. Let me assure you, this is
                        not a usual habit. In a very long career, working with him
                        has certainly been a highlight."

                        Bach still has some of the bad-boy rocker in him -- after
                        his tussle with a barkeep in March at a tavern near his home
                        in Middletown, N.J., he faced misdemeanor charges of
                        assault, disorderly conduct and making threats. They were
                        dropped in July when the accuser didn't turn up to testify.
                        But this Jesus -- who says he neither started the fight nor
                        turned the other cheek once it was on -- is nevertheless on
                        probation, thanks to the small amount of cannabis police
                        found on him after the altercation.

                        Overdoing the substances, Bach says, had a lot to do with
                        the more sordid episodes from his youth-gone-wild days. Now
                        he has an adult sorrow to drown: His father, painter David
                        Bierk, died of cancer two months ago at 58.

                        "I can either throw myself into a bottle or sing the part of
                        Jesus," says Bach, who has been with his wife, Maria, for 17
                        years and has sons named Paris and London. "I want to get my
                        emotions out through my art."

                        Critics from the New York dailies didn't review him in
                        "Jekyll" and "Rocky Horror" because he joined both shows
                        long after they had opened. This time, pens and pads will be
                        poised in every city.

                        Tom McCoy, the "Superstar" tour's executive producer, thinks
                        good grades for performance and comportment will secure
                        Bach's stage career.

                        Bach says he will always be a rocker. But the preparation
                        and focus needed to excel in a touring musical are what he
                        craves right now.

                        "After being the lead singer of a heavy-metal band for 15
                        years, I could use some discipline," he says. "How many
                        years can you spend doing whatever you want? I have a
                        personality where I get addicted to things, and now I'm
                        addicted to this play."

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