The following excerpts were taken from a review by Karl Gates, titled “Superstar: Supersmash” in the publication ‘Nucleus’, dated March 12, 1975:

“The nights of February 26, 27, 28 and March 1st brought us as close to the miraculous that Ridgewood has seen in a long time.”

“The performance of Jesus Christ, Superstar was better than any professional group could have done. Why would a critic say something as obviously open to attack as that? It wasn’t true, it couldn’t be true… One thing this critic can say about them [the cast] for sure is that they were better than the professionals.”

“How anyone can talk about someone playing Christ and having to sing rock music at the same time, seems to be an impossible task. First, he looks like Jesus should look. Second, he sings with the knowledge of the meaning of both the words, the music, the historic character and the sacred message of the role. Rick Locascio is good! What he carries to individuals in the audience is personal and ought to be. For a high school student to attempt the role is pretentious; to fill it is ambitious; to become it with grace and dignity, miraculous. Let’s just say Rick was miraculous.”