Ted Neeley starred in "Jesus Christ Superstar," "Hair" and "The Who’s Tommy." Courtesy photo

Jesus is coming to Maui. Well, the actor, Ted Neeley, who portrayed him in the stage and film version of the rock opera “Jesus Christ Superstar.”

Neeley will join fellow “Superstar” singer Yvonne Elliman, and Broadway stars Teri Bibb and Jim Price at a special “Broadway on Maui” benefit show on May 3 for the Wave of Harmony Foundation.

Known for his wide vocal range, Neeley also starred in “Hair,” The Who’s “Tommy” and “Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band on the Road,” an off-Broadway musical in which he played Billy Shears.

“It completely changed my life for the better being in ‘Superstar,'” says Neely, who has played Jesus on stage more than 5,500 times. “It was and still is absolutely magnificent. I honestly feel I’m the luckiest man because Norman Jewison, the director, could have shot the film in any desert, but he decided to take all of us to Israel so we could get the feeling of the essence of the characters we were pretending to be. It was magnificent. I met my wife while we were there. She was a dancer in the film and we’re still together.”

Neeley also met Oahu-born “Superstar” singer Yvonne Elliman on the film set. Elliman played the role of Mary Magdalene, and the two musicians have teamed many times over the years including sharing the stage in “Superstars in Concert.”

“She’s such a sweetheart,” he says. “We’re brother and sister. We have been doing (‘Superstar’) screenings for the last 12 years all over America. Now people are inviting us to their homes to do private screenings, so we are so fortunate.”

When it debuted on stage in 1971, some Christians took offence at the rock musical. “Eight shows a week they protested to the point that we could hardly get into the theater,” he recalls. “There were that many people out front trying to stop us from going into that horrific anti-Christian show or whatever it was.”

Following a screening of the movie, Pope Paul VI was reported to have said: “I believe it will bring more people around the world to Christianity than anything ever has before.”

Neeley suggests “Superstar” endures because it crosses generations. “We did tours all over America long before we got into doing the film and we were able to continue this for each new generation. Each generation, the parents showed this film to the children and again and again, generation to generation all the way up to now.”

Before playing Jesus, there was “Hair,” which celebrated the counterculture of the ’60s.

“Hair was magnificent,” he says. “They cast it in California and I got cast as Claude Hooper Bukowski, the lead character.”

The lead singer in a Texas rock band, The Teddy Neeley Five, he had arrived in Hollywood “just see what it was all about. I was a crazy screaming rock and roll drummer from Texas. A week before we left California to come home, we all got our draft notice for the Vietnam War. I didn’t have to go because I got this information from the draft board saying ‘Dear Mr. Neeley, we’ve just found out you’re solely supportive of your mother, so you don’t have to go.’ I was happy I didn’t have to go, but I destroyed our band.”

Neeley subsequently played the role of Tommy in an L.A. musical production based on the rock opera by The Who, with the musicians on hand to advise the cast. “They were there to help us get it together,” he recalls. “It was the first time that they had put it up for a show and they obviously wanted to make sure it was done right. They couldn’t have been nicer and more supportive. It was a wonderful experience. The same thing happened when we did ‘Sgt. Pepper.'”

He starred as Billy Shears in “Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band on the Road,” which included songs from “Sgt. Pepper,” “Abbey Road” and “Let it Be.” John Lennon attended several rehearsals and the opening night performance, and Paul and Linda McCartney later watched it.

“They were there because they wanted to make sure we were singing the harmonies properly,” he says. “One night we were all having dinner after the show and John came up to me and said, ‘Ted are you going to be doing any recording in the near future?’ I said, ‘I sure hope so. I’d love to do some right now if you’d like to produce it,’ and he laughed really loud. He said, ‘Would you consider the possibility of singing one of my original songs?’ I was amazed. The song is ‘Mother’ and it was on the album that I did way back when.”

Making his Maui debut at the benefit show, Neeley first landed in Hawai’i back in the early 1960s when he played at the Peppermint Lounge in Waikiki.

“Our band name was The Spirals, and we were playing in Vegas,” he recalls. “I got a tap on my shoulder and a man said ‘have you ever been to Hawaii? I own a club over there.’ It was absolutely incredible. We took the car from the airplane to the theater, pulled up and there’s the marquee. It said The Teddy Neely Five. He didn’t like our name. So that’s what we were.”

The “Broadway on Maui” show will be presented at 6 p.m. May 3 at South Maui Gardens in Kihei. All proceeds benefit the Wave of Harmony Foundation, a nonprofit committed to making the arts accessible for all. Tickets and tables range from $45 to $2,400. For more information, go to waveofharmony.org.