I did not grow up in a religious home and JCS is what introduced me to the Gospel. It is pretty much faithful to scripture in its lyrics (except there’s nothing in scripture to suggest Mary Magdalene was a prostitute.) I will always have a soft spot for this production.
I did grow up in a nominally Christian home and JCS helped introduce me to the Gospel as well. Like you, I still love it, and I love that the movie was filmed in Israel. The lyricist Tim Rice said that he had no intention of being disrespectful or blasphemous; his idea was to write an account of Jesus Christ’s years of ministry from Judas Iscariot’s point of view.