I don't think anyone ever said Jesus Christ Superstar was supposed to be accurate and true. It was still greatly disliked by a lot of people though; turning Judas into a sympathetic martyr pissed a lot of people off at the time I believe. I think the only reason it didn't get protested by Jews is the Christians were too busy protesting it.

On a related note, Carl Anderson, who played Judas in the original soundtrack, in the movie, and as recently as two years ago in the Sebastian Bach revival, died wednesday at 58. I saw him in the recent revival, and he was still blowing the rest of the cast away. http://www.news4jax.com/entertainment/2870199/detail.html