revised March 8, 2018
Playwright John-Michael Tebelak wrote the first script of Godspell in 1970 as a master’s thesis while he was enrolled at Carnegie Mellon University. Originally, the show's lyrics were taken from the Episcopal Hymnal and these were given new melodies by the original cast members. This version of the show was produced in New York for a limited run in 1971. It attracted the attention of producers, who saw value in the play (especially in light of the success of the previous year’s Jesus Christ Superstar). Composer-lyricist Steven Schwartz was hired to write new songs (only “By My Side,” with music by Peggy Gordon, lyric by Jay Hamburger, was retained from the original run), and the show enjoyed a very long run Off-Broadway before finally transferring to Broadway in 1976 for a final year of the initial production, clocking in with an impressive run of over 2,600 performances.
In contrast to Andrew Lloyd-Webber and Tim Rice’s relatively darker Superstar, Godspell presents the story of Christ (the show is self-described as “a musical based on the gospel according to St. Matthew”) in a much freer, extemporaneous tone. Godspell focuses primarily on the parables of Jesus, and uses theatrical language (incorporating elements of pantomime, vaudeville, etc.) to keep the tone lightly comic until the final section dealing with Jesus’s betrayal and crucifixion.
The original production of Godspell featured the cast cavorting on a set representing a large children’s playground, but this is left fairly open to interpretation with each production. The players paint each others' faces with makeup (doodling flowers, stars, etc. on each other) after “Save the People” to indicate they had become followers of Jesus. Jesus is the only named character in the show. The actor playing Judas frequently doubles for John the Baptist in the opening section, though he is never named directly, and the rest of the cast refer to each other by their own actual first names.
As the show’s story reaches the events leading to the crucifixion, the cast removes their face paint, usually during a reprise of “Day By Day,” the show’s breakout hit song. The song became so popular (it reached #7 on Billboard’s pop chart) that it is now regularly included in the hymnals of many churches. Because of its open nature and minimal prop and set requirements, Godspell is almost always running somewhere, and has proven remarkably resilient and open to reinterpretation, especially compared to its contemporaries.
Since Godspell did not reach Broadway until 1976, it was ineligible for the 1971 Tony Awards, although Stephen Schwartz did win the Drama Desk Award for both Most Promising Composer and Most Promising Lyricist for the original production, and Tebelak, who also directed the production, received the award for Most Promising Director. Susan Tsu also won a Drama Desk Award for Most Promising Costume Design. When the show finally transferred to Broadway, Schwartz was Godspell’s sole nominee, for Best Original Score, but the Tony went to that year’s runaway hit, Annie.
Song list:
Tower Of Babble (Prologue)
Prepare Ye The Way Of The Lord
Save The People
Day By Day
Learn Your Lessons Well
Oh Bless The Lord, My Soul
All For The Best
All Good Gifts
Light Of The World
Learn Your Lessons Well (Reprise)
Turn Back, O Man
Alas For You
By My Side*
We Beseech Thee
Beautiful City**
Day By Day (Reprise)
On The Willows
Finale
BLUE indicates numbers removed for the film
* written by Peggy Gordon & Jay Hamburger
** written for the film
Godspell was released to movie theatres in 1973, and once again found itself being compared to Jesus Christ Superstar. Director Norman Jewison’s bloated big-budget film version of Superstar completely overshadowed Columbia's smaller release of the more intimate and modestly-budgeted Godspell.
Only the songs “Tower Of Babble” prologue and “Learn Your Lessons Well” were removed for the film, leaving the score almost completely intact. “Beautiful City” replaced “We Beseech Thee,” and was immediately available for inclusion in all future productions of the show. As if to demonstrate just how loose the structure of Godspell is, "Beautiful City" may be inserted into the score (or not) at whichever point the director of that particular stage production might deem appropriate.
Television director David Greene (“Roots”), who co-wrote the screenplay with Tebelak, opted to present Godspell in straightforward musical fashion, and the film expands on the show’s playground esthetic, using the entire island of Manhattan as the setting in which Jesus (the Canadian cast’s Victor Garber) and his followers act out the teachings and parables of Christ. Action takes place all over the island, incorporating the Brooklyn Bridge, Central Park's Bethesda Fountain, the Cherry Lane Theatre, the Andrew Carnegie Mansion, Lincoln Center and Times Square, among others.
Character actor Lynne Thigpen had her first film role in Godspell. A prolific New York theatre actor, Thigpen later gained widespread attention as the mysterious DJ in Walter HIll's The Warriors, but younger audiences are most likely to recognize her from her role as the Chief on the children's game show Where in the World is Carmen Sandiego? The film’s John/Judas, Haskell would continue to work in theatre and television until his untimely death in 2000, and Jerry Sroka continues to appear in roles on various television series. Robin Lamont, whose recording of “Day by Day” from the original cast recording made the song a hit, became an attorney in the 1990’s, and is now a District Attorney in New York. Katie Hanley (the lead vocal on “By My Side”) would later turn up in Xanadu.
Garber would go on to more prominent success, notably creating the role of Anthony Hope in the first Broadway production of Sondheim’s Sweeney Todd, The Demon Barber of Fleet Street, as Captain Smith in James Cameron’s Titanic, as Jennifer Garner’s father on the television series Alias, and as one half of the DC superhero Firestorm (it's complicated) in the TV series Legends of Tomorrow.
After a prologue that features Haskell calling the players from their daily New York lives, the population of Manhattan vanishes from the film, leaving only the cast on view. Godspell manages the surprising feat of remaining playful and ebullient throughout, mostly because of its very able cast, who manage to portray guilelessness without tipping over into "precious" territory. Garber calls on them to act out various parables such as “The Good Samaritan” or “The Prodigal Son” as New York City effortlessly provides striking background visuals (beginning in an outdoor playground, then moving on to the locations mentioned above, and also memorably atop the still-under-construction World Trade Center towers). Unlike the consistently murky exteriors of The Wiz (1978), Godspell is almost entirely lit with natural light, streaming through windows and bouncing off glass exteriors - confining the action of the film to a single day.
In the film’s final section, as in the play, the action returns to the playground where the film began, as the events of the crucifixion are acted out in stylized fashion, with Garber having his arms tied in cruciform with red sashes to a chain-link fence. The red sash metaphor would later turn up as a stand-in for blood in "The Cell Block Tango" when Bob Fosse staged Chicago in 1975.
Schwartz, creating his first musical theatre score, has composed the songs in a wide range of styles, from the burlesque “Turn Back, O Man” to the plaintive folk rhythms of "On the Willows.” The casting of theatrically-trained actors pays off abundantly, as the cast does full justice to the quality of the songs in both performance and voice. The movie relies entirely on the cast to do its heavy lifting (there are virtually no props or sets, barring a few items plucked from handy carts or bins).
After Godspell, Schwartz would go on to write the scores for two more hits in a row, Bob Fosse’s Pippin and The Magic Show (the latter of which was a showcase for illusionist Doug Henning), though winning a Tony for neither, before authoring the notorious flops The Baker’s Wife (writing both music and lyrics) and Rags (lyrics, to a score by Annie’s Charles Strouse). Schwartz would fare better in the 1990’s, when he teamed with composer Alan Menken to write lyrics for two Disney films, Pocahontas (winning Academy Awards for Best Original Song – for “Colors of the Wind” – and Best Original Song Score) and The Hunchback of Notre Dame. When he was released from composer and lyricist duties for Disney’s subsequent Mulan, Schwartz accepted an offer to compose music and lyrics for DreamWorks Animation’s flagship effort, The Prince of Egypt, winning an Academy Award for its central ballad “If You Believe.” Schwartz navigated a very successful return to Broadway in 2003 with Wicked, though the Tony Award went to that year’s Avenue Q. Schwartz had the last laugh, though - Avenue Q closed in 2009, and Wicked (as of this writing) is still running.
Unseen or extremely hard to find on home video for many years, Godspell attained a sort of reputation as an overlooked masterpiece in the 1980s, due in large part to Roger Ebert’s oft-reprinted effusive review in his annual movie compendium. In addition to extolling the virtues of the film’s lack of pretense and its naturalistic casting of “real” people as the players, Ebert was so captivated by the film that he opines that face painting should become commonplace among “young people.”
While the film itself is naturally dated (it's very hard to overlook the distinct late-70s vibe of the clothing, hair, and slang of the cast entirely -- though it must be said that it is never inauthentic), it has nonetheless held up extremely well. There's a definite "Up With People" quality about it (to quote a friend of mine), but it never tips over into saccharine territory. Its score may not be rooted in the ever-popular cynicism of Superstar, but Godspell succeeds on its own terms.
It is interesting to note that neither Godspell nor Superstar address the resurrection in their respective tellings, although Schwartz's musical ends on a decidedly more upbeat note of hope. A note from Schwartz in the book of the show emphasizes that Godspell is about love, and a community built as a result of the influence of Jesus, not whether or not Jesus himself will be resurrected.
And those are the kinds of songs, of love, and of community, that we will always need to hear.
