Is Godspell Still Relevant? Yes!
By Carol de Giere
Author of The Godspell Experience
Godspell may have a freewheeling vibe, revealing its late 1960s origins, but it has been popular worldwide for over five decades. The show’s unique blend of parable teachings, joyous music, and clown-inspired ensemble performances call up the timeless power of harmony and innocence.
Godspell Origins
The musical was the brainchild of John-Michael Tebelak, a theater lover who came of age in the 1960s. As an aspiring director, he was open to improvisation and other non-traditional styles while he was a student in Carnegie Mellon University’s drama program. He helped create an experimental musical with fellow students over the summer of 1968. Then in 1970, when he was ready to work on a project for his master’s degree at CMU, he decided to create and direct a new musical he would first call The Godspell.
With Tebelak’s concepts, parables, hymn lyrics set to a friend’s pop music, and improvisation by student cast members, the initial 1970 version of the show was quickly hailed as being worthy of further development. After the collegiate production, a revised version was staged off-off-Broadway at New York City’s experimental theatre La MaMa. That’s where a young composer named Stephen Schwartz came to see the final performance. The show attracted producers who wanted a new score, which they asked Schwartz to create.
The final version of Godspell, with Stephen Schwartz’s music and new lyrics, opened at off-Broadway’s Cherry Lane Theatre on May 17, 1971. It quickly reached megahit status, with productions running around the world. (See my book The Godspell Experience for the whole fascinating story.)
Godspell, Creative Community, and Love
One reason the musical continues to touch us is that each performing group develops a creative community as they rehearse the show and find their own ways to enact the story of the Good Samaritan, the Prodigal Son, and other moments.
Don’t be surprised if you feel like the performers want to share their inventive moments with you. Most shows function within four walls—the sides and back of the stage plus an imaginary “fourth wall” between the performers and the audience—but Godspell is designed to break that fourth wall. Actors sometimes face and sing to the theatergoers or walk through the aisles. They expand their sense of community into the audience while singing about love.
In Stephen Schwartz’s words, the essence of Godspell is that “a group of disparate people slowly become a community built around one charismatic individual (Jesus), who then leaves them, and they have to carry on as a community without him.”
Another reason the show often touches adults is that it chips away at cynicism developed from facing societal challenges. Stephen Nathan, the original actor playing Jesus, suggests, “Godspell was really all based on play, the innocence of children who see the world uncorrupted—that is how the whole piece evolved.”
However the show is described, it offers a timeless message of kindness, tolerance, and love.
Carol de Giere is the author of The Godspell Experience: Inside a Transformative Musical, and the career biography Defying Gravity: The Creative Career of Stephen Schwartz, from Godspell to Wicked. Visit https://caroldegiere.com/
For Godspell licensing information see Godspell licensing.
