Godspell

July 20 – 30, 2010

Music and New Lyrics by Stephen Schwartz
Based on the New Testament Gospel of St. Matthew
Conceived by John-Michael Tebelak

If you were listening to popular music in the ‘70s, you might remember “Day by Day” from the rock musical Godspell. In the summer of 1972, this singable song reached #11 on the top 40 charts, an unusual feat for a religious song. The Godspell began as a college project created by John-Michael Tebelak and fellow students at Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh.
Following the peace and love spirit of the 60s, the show can be set anywhere and was intended to “weave God’s spell over the audience”. Not a traditional book musical, it featured a contemporary John the Baptist recruiting followers for baptism “Prepare Ye the Way of the Lord”, and Jesus coming to “Save the People” by teaching parables from the New Testament of the Bible. John-Michael Tebelak adopted the concept of Christ as a clown—the bringer of joy. The other cast members also appeared as clowns, and demonstrated their own free spiritual perceptions in a sometimes irreverent, but joyful manner.
Encouraged by the positive response to his effort, Tebelak wanted to take the show to a higher level. Stephen Schwartz, a musical theater prodigy and CMU alum, joined the company to develop a structured production, renamed Godspell, for the musical stage. Schwartz is Jewish but wanted to appeal to audiences of varied faiths. The messages are both light-hearted and thought provoking with several musical, dancing, and comedy styles.
Godspell appeared on an Off-Broadway stage in 1971 and five years later opened at Broadway’s Broadhurst Theatre for a total run of 2,651 performances. Some familiar entertainers appeared in the successful Toronto production of the show, namely Martin Short, Andrea Martin, Dave Thomas, Gilda Radner, Eugene Levy (SNL), with Paul Shaffer (David Letterman) as the musical director. Stephen Schwartz was awarded a Grammy in 1972 for Best Score from an Original Cast Show Album, and the film of Godspell was released in 1973 with Victor Garber playing the role of Jesus. Stephen Schwartz has enjoyed recent success with his production of Wicked in 2003.