Godspell
January 16 - 18, 2009

Godspell Production History

Godspell (an archaic spelling of the word gospel) is a 1970 musical by author John-Michael Tebelak, and lyricist and composer Stephen Schwartz. It opened off Broadway on May 17, 1971 at the Cherry Lane Theatre.

The show originated in 1970 as Tebelak's master's thesis project at Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. Most of the score's lyrics were from the Episcopal Hymnal, set to music by the cast members. Several of those cast members were from the Carnegie Mellon music department.

Tebelak then directed the show for a two-week, ten-performance run at New York City's Cafe la Mama, opening February 24, 1971. It was brought to the attention of producer Edgar Lansbury (brother of Angela Lansbury) who opted to open it off-Broadway.

The producers then hired novice composer Stephen Schwartz, (likewise, an alumnus of Carnegie Mellon's theater department), to write a new score for the show. Schwartz's new songs included a variety of musical styles, from pop to folk rock, gospel, and vaudeville.

Godspell moved from the Cherry Lane Theatre to the larger Promenade Theatre on August 10, 1971, where it became one of the longest-running off-Broadway musicals, before moving to Broadway in June 1976, where it ended its run in September 1977 after an additional 527 performances, for a total run of more than 2,600 shows.

Godspell Creative

JOHN-MICHAEL TEBELAK (November 1, 1949 – April 2, 1985) was an American playwright and director. He was most famous for creating the musical Godspell based on the Gospel of Saint Matthew.

Tebelak grew up in Berea, Ohio, and graduated from Berea High School in 1966.

Tebelak originally produced Godspell at age 22 as his masters thesis project at Carnegie Mellon University in December 1970. He had been studying Greek and Roman mythology, with the deadline for his thesis two weeks away, but became fascinated by the joy he found in the Gospels.

Subsequently, Tebelak directed productions of Godspell at La MaMa, the Cherry Lane Theatre, the Promenade Theatre, and on Broadway. He was named Theatre Man of the Year by Elliott Norton of the Boston-Record American, and Most Promising Director of 1971 by the New York Drama Desk. He was also named an Outstanding Ohioan by then Ohio Governor, John J. Gilligan.

In 1972 Tebelak directed the Broadway play Elizabeth I, the off-Broadway play, The Glorious One in 1975, and Ka-Boom in 1980. He co-wrote with David Greene the 1973 film version of Godspell.

Tebelak once said that he "walked into a theatre at the age of nine and stayed there." He was a lifelong member of the Episcopal Church. According to Rev. James Parks Morton, "whether it was a sermon series or a two-day conference on the environment, he turned it into theater."

Suffering from agoraphobia and morbid obesity, Tebelak died of a heart attack on April 2, 1985 in New York City at age 35.

STEPHEN SCHWARTZ (born March 6, 1948) is an American musical theater lyricist and composer. In a career already spanning over four decades, Schwartz has written such hit musicals as Godspell (1971), Pippin (1972) and Wicked (2003). He has also contributed lyrics for a number of successful films, including Pocahontas (1995), The Hunchback of Notre Dame (1996), and Enchanted (2007). Schwartz has won three Grammy Awards and three Academy Awards and been nominated for six Tony Awards.

Schwartz studied piano and composition at the Juilliard School of Music while in high school and graduated from Carnegie Mellon University in 1968 with a B.F.A. in Drama. Upon returning to New York City, Schwartz went to work as a producer for RCA Records, but shortly thereafter began to work in the Broadway theatre. His first major credit was the title song for the play Butterflies Are Free; the song was eventually used in the movie version as well.

In 1971, he wrote music and new lyrics for Godspell, for which he won several awards including two Grammys. This was followed by the English texts, in collaboration with Leonard Bernstein, for Bernstein's Mass, which opened the Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts in Washington, D.C. In 1972, the long-running Pippin premiered on Broadway.

Two years after Pippin debuted, Schwartz wrote music and lyrics to The Magic Show, which ran for just under 2,000 performances. Next were the music and lyrics for The Baker's Wife, which closed before reaching Broadway in 1976.

In 1978, Schwartz's next Broadway project was a musical version of Studs Terkel's Working, which he adapted and directed, winning the Drama Desk Award as best director.

In 1991, Schwartz wrote the music and lyrics for the popular musical Children of Eden. He then began working in film, collaborating with composer Alan Mencken on the scores for the Disney animated features Pocahontas (1995), for which he received two Academy Awards, and Hunchback of Notre Dame (1996).

He wrote music and lyrics for the original television musical, Geppetto (2000) wih Drew Carey, seen on The Wonderful World of Disney. A stage adaptation of this piece premiered in June 2006 at The Coterie Theatre in Kansas City, Missouri, and was entitled Geppetto and Son.

In 2003, Schwartz returned to Broadway, as composer and lyricist for Wicked, which tells the story of the famous Oz characters from the point of view of the witches. Schwartz won a Grammy Award for his work as composer and lyricist and producer of Wicked's cast recording. On March 23, 2006, the Broadway production of Wicked passed the 1,000 performance mark, making Schwartz one of four composers (the other three being Andrew Lloyd Webber, Jerry Herman, and Richard Rodgers) to have three shows last that long on Broadway (the other two were Pippin and The Magic Show). In 2007, Schwartz joined Jerry Herman as being one of only two composer/lyricists to have three shows run longer than 1,500 performances on Broadway.

A recent project is incidental music for his son Scott Schwartz's adaptation of Willa Cather's My Antonia. He is currently writing an opera based on the film, Seance on a Wet Afternoon.

John-Michael Tebelak: Godspell's Conception

Excerpt from Dramatics Magazine, January 1975:

"...Finally, I turned toward the Gospels and sat one afternoon and read the whole thing through. Afterwards, I became terribly excited because I found what I wanted to portray on stage. I began immediately to adapt it.

I decided to go to Easter sunrise service to experience, again, the story that I had gotten from the Gospel. As I went, it began to snow, which is rather strange for Easter. When I went into the cathedral, everyone there was sitting, grumbling about the snow, and the fact that they had already changed their tires. Snow was upsetting their plans.

As the service began, an old priest came out and mumbled into a microphone, and people mumbled things back, and then everyone got up and left. Instead of "healing" the burden, or resurrecting the Christ, it seems those people had pushed Him back into the tomb. They had refused to let Him come out that day.

As I was leaving the church, a policeman who had been sitting two pews ahead of me during the service, stopped me and wanted to know if he could search me. At that moment, I think because of the absurd situation, it angered me so much that I went home and realized what I wanted to do with the Gospels: I wanted to make it the simple, joyful message that I felt the first time I read them and recreate the sense of community, which I did not share when I went to that service.

I went to my teachers at Carnegie and asked if I could work at my own special project for my masters' degree, and they agreed. That following fall, in October, we began rehearsals at Carnegie."

Godspell's Toronto Production

Before Godspell, Toronto's theater community was essentially limited to short runs and touring companies of Broadway and West End plays. The Toronto run had a cast drawn entirely from local performers instead of using a touring company. After an enthusiastic response from the audience, the show set what was then a record run in Canada of 488 performances. This record was not broken until the Toronto production of Cats in 1986.

Moreover, the production provided the first regular acting jobs for several performers who would later go on to bigger things, including Victor Garber (who won the role of Jesus in the film version), Eugene Levy, Andrea Martin, Gilda Radner, and Martin Short.

Radner came to the attention of Lorne Michaels during the production, which also had several performers who had worked with him on his Canadian comedy specials. Three years later, Radner was the first cast member hired for Saturday Night Live.

Levy, Martin, and Short left the cast to become members of the original Toronto troupe of The Second City Comedy Show. Paul Shaffer, the show's musical director, would also join Radner on Saturday Night Live as its musical director.

Other Godspell Productions

Godspell has remained such an important part of the modern musical theater vocabulary because of its versatility. The original production made the company a troupe of clowns who follow Jesus in an abandoned playground; subsequent productions have been set in museums, classrooms, on top of buildings, an apocalyptic world or in an abandoned theater. Since the setting is never explicitly stated in the text, directors love using this show as a chance to show off their creative abilities. This show can occur, literally, anywhere. The setting has even been in a McDonald's restaurant. Godspell is also a very low-budget musical. A church production in Grand Rapids, MI had a total cost of less than $500 for running two shows, the only thing they purchased was the music and libretto.

The 2000 tour mounted by Stephen Schwartz's son Scott Schwartz set the action in a technologically created universe. In addition to an updated score, several of the philosophers during Tower of Babel were re-characterized. A Broadway revival wad announced for September 2008, but it was postponed due to the faltering economy.

Godspell, The Movie

Godspell, the film adaptation was released in 1973. Set in modern New York City, the film stars Victor Garber as Jesus. It was filmed in New York from August to November 1972. The movie received generally positive reviews. Ironically, the film version of Jesus Christ Superstar was released the same year as Godspell.

Godspell Trivia

• In the film Meet the Parents, Greg (Ben Stiller) recites "Day by Day" when asked to say grace over his first meal with the family.
• In the film Wet Hot American Summer, "Day by Day" is performed at the camp talent show. At first, the other campers enjoy the performance, but at the end of the song, booing ensues when an image of the cross appears behind the performers. In the DVD commentary for the film, director David Wain noted that the booing was directed at the performance itself, not the cross.
• On their album "Jesus Freak," Christian rock band DC Talk does a cover version of "Day by Day."
• In one of his "Slimmin' Down With Steve" segments on The Daily Show, humorist Steve Carell made a healthy meal of pasta primavera. When he bowed his head to say grace, Carell belted out "All Good Gifts" at the top of his lungs, startling everyone.
• In an episode of King of the Hill where Bobby Hill attends a high school, he is overjoyed to find that the play is being held, as it was banned from his middle school.
• In the film Scotland, PA, the characters sing "Day by Day" in a homage as to what people did in the 70's.
• In the novel How I Paid For College, the main character is starring as Jesus in a production of Godspell at his school.
• In an episode of "So You Think You Can Dance" (Season 4), contestants Joshua Allen and Katee Shean dance a Broadway dance number set to "All for the Best", choreographed by Tyce Diorio.

Godspell Dramaturgy © 2009, Ross Harmon: The Barn Players

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