Self-Defined Project Expressing Art in Person

Experiencing Art in Person: A review of Godspell

For my 'Experiencing Art in Person' project, I elected to watch a performance of the musical theater production Godspell at the Production Studio on April 27th at 7:30pm, performed by an ensemble cast. My goal in watching this production was to learn about a play that had such a seismic impact upon American theater. I am an international student. I come from Saudi Arabia and was unfamiliar with the show, but I had heard many of my American friends talk about how they had performed or seen the play in school and church productions. The fact that there is no corresponding play in my own culture, with my own religion made the play especially intriguing to me.

Godspell is a loosely-structured musical without a tightly-constructed plot. It is based on the Gospel of Saint Matthew and some of the other gospels in the New Testament. It chronicles incidents in the life of Christ. The play is depicted in a very spare, bare-bones format. There is very little setting and scenery, other than the fence on which Christ is finally crucified. As with many musicals, the majority of the play is sung, rather than spoken. Jesus offers his teachings, while the followers respond in various ways to his words. They act out some of his most famous parables, like the story of the Good Samaritan and Lazarus. In the second act, Jesus is betrayed and crucified.

Rather than showing a literal depiction of life in ancient, Biblical Israel, the cast members dress as clowns and hippies, reflecting the historical origins of the musical during its first production in the 1970s (Scott 2011). The color palate of the clothing, lighting settings, and the scenery that is used is bright, cheerful, and almost childlike, reflecting the spirit of Jesus' followers. The musical stresses the message of peace and love within Jesus' teachings and was originally designed to transpose Jesus' message into a vaguely contemporary context to make it more accessible and recognizable to the audience. The upbeat songs like "Day by Day" preach the brotherhood of man, although some songs are religious songs, set to contemporary music with archaic-sounding lyrics like "Prepare Ye."

From the point-of-view of a modern viewer, the production looks clearly 60s in spirit, and this is underlined by the texture of the songs in most of the production numbers. The play feels like a 'period piece' more than the radical transposing of the gospels into modern times, versus how it likely seemed when the production was first enacted by the original cast. Still, it was interesting to see today's actors and actresses enter the enthusiastic, slightly naive world of forgiveness, peace, love, and joy generated on stage. This version of Jesus and of religiosity was very different from what I had been exposed to, but I did not come to the play as a member of the faith, to judge the production's accuracy but was rather curious to see what people from a Christian cultural worldview made of the spirit of Godspell. However, some questions that occurred to me while watching the piece was: if you are a believer, and come from a family of believers, how do you view this treatment of the gospels? Is it simply another interpretation? Is it irreverent, to any degree, or 'truer' because it is translated into terms that are more contemporary and comprehensible to people today?

The reception was highly enthusiastic amongst the audience members because of the level of involvement demanded by the production. People clapped, sang along with some of the songs and cheered. There was an almost 'revival'-like atmosphere as the cast interacted with members of the audience and made them feel as if they were part of the show. I had never been to such an interactive theater experience. Even I walked out of the theater feeling light at heart and full of joy, not quite knowing what to expect from the experience and coming with no preconceived notions about the play. The design of the production, with its lack of a 'wall' between audience and singers made me feel as if I was part of an experience, rather than merely watching a play as a passive observer.

One link that was useful in understanding the musical after watching the production was a clip of the original production from the Today show I found on YouTube. I could understand why the play was so controversial during its era, given the clown-like, childlike images of the characters. Also, it was noted in the comments on the video that some clergy members at the time felt that Jesus was not resurrected in the original staging, and too much emphasis was placed upon the life of Jesus, rather than upon the significance of his death.