Come Sing About Love…

Before this review continues, I will take one moment to fangirl:

OH MY GOD, GODSPELL IS BACK! WOOT! AND IT INCLUDES “BEAUTIFUL CITY!”

Ahem.

I went to see Godspell this past Sunday. It was a last minute decision, something to take our youth group to see. We saw the Sunday matinee over at the Circle in the Square theater. I must note that I find it appropriate that Godspell is only a stone’s throw away from another Stephen Schwartz musical—“Wicked,” which plays at the Gershwin Theater. The theater is also appropriate as it’s a theater in the round. The stage is centered with the seats situated all around. It’s perfect for “Godspell.”
“Godspell” has a very loose plot. It’s more of an improv show with prompts coming from the lessons and parables of the Gospel of Matthew. And some fun songs thrown in to the mix. It’s high energy and thoroughly enjoyable.


The show opens with the “Tower of Babel” (listed as the Prologue in Playbill). In it, the cast members take on different philosophers and try to sell that their way of thinking is the correct one. They end up singing over each other until all it sounds like is, well, babble. As they climb a ladder as well. Amongst this babbling, a trumpet sounds as John the Baptist (Wallace Smith) enters. He sings “Prepare Ye” as he baptizes the cast. For this, they have a pool of water under the stage the cast splashes about in before running off the stage.

At this point, Jesus (Hunter Parrish) enters in a white undershirt and boxers. He asks to be baptized, which John the Baptist does. Jesus starts to sing “God Save the People” as the cast returns. They are now dressed in crazy costumes and pull out some for Jesus to try on. In a nice nod, a Superman shirt is pulled out—this is what Jesus traditionally wears in productions of “Godspell.” He rules it out, choosing to wear a baseball jersey that reads “Co-Pilot.”

Jesus and John the Baptist/Judas are the only two characters in the show with set names. The other eight performers continue to use their own names. For those familiar with “Godspell,” here is how it breaks down:

Robin/”Day by Day”: Anna Maria Perez de Tagle
Gilmer/”Learn Your Lessons Well”: Celisse Henderson
Joanne/”Bless the Lord”: Lindsay Mendez
Lamar/”All Good Gifts”: Telly Leung
Herb/”Light of the World”: George Salazar
Sonia/”Turn Back, O Man”: Morgan James
Peggy/”By My Side”: Uzo Aduba
Jeffrey/”We Beseech Thee”: Nick Blaemire

The cast is talented and it is apparent they love working together. Parrish, best known from the Showtime series “Weeds,” has a wonderful voice that serves Jesus well. He is plays Jesus with this youthful wonder, the contradiction of a wise man with the exuberance of a child. Smith is a compelling John the Baptist/Judas. His best parts are really toward the end, when he is in full blown Judas mode. He plays the conflict Judas feels about betraying Jesus very well. Which I got to see firsthand. During “On the Willows,” Smith ended up singing the song right next to my row. The pain, longing and isolation was evident on his face.

Anna Maria Perez de Tagle is well-known from the Disney Channel. She had a recurring role on “Hannah Montana” and was one of the supporting characters in the “Camp Rock” movies. She has a sweet voice that suits “Day by Day.” Celisse is both a great singer and very comedic, which is needed for “Godspell.”

Lindsay Mendez, in my opinion, steals the show. Along with Telly Leung. They were partners in crime and ran away with the performance. Both have great comedic timing and therefore end up performing in a lot of the parables. As the Prodigal Son, Leung runs through a myriad of Hollywood impressions that were impressive. The teens I was with remembered Ms. Mendez. Of course, they called her “Cow girl” because she wore cow ears to play the fatted calf in the prodigal son parable. But they wanted to go meet her during intermission, so that’s something. Unfortunately, by the time they screwed their courage to the sticking place, she had left the stage.

Lindsay and Telly did return to ease into the second act. And to show off their amazing voices again as well. George Salazar isn’t the strongest singer in the group, but he isn’t meant to be. He handles “Light of the World” well enough and is funny when he is in a parable. Morgan James plays the “female sex symbol” of the show. For a tidbit of mind-blowing proportions: The role was originated by Sonia Manzano in the 70s. Most of us growing up know her as Maria from “Sesame Street.” Morgan performs “Turn Back, O Man” and throws in random one liners that are hysterical (for example, “I found the lost Jonas Brother!”).

Uzo Aduba plays the sweet, quiet, unassuming member of the group. Or is supposed to. While she is sweet and quiet, she doesn’t come across as unassuming. However, she delivers a very good rendition of “By My Side.” Nick Blaemire performs a spirited version of “We Beseech Thee,” playing the guitar himself. The song also features some cool choreography done on trampolines. The cast literally bounces along to the music!

The other choreography is pretty good. In the past, the style of choreography has been written to be “controlled chaos,” as if they are spontaneously creating it. This…doesn’t seem to be it. But it is still serviceable. They’ve also given the score a jolt of rock and roll. It’s pretty good, though some of the singing gets drowned out by the musicians. Who, by the way, are scattered around the audience. So you may end up sitting next to one!

In my fangirl moment at the start of the review, I noted that they include “Beautiful City” in this production. The song was originally written for the 1973 film. According to Academy rules, songs that existed prior to filming (such as songs performed on Broadway) are inadmissible for Best Song contention. So that’s why your favorite song from the production is suddenly replaced with something of equal or usually lesser value (“Let Me Dance for You” over “Music and the Mirror” from “A Chorus Line” anyone?). So Stephen Schwartz wrote “Beautiful City.” The original version is…okay. Then in 1994, a production approached Schwartz about using the song. He agreed but asked to rewrite the song. And the rewrite is amazing!

It’s this version that ends up in the production. Here, Jesus sings it as a ballad and Parrish’s voice is well suited for the song. It is sung between “We Beseech Thee” and “On the Willows” in the second act. During it, Jesus removes the red flowers he gave his followers at the start of the show. It helps usher the show from the lightness of the parables to the darkness of the Crucifixion.

Another brilliant choice by the director occurs after the Crucifixion. The cast takes Jesus off the cross. Judas remains off to the side, feeling guilty and isolated. A cast member approaches him and holds out her hand, drawing him back in. It’s his forgiveness and it’s a touching moment.

So, go see “Godspell.” You’ll be pleasantly surprised.

And just a postscript: Thanks to the Circle in the Square theater! While our seats weren’t bad, we were in the back row. But we got bumped up two rows, next to the guitar player. It was great! So, thank you, once again.