Godspell - First Preview Tonight

It is off to a great start. Saw the composer in the lobby.

I would love a picture of the pre show set up as well :)

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I'm back from the show and I absolutely did not care for it, and found the whole thing to be a giant mess. To preface I performed Godspell in high school like so many others, and am fairly familiar with the show.

They have completely rewritten the book for the worse- there are jokes about shake-weights, friending God on Facebook, Steve Jobs sending us the new iPad from heaven (in rather poor taste) and of course an obligatory Wicked reference (during "Turn Back, O Man" she whispers, "for the first time I feel Wicked.")

The songs have been reorchestrated to sound like Top 40 Kelly Clarkson/Pink pop-rock anthems. "Day by Day" now includes a rock section so they can do the Electric Slide. The Chicken Dance and the Macarena are also performed.

The Tower of Babel opening is sung acapella into cell phones, complete with iPhone and Blackberry beeps and dings. It is a confusing mess and they need to make clear what is happening. You could barely make out a word anyone was saying. The sound needs a ton of work, but that can obviously be forgiven at the first preview.

"Learn Your Lessons Well," which is normally a kind of throwaway song has been turned into a big rock number with tons of choreography. They also unnecessarily reprise it at the top of act 2 with full on American riffs and ornamentation.

Although some of the songs are rough it's the book scenes that are insufferable. There is a sense of desperation on the behalf of the creative team to be as current and modern as possible. The king in one parable is played like Donald Trump, with references to The Apprentice and all his Trump Towers. They mimic Charlie's Angels and The Price is Right in that same vignette.

Maybe they feared Godspell becoming a museum piece, but I think the material would be better served to be presented as it originally was. The show is very much a product of it's time, and let it remain that way. It will play much better.

The performers are in earnest, and I actually really like Anna Maria Perez de Tagle. Sadly, and I really wanted to love him, but Hunter Parrish was not up to the task. I don't know if he shot his voice in rehearsals, but he was really straining to sing the songs. "Alas for You" was especially rough, but none of it felt comfortable in his voice. I get that you don't need Paulo Szot to sing the score, but he didn't cut it for me.

I did feel the staging worked in the round. Unlike "The Miracle Worker" a few seasons ago you didn't feel like you missing anything, at least visually.

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I wouldn't blame the creative team quite so much for the show seeming overly modern and forced- the first page of the licensed script usually says something along the lines of "This is a template, not a script. Improvise and make modern!"

The issue here, it appears, is not so much that "the jokes are too modern and topical" but that "the jokes aren't funny, or just don't work." In that case, the answer, according at least to how Godspell is recommended to be produced, isn't "go back to the gags from the Sixties," but "find new ones."

O, Lordy, Have Mercy, Whizzer! First of all, let me disclose that I never thought mounting GODSPELL on Broadway these days was a good idea. From your description WMTJM, this production sounds desperately appalling, and likely to become infamous in the annals of flop revivals. It sounds like theater fans should flock to this one in previews as this wrongheaded enterprise could easily go down in flames quickly. Fast-acting folks may be able to one day claim, "I saw the disastrous Broadway revival of GODSPELL of 2011!"

I wonder if the creative team for this show saw VIA GALACTICA back in 1972 - that show also had trampolines in it. During "We Beseech Thee," ten floorboards opened up on stage to reveal trampolines. Each actor got to jump up and down on them during the song! I kind of loved that part (in a horrendous dreadful kind of way).

VIA GALACTICA played seven performances on Broadway. This revival of GODSPELL will surely trump that - but not by much!

The songs have been reorchestrated to sound like Top 40 Kelly Clarkson/Pink pop-rock anthems. "Day by Day" now includes a rock section so they can do the Electric Slide. The Chicken Dance and the Macarena are also performed.

Bwahahahaha! Is it so bad it is good? It seems that poor Ken Davenport never saw that dreadful national tour that played a few years ago. This sounds a lot worse!

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The critics will crucify this production. Honestly, if you want to see this disaster live, go in previews. If I weren't so busy with other shows in October, I would go back in previews...some of the staging is not to be believed.

blaxx- I don't know if it's so bad it's good. I sat there cringing and in horror for parts of it.

Jordan- yes they do the chicken dance to celebrate the return of the prodigal son. I didn't know what to think. That parable is a mess. It includes a section where Telly "wins" an Oscar for performing sound bites of all these famous roles, including Scarlett O'Hara. Someone then hands him an Oscar and he says, "They liked me! They really liked me!!"

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A few of the lotto winners got to come up on stage and play pictionary and charades...and one guy got to act in one of the parables. They were all sitting on cushions right next to the stage...not in regular seats...and at one point they all had to take their cushions and hold them up for the audience to see. I'm glad I was sitting further back...

and there is a post-show lotto to get a backstage tour. You have to put your names in and only one winner is drawn. The "tour" must have been very brief, because the winners were in and out of there in about five minutes!

Updated On: 10/13/11 at 11:57 PM

Just because it says it is a template and make modern does not mean do an overhaul. You can do those things with the original script and source material. There are plenty of moments in the show especially in the parables where you can give them a modern twist with changing dialogue.

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Updated On: 10/14/11 at 12:03 AM

Apparently, Morgan James was out of the show tonight due to an injury incurred during tech.

Can anyone in attendance confirm that? I know her understudy went on for one of the dress rehearsals.

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Updated On: 10/14/11 at 12:15 AM