Godspell Tour?

In short: yes.

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Yeah...kinda

I'm sorry: Having grown people wearing costumes designed for teenagers/young adults isn't working for me at all. And the set is kind of weird.

Is the show out on tour right now???? Who is producing it?

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That is eerily like a watered-down version of the Broadway show. But is that the tour? The producer is some Canadian company.

Also, the fact that it seems to be a watered-down representation of the Broadway revival does not surprise me in the least. Recently, MTI has begun licensing something labeled Godspell (2012) (link below) that purports to incorporate (quoting the site) "some of the changes and updated references used in the 2011-2012 Broadway Production."

Having seen the script, it is absolutely not as customized as some would expect. It's pretty much the standard "director's notes" edition of the script with character names changed to 2012 cast members' names and some ideas from the show, and some really sloppy cut-and-paste jobs (count all the times they screwed up if you ever get the chance to license it). Now, I understand that you can't stage the average 2012 Godspell outside of what they did for Circle in the Square. What they did was a very specialized, in-the-round production tailored to that venue, re-designed significantly from the more white-bread Papermill Playhouse production it was originally a transfer of. You couldn't do the dangerous crucifixion scene or the trampolines in the round at your theater like Godspell '12 did, and if you can, your theater is likely the exception to the rule. They're not going to mention stuff you can't do like "Here's the trampoline number" or "This is the bit where So-and-so swung from a rope."

But this? This, to me, is money for old rope, a transparent ****-show of a cash-grab with the new orchestrations/arrangements/whatever sanctioned, which is silly considering the "original" Godspell is licensed on a much different basis, with your ability to use the new arrangements of the 2000 (Dan Schachner) or 2001 (Alex Lacamoire) orchestrations grandfathered in, in a much less costly manner. Basically, if you pay MTI for this script, you're licensing the right to use the revival arrangements, some new lyrics, and some updated laugh lines. Frankly, for that trouble, you're better off using a perusal copy of that script to create an errata sheet, licensing the normal script (which is still putting money in their pocket, btw, I never advocate theft), and getting the orchestrations from somewhere else and working out your own royalty arrangement with Michael Holland, as others have been able to do with Schachner and Lacamoire in the past.

Godspell (2012) - MTI

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Updated On: 10/10/13 at 10:41 AM

That looked like a college production vs. national tour.

People here seem so negative. I just saw the show. The tour may have started today above Bangor, Maine. It was fantastic. I'm a professional musician. It was great! Five-piece band. A great set. Great cast. Canadian talent. Fabulous.

It's not non-union. The cast are members of (Canadian) Equity.

In response to g.d.e.l.g.i. comments:
Having just finished Music Directing the revival version for an amatuer group, I can attest that the new orchestrations are vastly different from the 1971 books. Sadly, I'm old enough to have played the original charts twice. While 3 guitars in the new version seemed redundant at first, the Michael Holland layering of sounds is masterful. And vocally the arrangements went from easy to really difficult, but in a good way. While the Director chose to not include all the updating in our production, I believe the impovisational nature of the script allows such leeway. And our Director was very surprised at the reasonalbe royalties. The fees were only negligibly more expensive then the original that he did 6 years ago with another group.

Musically, in my opinion, the show is much improved. The addition of Beautiful City alone is priceless. And I sincerely doubt most directors/music directors would have the wherewithal to have the 2000/2001 arrangements 'grandfathered' into the contract. Best of Luck to the tour!

Updated On: 11/3/13 at 10:56 PM

The guy that plays Jesus... I want to do naughty things to him... Yummy.

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And I sincerely doubt most directors/music directors would have the wherewithal to have the 2000/2001 arrangements 'grandfathered' into the contract.

Your past with the show notwithstanding, these arrangements have been available to use for a nominal fee negotiated with the orchestrators themselves for some time (e.g., "grandfathered in" -- you don't need to license a "whole new" version of Godspell to get them). I know whereof I speak. See Stephen Schwartz's FAQ on his website. The only outlier is the 2012 version, and I suspect that rather being an attempt to exploit a flop revival (which you could do by giving out the Holland score and parts and an errata sheet of the new lines and occasional new lyrics; seriously, it's that simple, as proven by the rampant copy-pasting, sometimes not entirely corrected, in the "new" script), it's a cash grab to get money back for the countless investors.

Question 6: May we use the new GODSPELL Orchestrations for our production?

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Updated On: 11/4/13 at 08:46 AM