Godspell

[filkertom]

Now, do not suppose that I have come to abolish the Law or the prophets. I do not come to abolish, but to complete.

I adore the musical Godspell.

Found a copy yesterday at CostCo for $6.99. Only one they had at the Brighton, MI store. If they'd had others, I would've bought them so I could hand them out to friends who haven't seen the movie, or who love the movie.

• First, of course, is the phenomenal performance by a young Victor Garber. More people know him these days from Alias, from the Disney TV movies of Annie and The Music Man... others know him from creating the role of Booth in Assassins, or Anthony in Sweeney Todd. But he's had an incredible career, going on to this day. Lots and lots of stuff. And his first major film role was as Jesus, with a huge muckin' fro and a Superman shirt and suspenders too loud for Robin Williams, and power and goodness and gentility and the whole thing would've fallen apart if he didn't have the wherewithal to carry it off, and he did it so easily you could just about believe this guy was... someone. Certainly someone not to ignore.
• The rest of the cast is equally wonderful. You wouldn't have heard of most of them -- only a few besides Garber had extensive careers after making Godspell, and the one you likely know best is the late Lynne Thigpen, who played the Chief on the PBS kids' quiz show Where In The World Is Carmen Sandiego? and the voice of Luna, the moon, who sings the Goodbye song with Bear at the end of every episode of Bear In The Big Blue House.
• The songs. Ahhh, the songs. Stephen Schwartz is perhaps not as influential as Sondheim, but when he is on he is as good as they come -- Pippin, Disney's Hunchback of Notre Dame, some of the songs from Wicked and Disney's Pocahontas -- and Godspell is a simply amazing, uplifting, joyous collection of memorable, singable tunes and lyrics that capture the essence of the Bible verses they paraphrase without sounding condescending or banal.
• The overall production. The look, the timing, the direction, the choreography, everything just jelled.

The movie is more than the sum of its formidable parts. And the joy I feel watching it is the closest thing I have ever experienced to the joy that I gather some people get from their relationship with God.

Can't deny, it feels good.

And then I start asking questions and following news reports and listening to the things some of these yahoos say and watching what they do, and it all ends in tears and anger and bitterness and the copy of Inherit the Wind just down the shelf.

Sigh. Anyway, if you're near a CostCo, you might look for it in the DVDs. $6.99.

What movie or musical songs make you feel great hearing them? Fill your heart, broaden your smile, get the good tears flowing? For me, it's most of Godspell, "Belle" and "Human Again" (the Broadway version, with character dialogue by Susan Egan and Terrance Mann) in Beauty and the Beast, the opening titles and "Part Of Your World" (and its reprise) and "Under The Sea" from The Little Mermaid, and that wonderful, wonderful first scene of the long-necks and the incredible swell of music beneath it in Jurassic Park and I don't care if it's not a song per se dammit I'm counting it, and "Suddenly Seymour" from Little Shop of Horrors, and "Worth It" from Weird Romance....

Comments

[misterseth.livejournal.com]

My favorite musical soundtrack?

HAIR

Nuff said.

[roane.livejournal.com]

I ADORE Godspell. I grew up in a really fundie church, and I've often said if I could find a type of Christianity that felt the way Godspell does, I'd be back in a heartbeat.

Now, of course, the scenes filmed on the then-under-construction World Trade Center are especially poignant.

[neadods.livejournal.com]

I used to "collect" Godspells - I'd see every version possible that any theater troupe put on.

[zellion.livejournal.com]

Got a copy in my collection somewhere. One of my friends is actually currently performing in a local production of it this month!

[danceswithlife]

Raised as a conservative Roman Catholic, I think "Godspell" was one of the spiritual factors in high school that changed my life. It helped me see that being a Christian was about relationship with Jesus and with others more than it was about theology. I saw it about 30 times at the movies and was the script consultant for a stage production of it that ran two summers in Orange County, CA.

Tom, there are Christians who live and experience this kind of joy in their communities, and who strive for the same liberal values you have. We just get drowned out by the fundamentalists and the traditionalists way too much of the time. Many of us are, by traditional standards, agnostics about all kinds of things that have become accepted Christian thinking over the last two thousand years. We know the awful things that have been done in the name of Christianity, and we are striving to make sure they never happen again. We are proud heretics and apostates and social critics. There are some of us trying to change traditional churches from within, and some of us who feel that creating a renewed view of Jesus and his teachings apart from authoritarianism is what is necessary. I am working towards the day when those who mourn what they did love about being a Christian can find it again without the crap that usually goes with it.

Wherever you come down, Tom, keep up the good work you do with your music and your journal. I read you every day and find what you post to be articulate and valuable.

Lola

[filkertom.livejournal.com]

[hug hug hug] And this is precisely why I cannot come down on religion the way I used to. Some people get it, that we are of the same heart, the tribe, and doing good is far more important than following the dogma.

For myself, I don't need to belong to a church. But I'm never going to stop trying to be a better person, both for my own sake and the sake of those around me. I really hope I can learn to live every day by my own lyrics: Mind your business, clean things up, and get along.

[wyattkelly.livejournal.com]

For me, one of my favorite Broadway musicals of all time is Les Miserables. Perhaps it's not exactly the most uplifting of soundtracks, but the sheer emotion the cast puts into the music is mesmerizing. I tear up a little every time I hear "I Dreamed a Dream", and want to stand with the students during, "Do You Hear The People Sing?" More to the point, who has not felt what Eponine has, of unrequited love, when she sings, "On My Own"? It's just some of the most gorgeous work I've ever had the privilege to see on stage.

[filkertom.livejournal.com]

"One Day More" is trying to sneak onto my list....

[mzlizzy.livejournal.com]

I was fortunate enough to see the original off-Broadway production when I was a young teen. Somewhere I still have the ticket stub somewhere in my stuff.

[cathain.livejournal.com]

My all time favorite musical is "Tommy" by the Who. I remember hearing it for the first time as a double vinyl lp when I was all of 18 years old. I was 21 when the movie came out and it's one of the few that I went back and saw in the theater more than once. I ended up seeing it 5 times. I got it on VHS in 1984 (which I still have) and then on DVD. In some ways it's just as much a "messiah" movie as "Godspell".

[alverant.livejournal.com]

I Want to be a Producer (Producers)
'Til Him (Producers)
Find Your Grail (Spamalot)
Always Look on the Bright Side of Life (Spamalot, Life of Brian)
Anything from Cats
What if (Last Hero on Earth)
With Great Power Comes Great Power Bills (Last Hero on Earth)

Also I found out the Telsa Coils have NOT been confirmed for DucKon. I was misinformed and apologize for any confusion.

[banjoplayinnerd.livejournal.com]

Lynne Thigpen died? I didn't know that. I liked her.

I remember seeing Godspell on TV a long time ago. Random bits and pieces stick with me -- Jesus playing the honky-tonk piano during (I think) his reading of the Prodigal Son; again, Jesus on the chain link fence toward the end; the scene at the very end where the ensemble is walking down the empty street, turns the corner, and all of the sudden it's New York midday traffic. I'm not sure how they did that one but it was a cool shot.

Yeah, I wouldn't mind having a copy of that.

[wiliqueen.livejournal.com]

Schwartz beats Sondheim all hollow in my book. I'm happy to report that he's also a Genuinely Good Guy. About fifteen years back, I wrote him a long gushing missive via ASCAP, explaining that I knew every note of Godspell by the time I was four (no lie; my mom played the movie soundtrack incessantly, and it's probably 90% of how I developed a sense of harmony). I further explained that I was in love with the London cast album of Children of Eden, and had been crushed to find that the vocal selections book was already out of print when I contacted Dress Circle in London to try to get hold of it. (This was several years before the Paper Mill production, for which the score was revised considerably into its currently-available form.) I asked if he knew of anywhere I could get hold, particularly, of "Stranger to the Rain," "The Spark of Creation," and "In Whatever Time We Have."

A couple months later, my then-fiancé called me at work to ask if I knew why I had received a big envelope from Disney Animation Studios. Inside were a nice letter from Schwartz and photocopies of the three songs I'd mentioned, complete with handwritten lyric revisions to "Stranger."

After the Wicked vocal selections book came out, I dropped him an email thanking him for the show and congratulating him on its success. I got an automated away message saying that he was on vacation for the next three weeks. Two days later I got a personal reply anyway.

Besides the above... Broadway has yet to hear a score as shimmeringly gorgeous from beginning to end as The Secret Garden, though much of The Light in the Piazza comes close. "Home" is the one that always gets me from Beauty and the Beast. "Meadowlark" from The Baker's Wife (another underrated Schwartz score). "It's Not Too Late" (especially the Act II version) and "Words He Doesn't Say" from Romance/Romance.

So, so many more.

Totally off-topic

[acelightning.livejournal.com]

[mimiheart.livejournal.com]

I'm singing "Spark of Creation" by Stephen Schwartz right now for a review... For the words and the beat of it, it may as well be Sondheim.

"No More" from Into the Woods. Depending on who sings it.

There was a made for TV version of Alice in Wonderland in 1985. Most of the music from that just makes me smile. I sing this to my kids all the time:





Also, "Cheer up Charlie" and "Pure Imagination" from Willy Wonka.

Most of the music in "The Wizard of Oz".

[ladysmith.livejournal.com]

Oh, I remember that version. Alice was the little girl from Poltergeist. And it had Christopher Lloyd. Good movie.

And now for something mostly off topic: CostCo

[alverant.livejournal.com]

Tom, is CostCo worth it? The nearest one is about 10 miles away from me. My friends who go there say it's great. But I'm a single guy and I'm not sure if the drive and membership cost is worth any savings. (Oh, the same logic holds for the CostCo competitor, whatever it's called.)

Re: And now for something mostly off topic: CostCo

[filkertom.livejournal.com]

The competitor is Sam's Club, part of the Wal*Mart Empire of Evil. ;)

CostCo can certainly be worth it, depending on what you need and how often you need it. I get over there maybe every couple of months, and I do find it worth it. It's a great place to get reasonable quantities of bulk stuff -- batteries, cereal, OTC drugs, meats and cheese and veggies and wine -- and a hell of a place to get ready for a party. Very good place to shop for external hard drives, widescreen monitors, and printer cartridges. Also very good for saving on books/CDs/DVDs, if you happen to want or need the titles they carry, which are limited. Decent selection of PS3/Wii stuff. Toys sporadic but sometimes amazing. And the snack bar on the way out has halfway decent hot dogs and pizza slices, cheap.

I believe they will let you go in and look around if you ask, kinda getting a day pass or somethin'. I suggest you do so. Remember that they don't always have everything you see on any given day -- they buy in bulk, and only their Kirkland store brand stuff is certain to be there from one trip to the next.

[sdelmonte]

My favorite musical is Guys and Dolls. Especially the soundtrack from the original Broadway production. Especially "Rocking the Boat."

But my favorite musical number is Hebrew part of "There Can Be Miracles" from Prince of Egypt. Gets me every time. Indeed, I love most of the music and agree that Mr. Schwartz is utterly underrated.

[ladypoetess.livejournal.com]

As a very devout pagan (of whatever stripe), a production of Godspell that I watched in college was the closest I have ever come to wanting to convert back to Christianity.

Just as an aside...

[ladysmith.livejournal.com]

Scott McMullen (Greg McMullen's brother) does a fantastic Judas. IIRC, he was in Godspell maybe six or seven years ago, and we were supposed to go up to Phillie to see him, but our trip fell through. We heard the recordings, though.

[katheros.livejournal.com]

Last year in a 4th year undergraduate seminar on the historical Jesus I did a presentation comparing how Godspell and Jesus Christ Superstar draw on different gospels to paint their desired picture of Jesus - I did this mostly to introduce a bunch of people who didn't know either shows to the music.
I grew up in an extremely liberal Catholic household, and every Easter my dad and I would listen to his old vinyl of JCS, often instead of going to mass. It's still my only consistent religious tradition.
My introduction to musicals was through Andrew Lloyd Webber, so I will always hold a huge soft spot in my heart for Cats. I can still hear the overture and be 6 years old again and entranced by the magic.

[unclelumpy.livejournal.com]

"Neverland" by Jim Steinman

[wickedladybear.livejournal.com]

Godspell is right up there with one of my favorites, partly because of the intense emotions I have tied to it.

When I was a junior in high school I worked on the back stage end of a community theater production of it, and our Jesus was a young man, very handsome, very charismatic and friendly and encouraging to all the kids working their asses off for this production. he seemed to know how to talk to everyone and make them feel like the most important part of the production, and he had been "going places" whatever that meant, in musical theater with this single flaw, the reason he came home. He was dying of cancer, bizarre horrible evil stuff and we all knew it, we'd been told to watch his energy levels and to run and fetch him stuff like food or water or even towels whenever we could to spare him steps. He gave the most sincere, loving play on the part Ive ever seen and the homegrown slightly decent amateurs stepped up to match him. We had a sold out house with standing room only in an outside venue for his last performance and the audience in tears. He got quite ill afterwards and then recovered and lasted a couple more years, but I will never forget how intense that show was, how you could feel the actors lose themselves to the emotions in the songs and words.

I think we were all more than a little in love with him, although very few of us spoke about him in a sexual fashion. I imagine that Jesus would have had that kind of presence, if you believe in Jesus as an historical figure. I imagine him to be an Isreali version of our Jesus and I can completely believe in their being a wandering rabbi, with that kind of gentle yet fierce love, preaching a new way. Or a Buddha, or a Mohammad, for that matter.

[redaxe.livejournal.com]

The musicals that always travel on my media players are Oklahoma!, Kiss Me Kate, and RHPS (the first two are the late-90s/early-00s stage revivals, each wonderful). If a video version of Avenue Q were available, it'd be there, too; as it is, the soundtrack is also a must (and practically everything on there is made of awesome). Other heavy-rotation musicals include The Muppet Movie (and, aside from the obvious number, I really really dig "Can You Picture That?" for upbeat), Guys and Dolls (the Frank Sinatra/Marlon Brando version, which is sorely lacking the song "My Time of Day" -- my favorite from the show!), and Doctor Horrible's Sing-Along Blog. (On a completely different note, I was pleasantly shocked when I recently watched the Seventh Doctor's run all the way through, and saw Stubby Kaye's turn in the show. What a hoot!)

I have JCS, but not Godspell; must rectify that soonest.

[nimitzbrood.livejournal.com]

Wow there have been so many over the years...

Out of all of them I suppose the one that sticks with me is the Jesus Christ Superstar album sung by the original cast. There's just something about it that just is fantastic in that mix though I've not heard it in years.

Middle of the range and not so current - Once More With Feeling. I've not found myself singing more male parts while driving to/from work as when that album first came out.

Current stuff though I'd have to go with Doctor Horrible's Sing-Along Blog. Brand New Day just stirs my soul and came to my lips in my motorcycle helmet while riding home the day I got let go from work.

[markbernstein.livejournal.com]

Some of these are the "good tears" type, other are just songs that make me smile:

"Being Alive" from Company
"Now/Later/Soon" from A Little Night Music
"Camelot" (final reprise) from Camelot
"Seventy Six Trombones" from The Music Man
"Put On Your Sunday Clothes" from Hello Dolly
"A Little Priest" from Sweeney Todd
"Everyone's A Little Bit Racist" and "The Internet Is For Porn" from Avenue Q
"If I Were A Rich Man" and "Sunrise, Sunset" from Fiddler on the Roof
"Larger Than Life" from My Favorite Year (the musical, not the movie)
"I Am What I Am" from La Cage aux Folles
and many more

I also note that one of the scariest movie scenes I know of is musical: "Tomorrow Belongs To Me" from Cabaret

[pocketnaomi.livejournal.com]

Get hold of a copy of the English (NOT the Broadway; they cut about ten songs and it's awful) version of a little-known musical called The Baker's Wife. IMO, best thing Schwartz ever did. He's been my favorite musical theater composer for many years, but this is his best, IMO. The town is a character in its own right, maybe the central character, and the songs are spectacular.

[roane.livejournal.com]

Holy crap, I can't believe no one's mentioned my favorite Stephen Schwartz musical ever: Pippin! So witty, and has arguably the best belting song of all time, "Corner of the Sky". This may have been one of the first musicals I saw, the William Kat/Ben Vereen version. Just thinking about it makes me happy. :)

[filkertom.livejournal.com]

Indeed. I did mention Pippin above, and ain't no one getting my DVD of the very version of which you speak.

[caraig.livejournal.com]

The Fantasticks. Wonderful way-off-broadway show, and seeing it at the original Sullivan Street theater twice were the highlights of my theatergoing. (It's the longest-running off-broadway play in New York.) I fell in love with it in High School when we put it on one year. "Try To Remember' always gets me.