The making of Godspell Archives - Godspell the Musical https://www.godspell.com/tag/the-making-of-godspell/ Long Live Godspell Sat, 27 Dec 2025 15:57:15 +0000 en-US hourly 1 https://wordpress.org/?v=6.9 https://www.godspell.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/12/cropped-godspell.wallpaper.brick_square-32x32.jpg The making of Godspell Archives - Godspell the Musical https://www.godspell.com/tag/the-making-of-godspell/ 32 32 Godspell’s Unique Collaborative History https://www.godspell.com/godspells-unique-collaborative-history/ Thu, 13 Apr 2017 02:02:30 +0000 https://www.godspell.com/?p=419 Godspell is one of the few musicals that its first cast members helped to create. The new book The Godspell Experience: Inside a Transformative Musical reveals the full behind-the-scenes story. Actors who originate roles in new musicals may help shape the character, but most of them are working with a written script. Godspell’s actors, on […]

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]]> Godspell is one of the few musicals that its first cast members helped to create. The new book The Godspell Experience: Inside a Transformative Musical reveals the full behind-the-scenes story.

Actors who originate roles in new musicals may help shape the character, but most of them are working with a written script. Godspell’s actors, on the other hand, were rehearsing with parables and Bible phrases that were brought in by the show’s conceiver and director, John-Michael Tebelak. The methods of working with the material essentially emerged by way of an improvisational process. They shaped various spiritual lessons into a stylized piece of musical theater under Tebelak’s guidance. Whether they played charades, came up with a Three Stooges type of response, or found some other way to communicate an idea, it was largely invented during rehearsals.
Godspell, 1971 June Digital ID: 2025927. New York Public Library

PHOTO: Stephen Nathan, Robin Lamont, Sonia Manzano and others in Godspell, 1971. Photo by Kenn Duncan.

For the first two of New York productions (an off-off Broadway version that transferred to Off-Broadway), actor Stephen Nathan played Jesus. He recalls many hours of improvisatory acting that yielded some lines that became set in the show. John-Michael Tebelak helped whittle down the pieces. “Shaping it was primarily a job of trimming things back, with the help of John-Michael’s perspective on it,” says Nathan.

Of course it was Tebelak’s idea to draw from the profound source material in the first place: phrases and parables primarily from Matthew and Luke.
Read the full story of the making of Godspell in The Godspell Experience.

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]]> Stephen Schwartz Launched His Career with Godspell https://www.godspell.com/stephen-schwartz-launched-his-career-with-godspell/ Tue, 05 May 2015 03:19:08 +0000 https://www.godspell.com/?p=338 In 1971, twenty three year old Stephen Schwartz launched his legendary songwriter career with Godspell—a show that quickly became a box office hit in productions around the world.

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Stephen Schwartz and Godspell  History

In 1971, twenty three year old Stephen Schwartz launched his legendary songwriter career with Godspell—a show that quickly became a box office hit in productions around the world. The original cast album went on to win two Grammy Awards, and the single of  “Day by Day” rose high on the Billboard popular music charts.

 

PHOTO: Stephen Schwartz (behind the cake) and the company of Godspell from the summer of 1971. Photo courtesy of guitarist in the band, Jesse Cutler.

One reason the newbie’s “first” score worked so well is that Godspell wasn’t actually Schwartz’s first musical. He had contributed to three musicals and an opera in college at Carnegie Mellon University where he studied directing. The shows were all mounted as part of a student club, and so Schwartz gained valuable experience working with actors and getting feedback from audiences.

One of those college shows was an early version of Pippin. Schwartz decided to pursue developing it, writing new songs after college. With these songs, he was able to sign with an agent, Shirley Bernstein, in 1969. She helped him showcase drafts of Pippin‘s score to New York producers. Edgar Lansbury and Joe Beruh were among the producers who were impressed with Schwartz’s talent (even though they didn’t want to stage Pippin). In March of 1971, when Lansbury and Beruh decided to produce Godspell at the Cherry Lane Theatre, they ask Stephen Schwartz if he could write a score.

After Godspell, Schwartz contributed lyrics to Leonard Bernstein’s show Mass (thanks to a connection from Shirley), and wrote scores for Pippin, The Magic Show, Wicked, and many other musicals. The colorful story of Schwartz’s career is covered in the biography Defying Gravity: the Creative Career of Stephen Schwartz, from Godspell to Wicked. (And to be complete, before Godspell, Schwartz did receive a Broadway credit for the title song to Butterflies are Free, a play with music. But Godspell was his first musical.)

Godspell History

Godspell‘s development history is revealed in The Godspell Experience: Inside a Transformative Musical. Chapter 7 of The Godspell Experience introduces Schwartz, Lansbury, and Beruh as they begin work on Godspell. Chapter 8 can be read here as a “sample chapter” in PDF form. This chapter brings readers into the collaboration between John-Michael Tebelak and Stephen Scwhartz. It covers the days when the Godspell cast from the off-off-Broadway production at Café La MaMa started learning the new songs in preparation for the official opening at the Cherry Lane Theatre, May 17, 1971. Here’s a glimpse at how a group of twenty somethings — Tebelak, Schwartz, band members, and the cast — perfected the show that we now know as Godspell.

Sample Chapter 8 from The Godspell Experience – PDF file (Read online or download)

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