… “Godspell,” which opens Monday in its first Broadway revival, was serious business in 1971. At the time American religion was in a profound state of flux. The pews were emptying out, and children especially were disappearing from mainline Christianity. Vocations to the Catholic priesthood were cratering, and from 1963 to 1972 the number of American Catholics going to Mass declined from about three quarters to half (and kept falling). To take one startling statistic, Episcopal church school enrollment fell by a quarter from 1965 to 1971, the year “Godspell” made its debut Off Broadway. John-Michael Tebelak, who conceived and first directed the show, was himself an Episcopalian who later flirted with the priesthood before dying, at 36, in 1985. His church’s pews, even more than most, were vacant.
Young people wanted to leave the church, but not all of them wanted to abandon Christianity. Many wanted to return to a more primitive expression of their faith, and they reimagined Jesus as an accessible hippie, a cool friend rather than an object of veneration. In 1970, when Carnegie-Mellon theater majors threw together “Godspell” ”” which dervish-danced from La MaMa to the Cherry Lane Theater to the movie screen and finally, in 1976, to Broadway ”” it was quite subversive, or so they hoped, to make up Jesus like a clown. They dressed him in a Superman costume, and he danced joyously with a multiracial cast, quite obviously having fun (and, easy to imagine, having sex).
The musical’s challenge to polite Christian society was not lost on the establishment….
The cast was on Letterman a few nights ago and performed a medley. It was nostalgic — this is the kind of stuff I grew up with in the RCC. If asked when I was a kid, I probably would have identified “Day by Day” as a hymn. The last first Sunday of Advent I marked as a Catholic (about 10 years ago) began with the Godspell “anthem” “Prepare Ye” (and liturgical dancers).
Godspell definitely made its mark on American Catholic worship. I obviously don’t know how it influenced Protestantism. But Godspell was just part of the times back then. The Jesus Movement was popular among the young and disenfranchised. “Jesus Freaks” were common. In my hometown, there was an annual weeklong outdoor festival every summer, complete with tents, called “Jesus ’73 (and ’74, ’75, etc.) that attracted probably thousands of young people every year. I guess that’s why Godspell didn’t seem as outrageous as it should have.
It is a hymn; #654 in the TEC 1982 Hymnal. The words were written in the 1200’s, not the 1960’s.
Oh, believe me, it WAS considered outrageous back then. I remember sermons against it — Beyond making Jesus out as a clown, the main reason was that it ended with the crucifixion and not the resurrection.
Similarly we heard sermons against “Jesus Christ Superstar” for not only the reason above (no resurrection scene) but b) overtly hinting that Jesus and Mary Magdalene had a sexual relationship and c) the racist element of the writer insisting that Judas be played by a black man.
Even members my own age in the Charismatic renewal warned against it. Yes, both were highly controversial. Which is probably why Jimmy and Carol Owens put out “The Witness” (which was great!).
And yes, I attended a few “Jesus Festivals” in Orlando during that time. That’s something that would be good to see revived.
In Him,
Jim <><
Well, I remember when Godspell was put on by the youth group of a little Episcopal Church some of you may have heard of.
THE FALLS CHURCH (At that time part of ECUSA-VA, then CANA, now ACNA)-not exactly a bunch of radicals (well, at least not theologically-GRIN).
The Falls Church under then (and now) Rector John Yates put this musical on IN THE SANCTUARY!!! Some of the “blue hairs” probably had problems with it but we “youngsters” (well, I was then-GRIN!!) loved it!! We had youth groups from all over Northern Virginia go out there. (I did not attend Falls church but was part of one of the Youth Groups which came.)..
I have also attended Godspell (Way off Broadway!!) a number of times. (About half the time with the additional Resurrection scenes added BTW).
Oh yeah, forgot to mention.
Godspell is mostly based on the Gospel of Matthew and, other than being “contemporary”, there is nothing in it which is contrary to Scripture. Jesus Christ Superstar, on the other hand, is full of Heresy and was rightly condemned both then and now!!
Here’s a blast from the past. Just into my teens I listened to Godspell – in my church, and it helped cement the Gospel story as about real people and events.
A clown in a ghetto is, indeed, a ”sign of contradiction” and an image far from unbiblical. Indeed, the production I saw in the 70s added a Resurrection and there was talk at the time of conversions among the cast.
Indeed, six songs are fron The Hymnal 1940:
http://www.facebook.com/topic.php?uid=112871095676&topic=9894
And the is anther connection to The Episcopal Church:
http://www.facebook.com/topic.php?uid=93121952924&topic=9778&post=68557