Godspell: Difference between revisions

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''[[Godspell]]'' is a musical rendition of [[The Bible|the Christian Gospel]] -- primarily the book of Matthew but also some selections from Luke and one from John -- with a contemporary soundtrack and aesthetic. It was created by John-Michael Tebelak, who wrote it as his master's thesis at Carnegie Mellon University, but after its (successful) debut, its producers hired an up-and-coming composer named [[Stephen Schwartz]] to rework the music. It was Schwartz' second break-out success (after ''[[Pippin]]'', which he worked on alongside [[Bob Fosse]]), winning him two Grammys and paving the way for further successes, such as some of the [[DreamWorks]] cartoons, the movie ''[[Enchanted]]'', and the musical ''[[Wicked (theatre)|Wicked]]''.

It was released the year after the ''other'' 70's-rock-musical-about-Jesus ''[[Jesus Christ Superstar]]'', and definitely benefited from the resultant hype; furthermore, it lacked the [[Darker and Edgier]] quality that put a lot of Christians off the [[Andrew Lloyd Webber|Lloyd Webber]] offering. (If anything, ''Godspell'' is [[Lighter and Softer]] than the way the Bible is preached in many churches!) One of its songs, "Day By Day", was released as a single and achieved some success that way; it's toured about a gazillion times; there are a number of cast recordings out; and there was a movie version in 1973.

 

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[[Category:The Musical]]

[[Category:Films of the 1970s]]

[[Category:Theatrical Productions]]