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Godspell: Difference between revisions

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Godspell (view source)

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→‎Godspell provides examples of the following tropes:: Assorted minor edits
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* [[BSOD Song]]: "Alas for You". Jesus is ''not'' a happy camper.
* [[Call to Adventure]]: In the film, John's horn and ''Prepare Ye'' drag the cast from their mundane lives to become Disciples.
* [[Creator Cameo]]: Stephen Schwartz (Whowho wrote the score), is the man drinking coffee in the diner at the beginning of the movie.
* [[Dark Reprise]]: "All for the Best"
* [[Filk]]: [[Inverted Trope|Inverted]]. Most filk songs set new lyrics to someone else's melody; Schwartz took ''lyrics'' from a hymnal and wrote new music.
* [[Gospel Revival Number]]: A lot. "Day By Day", "Bless the Lord", "Light of the World", "Beautiful City", and "We Beseech Thee" all go gospel.
* [[Hippie Jesus]]: ''Godspell'' is practically ''defined'' by having Jesus and his followers in hippie-ish/clownish clothing.
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* [[The Lancer]]: Judas. Sometimes his actor also gets the [[Composite Character|John The Baptist]] bits to increase his screen time.
** He's supposed to be a composite of the two, it's written in the script that they are meant to be the same character. It's what makes the betrayal so powerful; that it's carried out by Jesus's right hand man. It's not just extra screen time, it's an integral part of the character.
* [[Lyrical Dissonance]]: An arguably intentional example; the lyrics to the song 'Turn Back, O Man' are about how people ought to turn back on their sins ("forswear thy foolish ways") and open their way towards God<ref> though, of course, it is actually sung ''to'' Jesus</ref>. However, the actual music makes it sounds like a sexy seduction song, and often the one singing it will go into the audience and sweet-talk its audience members -- in fact, the actress who performed the number in both the original stage production and the film deliberately modeled her performance on ''Mae West''.
* [[Massive Multiplayer Ensemble Number]]: You need at least eight voice parts/people to do "Tower of Babble", and they're all singing at once.
** The finale of "Long Live God/Prepare Ye/Day by Day".
* [[Motor Mouth]]: Thomas Aquinas in the "Prologue/Tower of Babble" and both John/Judas and Jesus in "All for the Best".
* [[Mr. Fanservice]]: John/Judas in the film, ''and how.''
* [[Mushroom Samba]]: The movie has some aspects of this (as one would expect from anything created during [[The Seventies|the 70s]]).
* [[New Age Retro Hippie|New Age Retro Hippies]]: Some productions, and you can bet they're proud of it! (Not quite as ''retro'' at the time, but...)
* [[Original Cast Precedent]]: A lot of productions follow certain guidelines: the cast is made of five women, three men, a Judas and a Jesus; Jesus wears a Superman t-shirt; whoever sings "Turn Back, O Man" [[Lady in Red|wears]] [[Color Coded for Your Convenience|red]]; and Judas has kind of a ringmaster look.
** The disciples [[No Name Given|didn’tdidn't have names]] in the original stage play, so the actors went by their own names. As a result, the names of the first cast became the characters’characters' official names in the play. For those curious: Sonia ("Turn Back, O Man"), Peggy ("By My Side"), Robin ("Day by Day"), Joanne ("Bless The Lord"), Jeffrey ("We Beseech Thee"), Gilmer ("Learn Your Lessons Well"), Herb ("Light of the World"), Lamar ("All Good Gifts").
*** Often, the actors playing these parts won't go by these names, but by ''their'' own names in a continuation of the tradition (with lines altered accordingly).
* [[Passion Play]]
* [[Patter Song]]: "Tower of Babble" and "All for the Best".
* [[The Reason You Suck Speech|The Reason You Suck Song]]: "Alas For You".
* [[Scooby Dooby Doors]]: In the movie (and obviously could be done on stage too).
* [[Shown Their Work]]: Jesus speaks the Passover Seder prayer in Hebrew. Most Christians forget that Jesus was a ''rabbi'' and The Last Supper was a ''Passover Seder''.
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