Theatre is an inherently ephemeral art form. Designed to be enjoyed live, it lives on in the memories of its viewers (pro shots, while immensely helpful for spreading the passion of performance, are innately different). The oral tradition of remembered performance is one of the few ways these memories can be shared, and through the art of writing, these memories can be passed down long after the original viewer has ceased to share their story.

I am thrilled to officially announce OnStage Blog’s new book club, entitled Backstage Book Club. Designed to encourage theatre fans and theatre makers to engage with the art form they hold dear, we will be covering a new theatre book every month, ranging from biographies, single show deep dives, historical epics, and everything in between!

For our inaugural issue, we are celebrating Godspell’s 50th Anniversary with The Godspell Experience. First published in 2014, Carol De Giere’s excavation of the musical Godspell holds the answers to any question you have ever had about the megahit musical that launched Stephen Schwartz into the constellation of great musical theatre composers. Below, you can read excerpts of my interview with Ms. De Giere, as well as view a handful of photographs from the original production of Godspell.

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What aspects of the work of Stephen Schwartz drew you in?

CAROL DE GIERE: It wasn’t so much Stephen’s musicals that drew me to spend many years writing a biography, although I am fond of his shows. Rather, the book project seemed to choose me based on the potential to explore a successful artist’s creative process. While working on a freelance assignment in 1999, I discovered his website and read some of his answers to fans’ questions. I noticed that Stephen was able to report on colorful aspects of his creative and collaborative process, including the story of how he came up with “Have you ever heard a wolf cry to the blue corn moon,” for the Oscar-winning Menken/Schwartz song “Colors of the Wind.” I felt called to collect all such stories into a book and really absorb how this person developed such a reliable composing and lyric-writing process that allowed him to make major contributions to musical theatre and film.

Why did you choose Godspell as the topic for such a comprehensive companion?

DE GIERE: Godspell holds a special place in the hearts of many performers and audience members alike, which means people are more likely to want to reflect on it, either from an artistic or a spiritual standpoint. This may be in part because each group interprets the show in its own way and takes pride in its creative contributions. Also, the emotional bonds formed while staging Godspell often inspires feelings of belonging and meaning. In addition, there are reasons people might want to read up on Godspell to understand it better—it’s a show with an unusual structure and some mystery to it in terms of meaning. I wanted to explore that for myself as I interviewed the living original cast members and others, many of whom I had already met and even befriended while working on the Stephen Schwartz biography.

Stephen Schwartz and Carol De Giere (Photo: Carol De Giere)

Do you have a favorite story or anecdote from the development of Godspell?

DE GIERE: In March 1971, right after Stephen Schwartz’s twenty-third birthday, the show’s producers asked him to write a new score to replace a previous version that had been written for the college production. Although he was young, Stephen had already spent virtually much of his youth attending Broadway shows and studying scores, studying piano at Juilliard Preparatory Division, and writing four musicals in college, so he was ready to bring the perspective of a musical theatre writer to this unusual piece. So, when he and John-Michael Tebelak met together to collaborate on the first commercial version of Godspell for the Cherry Lane Theatre, Stephen had an approach to share. Tebelak handed him about a dozen pages that included some philosophers’ sayings, hymn lyrics, and Bible passages that had been used as a springboard for the show. Stephen knew that a musical needed a good opening number and was able to transform the spoken introductory scene into the “Prologue” song. He also musicalized a long monologue, creating “Alas for You.” And he realized that if Judas was going to betray Jesus toward the end of the musical, the two of them needed to have a friendly duet somewhere earlier to contrast with the betrayal. The details are in the book, but what’s so interesting is how he gave the show a shape.

Schwartz has a notable talent for bringing the whimsical to the stage - Godspell, alongside Pippin and Wicked, is a remarkable example of elevating the mundane to a place of fantastical fascination. What do you think drives that instinct in his work?

DE GIERE: He has worked with shows that are more fantastical like Pippin and Wicked but also with a few realistic ones: Working and Rags. One key to understanding his interests is that he loves to work with familiar stories that are being retold in a totally different way: hence Charlemagne’s son’s real story from the 8th century becomes a coming-of-age tale in Pippin, and the villain of The Wizard of Oz becomes the heroine in Wicked. Godspell is an example of a traditional story told in a different way.

His skill at elevating what could be a mundane moment into a beautifully artistic moment through song probably comes from being able to step deeply into a character’s experience. He often gives credit to his college training as a drama student at Carnegie Mellon University, learning about how an actor steps into a role. He puts himself in the character’s shoes and finds a part of himself that has something to say or feel about the experience of the character in that moment. He is then able to connect words and music to form an expression.

The loss of John-Michael Tebelak is felt profoundly throughout this book - what was it about him that engendered such respect and admiration?

DE GIERE: I shared this question with a few original cast members. Robin Lamont was in the original college production as well as the early off-Broadway productions (and later Broadway and movie.) She comments, “To be honest, when those of us at CMU first began to work with John-Michael, we thought he was just a little crazy. But the more I worked with him and understood his vision for Godspell, the more his eccentricity looked like genius. He let us all grow into our roles with enthusiasm, humor, and love. I don't ever recall John-Michael saying a bad word about anyone; he was always kind. I suppose in many ways, he embodied much of the spirit of the Gospel.”

Peggy Gordon wrote back to say, “John-Michael Tebelak was a visionary who felt everything deeply. He communicated that depth of emotion in his directions to us, both conceptually and physically. He inspired us to do our best work. The improvisations were created due to the environment he provided.”

What value do you think clowning and shame-free innocence have in our modern, fast-paced society?

DE GIERE: I equate clowning and shame-free innocence with waking up one’s inner child. According to creativity guru Julia Cameron, it is our inner child who creates. From that perspective, every artist, every creative scientist, everyone being creative is coming from that place inside. In our society when we become stressed and less joyful, our natural instinct for finding balance is to look for ways to play, or at least to be entertained. We probably need more opportunities to inventively create, to ignore our own harsh inner critic in order to be able to move forward.

The song “Beautiful City” has gone through a number of permutations, including a revision containing lyrics written following the brutalization of Rodney King in 1991. In the years following the events of 9/11, it became a song of tribute and catharsis at memorials across the country. What is it about “Beautiful City” that speaks to people during periods of trauma?

I will answer this in a personal way by sharing a time when I really wanted to hear the song. I live near Newtown, Connecticut. For a long time after the tragic shooting of children at the Sandy Hook Elementary School in mid-December of 2012, many of us remained deeply shaken. Finally, in January, a group of performers including Stephen Schwartz joined together to create a concert and album “From Broadway With Love: A Benefit Concert for Sandy Hook,” and that included “Beautiful City.” Stephen begins the song with the lines “Out of the ruins and rubble…” and that provides a sense of a trajectory: together we’re going to move forward from terrible loss and ruin to something new. The song asks, “Can we see a ray of hope?” Even a pale thin ray is enough to begin. We just need that message at such times.

What do you hope readers will take away from The Godspell Experience?

DE GIERE: The subtitle is “Inside a Transformative Musical.” I want readers to enjoy a behind-the-scenes look at the original production, song-by-song details, the movie, and the Broadway revival. And I hope they will understand why Godspell can be transformative. In case they want some specifics on that, the Epilogue is “Reflections on Godspell as a Transformative Musical.”

Godspell was the first show to be approved by Actors Equity for performance during the COVID-19 pandemic - what is it about Godspell that made it the right choice for the first sanctioned theatre piece?

Sonia Manzano in ‘Godspell’ (Photo: Susan Tsu)

With a small cast of ten and very flexible staging demands, Godspell had the scale and simplicity that made it ideal. The original director John-Michael Tebelak had in mind a kind of “theatre of poverty” idea with the first production, with the center being sawhorses with planks arranged on them in various ways. Each later group staging Godspell finds their own context or scenario for enacting parables and song performance, so it can be flexible, and even take advantage of the situation—making up ways to incorporate some of the lockdown pandemic issues in the storytelling. I know that everyone involved in the Berkshire Theatre Group’s production worked hard to follow the guidelines and still have a delightful show. It was so popular that they extended the run and Stephen Schwartz attended and enjoyed the final performance.

What are your hopes for the next 50 years of Godspell?

The score is infectious and I’m sure will continue to uplift future generations. I do hope that more directors and performers will read my book so that they can understand the original vision for the piece and not get lost in overly cute modernizations.

Robin Lamont and I have attended a number of productions and done talkbacks afterward. She comments, “I've seen a number different Godspell directorial visions, and all of them work very well. Mostly because the score is terrific, but also because actually doing the show brings cast members together in a true ensemble. I hope that spirit continues and the inevitability of hi-tech in the decades to come doesn't get in the way of that. I do believe the show will last another.” Peggy Gordon adds, “I would hope that the show continues to honor the simplicity of John-Michael's purpose: to discover the simple, spiritual intent of each parable; and, through this discovery, to grow in love for each other. For the show's singular purpose is to ‘Come sing about love.’”

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You can purchase a copy of The Godspell Experience, signed by Ms. De Giere and Stephen Schwartz at this link

Make sure to check back with Backstage Book Club next month, when we will be covering Footnotes by Caseen Gaines

If you are interested in submitting a book for consideration, please contact Margaret at www.margaret-hall.com

"Backstage Book Club": Edition 1 - The "Godspell Experience"

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