With the Hartselle Drama Department performing Godspell Jr soon for the district Trumbauer competition, The Tiger Times wanted to share the history and origins of the beloved musical.
Godspell was originally created by John-Micheal Tebelak, a playwright student at Carnegie Mellon University. The show is about Jesus's followers and disciples reenacting different parables in the bible. As the musical goes on, you further see Jesus being betrayed by Judas and ultimately being sacrificed on the cross. Tebelak’s idea for the musical was to approach the biblical parables with the innocence of a child. His plan was to share these stories with children at churches, helping them understand the significance of Jesus' death. The first version of the script was titled The Godspell and consisted solely of texts of The Gospel.
The show soon became well liked for its playful manner and the freedom it gave actors to experiment with the different gospel stories. With its growing popularity, schools and churches were adding their own twists to The Godspell, each time creating new ideas and situations for the show.
With the growing popularity of the show, the musical was picked up by an off broadway company named La MaMa. The show was a hit there as well, causing Broadway Producers Joseph Beruh and Edgar Lansbury to sign off for the rights of the show and shortening the name to Godspell. The running time of the show was an hour and forty three minutes, with its first debut being in 1970. The show performed in New York until June 2012.
In present day, the show is being licensed for high schoolers to perform, just like Tebelak intended it to be.
Written by Emma Gregory
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