Godspell
Godspell By Stephen Schwartz and John-Michael Tebelak
Directed by Zack Van Dyke
Musial Direction by Kyle Mattingly
Choreography by Carol Lee Seguin
Starring Bryan Royals and Patrick Sylvester
The Vine Theatre at Theatre Downtown, Orlando, FL</strong>
Somewhere between a tent revival and an advanced Sak Improv class we discover this rewrite of a rip-off of Hair. Jesus (Royal) hangs out with 12 or 13 of his closest disciples, and we get a wide ranging mixture of Gospel stories and high energy musical arrangement but little to tie them together. The story, such as it exists was lifted from the NIV version of the Book of Matthew and in the first act Jesus (Royals) smirks and lectures as he spreads his rabble-rousing gospel of loving your brother while acknowledging the entire panoply of the Jewish law, except when he decided otherwise. After the intermission, things take a darker turn and soon prepster Judas (Sylvester) tearfully turns Jesus over to the cast to be painted black and symbolically killed to a medley of Lady Gaga and Forest Gump. Yeah, it didn’t make much sense to me either everything happens so fast you don’t really notice.
While I can’t say I hated this spin through a rock and roll bible camp, I didn’t love it either. The music and dancing was high energy and engaging even if it feels a lot like “Spring Awakening.” A pastiche of pop culture references shores up the gospel lesson, I suspect this revision of a hippie era favorite will either age instantly of need constant regions by author Stephen Schwartz. Maybe he’s up for that, but at least the music is timeless. Everyone in the chorus pulled a solo, “Turn Back Oh Man” with Carly Skubick and “Bless the Lord” with Caroline Drage were my favorites, and the first act blow out “Light of the World” is the sort of high-energy pull out the stops number that can cover a multitude of other sins. Where this show falls short is in the book, there may be six words of original dialog in the show. Worse, there’s no particular conflict, even when Judas does his foul deed Jesus send him on his way with a passive-aggressive goodbye. While you know the ending, the story never takes us to place where Judas has to debate his actions or Jesus philosophizes over his fate. My advice: come for the hymns and the choir, but don’t expect a life-changing sermon on the mount.
For more information on Theatre Downtown, please visit http://www.theatredowntown.net
