“...Finally, I turned toward the Gospels and sat one afternoon and read the whole thing through. Afterwards, I became terribly excited because I found what I wanted to portray on stage—Joy! I found a great joy, a simplicity—some rather comforting words in the Gospel itself—in these four books. I began immediately to adapt it.

I decided to go to Easter sunrise service to experience, again, the story that I had gotten from the Gospel. As I went, it began to snow which is rather strange for Easter. When I went into the cathedral, everyone there was sitting, grumbling about the snow, and the fact that they had already changed their tires. They weren't going to be able to take pictures that afternoon. Snow was upsetting their plans. As the service began, I thought it might be a little different. Instead, an old priest came out and mumbled into a microphone, and people mumbled things back, and then everyone got up and left. Instead of "healing" the burden, or resurrecting the Christ, it seems those people had pushed Him back into the tomb. They had refused to let Him come out that day.

As I was leaving the church, a policeman who had been sitting two pews ahead of me during the service, stopped me and wanted to know if he could search me. Apparently he had thought I was ducking into the church to escape the snowstorm. At that moment—I think because of the absurd situation—it angered me so much that I went home and realized what I wanted to do with the Gospels: I wanted to make it the simple, joyful message that I felt the first time I read them and recreate the sense of community, which I did not share when I went to that service. I went to my teachers at Carnegie and asked if I could work at my own special project for my masters' degree, and they agreed. That following fall, in October, we began rehearsals at Carnegie.”

Little known facts about the music of Godspell

-- The lyrics for 6 of the 14 songs in Godspell are actually words to hymns found in The Hymnal of the Protestant Episcopal Church in the United States of America, copywright 1943.
     “Save the People” Hymn 496
     “Day by Day” Hymn 429
     “Bless the Lord” Hymn 293
     “All Good Gifts” Hymn 138
     “Turn Back O Man” Hymn 536
     “We Beseech Thee” Hymn 229

-- The oldest lyrics (“Day by Day”) were written as a prayer by St. Richard of Chichester sometime in the 1200s.

-- The word “Godspell” is Old English for “gospel.”

-- The Feast of Fools: A Theological Essay on Festivity and Fantaasy (1969) by Harvey Cox of the Harvard Divinty School influenced the original concept behind Godspell and its original production.

-- The majority of the show is based on the following scripture:
“Prepare Ye” - Matthew 3:3
In the Fountain - Matthew 3:11
Jesus is baptized - Matthew 3:17
The Disciples - Matthew 4:19-20
Face Paint - Matthew 5:17-20
The Pharisee and the Tax Gatherer - Luke 18:10-14
The Good Master - Matthew 18:23-35
An eye for an Eye - Matthew 5:38-39
The Sheep and the Goats- Matthew 25:31-46
Shadow Rap - Matthew 6:22-23
Two Masters - Matthew 6:24
The Good Samaritan - Luke 10:30-35
The Fight - Matthew 5:44
The Beatitudes - Matthew 5:3-11
No, it says rejoice - Matthew 5:12
Seed Story - Matthew 13:3-8
The Explanation - Matthew 13:18-23
The Two Sons - Luke 15:11-32
Bridge Rap - Matthew 7:9-12
”Light of the World” - Matthew 5:13-16
The Monster - Matthew 21:23-27
Taxes to Caesar - Matthew 22:15-21
The Greatest Commandment - Matthew 22:34-40
”Alas for You” - Matthew 23
”By My Side” - Matthew 26:14-16
Oh Jerusalem - Matthew 23:37-39
”Bless the Lord” - Psalm 103
”On the Willows” - Psalm 137
The Last Supper - Matthew 26:17-30
At Gethsemane - Matthew 26:36-46
Jesus is betrayed - Matthew 26:47-50
Jesus dies - Matthew 27:50
Rejoice! - Matthew 28:9

-- Godspell ran Off-Broadway for 2,214 performances from 1971 to 1976 when it transferred to Broadway where it ran for 527 performances ending its run in 1977.

-- Sonia Manzano (Maria on Sesame Street) was the original cast member who sang “Turn Back O Man.”

-- “All for the Best” is Stephen Scwhartz’s tribute to the music of Irving Berlin

-- “By My Side” is the only song in the show that Schwartz did not write the music for, original cast members Patty Gordon and Jay Hamburger composed the song for John Michael Tebelak’s thesis production of Godspell at Carnegie Mellon.
 

The Actor's Technique

-- The original cast created the following motto to recite before each performance:
     Keep the corners of your mouth turned up.
     Speak in a low, persuasive tone.
     Listen; be teachable.
     Laugh at good stories and learn to tell them...
     for as long as you are green, brother, you can grow.

-- The script of Godspell calls on the actors to participate and use many theatrical devices such as pantomime, children's games, charades, puppetry, vaudeville antics, the question-answer technique of minstrel shows, tap and soft shoe dancing, and songs and music of many colors - folk, ballad, pop, rock, light musical comedy, and dramatic.

- The cast is asked to enact the simple stories, sayings, and parables of the Gospel. The playwright’s main advice to the players is to speak honestly with open simplicity, but never coy nor naive; not to push for exuberance, but to be exuberant; not to play to the audience, but to be one in a party of celebration with them; and when the moment comes for the symbolic crucifixion, to feel deeply man's anguish for his sins.

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