Stage: The People's Jesus: "Godspell" at the Lee Street Theatre
Jesse finds his own personal Jesus on stage in Salisbury.
Situated across from the historic Frick Company building in Salisbury, NC, Lee Street Theatre has brought contemporary and classic theater to the Piedmont since 2008. Their fifteenth season reflects the breadth of their mission, with productions ranging from 2018’s Four Old Broads to Moliere’s 1673 comedy The Imaginary Invalid.
Shows at Lee Street open with an introduction from executive director Rod Oden, whose enthusiastic welcome is nearly as entertaining as the performance that follows it. Local audiences are now familiar with Lee Street’s signature gusto, and their theater is frequently sold out.
I was at one such packed performance of Steven Schwartz’s 1971 classic Godspell at Lee Street this weekend. Theater devotees will be familiar with this retelling of the parables of Jesus Christ, but here is a little background for folks who are not: It opened off-Broadway the same year Andrew Lloyd Webber’s Jesus Christ Superstar made its debut, and has stood as an alternative to the dark musical depiction of Jesus’s final days.
Productions of Godspell are loose. Apart from John and Judas, the disciples on stage all take the first name of the actors playing them. The parables are told with theatrical spontaneity, each disciple taking a turn to narrate while the others assume the roles of the biblical characters in the story. Interspersed with these stories, the actors each lead their own musical number based on traditional hymns and set to popular musical styles of the early 1970s. The show is not plot driven, but rather a joyful retelling of the stories of Jesus meant to form a whole picture of the Christian philosophy.
The Lee Street production leans into the fun of this. Wearing sneakers and colorful T-shirts, the cast entertains with slapdash energy, dollar store props, and a clear camaraderie. They perform in the round, chattering to each other and telling private jokes directly to audience members on every side. Folks from the stands are pulled on stage to represent key characters in the parables. In the story of Lazarus, the rich man obsessed with material wealth is a cartoonish impression of Donald Trump complete with flimsy paper mask. On screens in the corners, the story of Jesus before the Pharisees is shown through a janky silent film, Jesus’ voice breaking audibly through the format as our attention is redirected to the performers on stage. In all, so much of the delight in attending this performance comes from the fun the production seems to have had in putting it together.
For all its antics, Godspell does not wink through its devotional tone. As comedian and former Catholic schoolboy Paul F. Tompkins noted on the podcast Good Christian Fun in 2021, the songs in Godspell are “unabashedly of faith. They’re not euphemistic at all.” In “All Good Gifts,” Robin Rogers supplicates Jesus in a captivating alto, “All good gifts around us / Are sent from heaven above… I really wanna thank you, Lord.” Evynn Rose Grignon, in the show’s most famous number, earnestly meditates,
Oh dear Lord
Three things I pray
To see thee more clearly
Love thee more dearly
Follow thee more nearly
Day by day.
Yet, by its nature, Godspell asserts a humanist Christian philosophy based in love and kindness rather than strict adherence to dogma. Jesus, embodied with equal measures of strength and gentleness in actor Michael Brooks, reminds us who he is here to serve. “When wilt thou save the people?” he implores. “The people, Lord, the people / Not thrones and crowns, but men.”
There is regular emphasis on forgiveness, non-judgment, and outward love for your enemy. Jesus does not stand apart from his disciples, instead playing and singing with them, admiring their pantomimes and distracting them with stories when the threat of treachery comes to the fore in the second act. “Did I ever tell you I used to read feet?” he asks them. “Some people read palms or tea leaves. I read feet!”
Godspell reminds us that, boiled down, Christ’s lessons were all about selflessness, generosity, and kindness. By the time we witness his frustration at those who have misinterpreted his teachings, we want desperately for Jesus to be properly understood.