Godspell Revival?

[musicalmaster703]

Posted: 3/1/08 at 11:25pm

Godspell on Broadway - The First Revival
Godspell is returning to Broadway in 2008

Godspell LogoPERFORMANCES SCHEDULED TO BEGIN SUMMER 2008 (Theatre to be announced)

Producer Adam Epstein (Hairspray) is bringing the landmark musical Godspell back to Broadway. This version will reunite Daniel Goldstein, making his Broadway directorial debut, with the designers of the critically-acclaimed 2006 Paper Mill Playhouse conception in a completely new production, including choreographed by Christoper Gattelli.

Producer Adam Epstein comments “When I saw Daniel Goldstein’s production of Godspell I was overpowered by its vibrancy and relevance. This Broadway production will take that experience to an even more glorious level. It is essential that the power of this production and how it moves people lives on at its highest potential.”

Godspell features music and lyrics by Academy and Grammy award winner and six time Tony Award nominee Stephen Schwartz, Book by john-michael tebelak. Full casting will be announced shortly. STAY INFORMED: Subscribe to The Schwartz Scene
Godspell Recordings that include all the songs

Godspell 2000 with Beautiful CityThis Off Broadway Godspell Cast CD includes more of the script passages than other albums (e.g. dialogue in the middle of songs). The version of Beautiful City on this album includes the more current lyrics that Stephen Schwartz favors. Buy or hear audio clips from Godspell 2000 Cast Album .



Buy Godspell 2001 National Touring Cast "Beautiful City" affectionados will not want to miss the up-tempo version on this recording. The 2000/2001 national Godspell tour features some of orchestrations and arrangements you won't hear elsewhere, based on modern bands like Dave Matthews, Tori Amos, and others. For contemporary rhythms and fun, try this CD. Buy or hear audio clips from Godspell - 2001 National Touring Cast [new browser window].
The 2008 Broadway Revival of Godspell

This new production marks the first Broadway revival of the seminal American musical since its acclaimed run ended thirty years ago. The new production of GODSPELL, helmed by Daniel Goldstein in his Broadway debut will feature choreography by Christopher Gattelli (Martin Short: Fame Becomes Me) scenic design by David Korins (Passing Strange, Bridge and Tunnel), costumes by Miranda Hoffman (Well), lighting by Ben Stanton (Altar Boyz) and sound by Randy Hanson.

BIOGRAPHIES

STEPHEN SCHWARTZ (Music and Lyrics) has contributed music and/or lyrics to Wicked, Godspell, Pippin, The Magic Show, The Baker’s Wife, Working (which he also adapted and directed), Personals, Rags and Children of Eden. For films, he collaborated with Alan Menken on the scores for the Disney animated features Pocahontas and The Hunchback of Notre Dame and wrote the songs for the DreamWorks animated feature The Prince of Egypt. He has released two CDs of new songs entitled Reluctant Pilgrim and Uncharted Territory available at www.stephenschwartz.com. Mr. Schwartz is also the artistic director of the ASCAP Musical Theatre Workshops and a member of the Dramatists Guild Council. Awards include three Academy Awards, four Grammy Awards and four Drama Desk Awards.

JOHN-MICHAEL TEBELAK (Book) was 22 years old when Godspell hit New York. It was his first brush with the New York theatre, but by no means his first venture into theatrics. His theatrical career started when he "walked into a theatre at the age of nine and stayed there." Mr. Tebelak originally conceived of Godspell as his Masters Thesis project at Carnegie-Mellon University in 1970. All of the original cast members contributed to the playful script that evolved under John-Michael's direction. Subsequently, he directed productions of Godspell at La MaMa Theatre in February of 1971, the Cherry Lane Theatre (opening May 17, 1971), the Promenade Theatre, and on Broadway. Tebelak co-authored the screenplay for Godspell (1973) for Columbia Pictures with David Greene. Mr. Tebelak was dramaturge for the Cathedral Church of St. John the Divine in New York City, and wrote and staged liturgical drama there. He died of a heart attack at the age of 36 in April 1985.

DANIEL GOLDSTEIN (Director) recently directed the Off-Broadway commercial production of the hit Fringe Festival musical Walmartopia. Other recent credits include Beau Willimon’s Lower Ninth at SPF, Kenny Finkle’s Indoor/Outdoor at the DR2, Falsettos and Les Liaisons Dangerouses at the Huntington Theater Company, But I’m A Cheerleader at the New York Musical Theater Festival and Bathsheba Doran’s Living Room In Africa at Gloucester Stage. He has served as the Associate Director for All Shook Up! and Fully Committed and the Resident Director for the First National Tour of Mamma Mia! Daniel has developed the work of playwrights Peter Morris, Roberto Aguirre-Sacassa, Rob Handel, John Shea, Bathsheba Doran, Janet Neipris and Eliza Jane Scheider at the O’Neill Playwright’s Conference, PlayPenn, and elsewhere. As a writer, he was the recipient of an inaugural Calderwood Commission from the Huntington Theater Company, for which he is writing an original musical. He is also developing a musical with Disney Theatrical and was the author, with Michael Friedman, of the musical Song of Songs. Celebration, the one person show he created with Ethan Sandler and Josie Dickson, was seen Off-Broadway as well as New Haven, San Francisco and the HBO Aspen Comedy Arts Festival. He is a graduate of Northwestern University with a degree in Performance Studies.

CHRISTOPHER GATTELLI (Choreographer). Broadway: Sunday in the Park and South Pacific at Lincoln Center in 2008, The Ritz, Martin Short: Fame Becomes Me, High Fidelity. West End: Sunday in the Park with George. Off-Broadway: Altar Boyz (Lortel, Callaway Award, Drama Desk nom.); Bat Boy: The Musical (Lortel Award); tick, tick…BOOM!; I Love You Because; How to Save the World…; Adrift In Macao. Other favorites: directed Silence! The Musical (Best Musical 2005 Fringe Festival), Chess Broadway concert w/Josh Groban, Hair Broadway concert (Grammy nom.), “The Rosie O’Donnell Show.”

ADAM EPSTEIN (Producer) theatrical producing credits include the Tony-Award winning Hairspray, The Wedding Singer, The Crucible, Amadeus, A View From the Bridge and I Love You, You're Perfect, Now Change (in Boston.) Collectively, Adam's Broadway shows have garnered 42 Tony-Award nominations and received 12 Tony Awards. Upcoming musical projects include: Cry-Baby (another collaboration with John Waters), Ever After (based on the 20th Century Fox film of the same name) and various film and TV endeavors. Adam is honored to be a guest professor at NYU, his alma mater, where he teaches a course on producing.
GODSPELL PRODUCTION HISTORY

GODSPELL embraces the 21st century in this exciting new production of one of the longest-running and most beloved Off-Broadway musicals of all time. Using improvisation and contemporary themes to illustrate the parables, GODSPELL brings these lessons to life through the grand tradition of musical theatre. The score, by Academy and Grammy Award winner and six time Tony Award nominee Stephen Schwartz (Wicked, Pippin), features recognizable songs that have become staples of both the American musical theatre and popular culture alike. With a book by John-Michael Tebelak, GODSPELL uniquely and joyfully exclaims a message of tolerance, kindness and hope that resonates just as deeply as the music.

Based on The Gospel according to St. Matthew, GODSPELL was originally a senior thesis directing project for Carnegie Mellon University Master of Fine Arts candidate John-Michael Tebelak. Using a profound experience at an Easter

Sunday church service for inspiration, Tebelak wrote the first version of GODSPELL in 1970. This first version included a score comprised mostly of lyrics from the Episcopal Hymnal set to music by the student cast. After a chance meeting with Ellen Stewart of Café La MaMa in New York, GODSPELL transferred to La MaMa Experimental Theatre Club for a two-week, ten performance run where it was brought to the attention of producers Edgar Landsbury (brother of Angela Landsbury) and Joseph Beruh. Excited by what they saw, the duo approached Tebelak with the opportunity of an off-Broadway run if he would agree to a new score. Tebelak agreed and the producers hired Stephen Schwartz, another alumnus of the Carnegie Mellon theatre department, to write new songs for the show. Schwartz’s score featured a variety of styles including pop, folk rock, gospel and vaudeville. “By My Side” was the only song kept from the original production. The new Schwartz / Tebelak musical GODSPELL opened off-Broadway at the Cherry Lane Theatre on May 13, 1971 and its success was immediately evident. The critics raved unanimously and in August of 1971, GODSPELL moved to the larger Promenade Theatre where it ran for 2,124 performances making it one of the longest running Off-Broadway musicals in history.

After five years of sold-out audiences Off-Broadway, GODSPELL made its Broadway debut on June 22, 1976 at the Broadhurst Theatre. Critics found the show to be just as fresh and exciting as it was when it first opened at the Cherry Lane. The show would move to the Plymouth and the Ambassador before closing on September 4, 1977 after 527 performances. In all, the musical achieved more than 2,600 performances both on Broadway and off.

GODSPELL has entertained audiences the world over for decades. Major sit-down productions of the smash hit musical were produced in most all major cities including Boston, Washington, Los Angeles, San Francisco, Philadelphia, Chicago and Toronto. During much of 1972, these seven companies performed simultaneously. Productions also opened abroad in Paris, Amsterdam, Hamburg and Melbourne. A London production, which opened in 1971, ran for nearly three years. In the last four years of its New York run, there were 25 companies performing GODSPELL around the world with eight resident companies and three touring companies. GODSPELL has been credited for establishing Toronto as a major theatre center that could support its own productions with its own actors. The legendary 1972-73 Toronto production cast local actors for the record-breaking production providing the first paying jobs for actors Victor Garber, Eugene Levy, Andrea Martin, Gilda Radner, Dave Thomas and Martin Short. Paul Schaffer served as musical director.

A film version of GODSPELL was released in 1973 set in modern New York City. The cast featured Toronto alum Victor Garber as Jesus, David Haskell as John the Baptist/Judas and Lynne Thigpen in her first film role. John-Michael Tebelak co-wrote the screenplay and served as the creative consultant. The song “Beautiful City” was written for the film and has subsequently been performed in major stage revivals of the show. GODSPELL permeated pop culture when its song “Day By Day” reached #13 on the Billboard Top 100 list.

[musicalmaster703]

Posted: 3/1/08 at 11:27pm

http://www.musicalschwartz.com/ is where i found it. Is it ligit. If it is i am sad i wanted a revival of pippin.

[CurtainPullDowner]

Posted: 3/1/08 at 11:30pm

Look for Gavin Creel in this.
Contracts are going out soon.

[beyonddizzy31]

Posted: 3/2/08 at 12:00am

Its definitely legit, I auditioned for it last November.

[MungoGypsy8232]

Posted: 3/2/08 at 12:59am

yay! how did your audition go beyonddizzy31? hopefully well :)

[musicalmaster703]

Posted: 3/2/08 at 1:37pm

If you got in do you know when tickets go on sale and when it starts.

[beyonddizzy31]

Posted: 3/2/08 at 2:44pm

haha my audition went great but I sadly didn't get the job. I'm as excited to see as everyone else though. The show itself seems so dated to me, I'm interested to see how they update it.

[broadwayfan7]

Posted: 3/2/08 at 2:49pm

Can't wait to see this!

[Rathnait62]

Posted: 3/2/08 at 2:53pm

They're still casting. A new breakdown came out Friday.

[Thesbijean]

Posted: 3/2/08 at 4:00pm

Originally they wanted the Circle in the Square, but now I think they are going after the Nederlander because of New Jerusalem.

[musicalmaster703]

Posted: 3/2/08 at 4:09pm

Ha I was right... kinda... in my previous thread was that i think a revival of pippin would be great in the neederlander