I’ve only seen Godspell on stage once, and that was a high-school production (I was in the audience) almost a decade ago, so my memory of what happened is quite hazy.
…This is the part where I waste some space so the spoiler doesn’t show up on preview…
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Anyhoo, in the movie, Youtube clip here, at the end Jesus’ disciples
carry his body through the streets, then the movie just … ends, with the people of New York going about their business.
They’re leaving out a pretty big plot point!
Is this how the show ends on-stage? And if so, why? I would think the part they left out is rather crucial!
Pretty much. Sometimes the production will place the song “Beautiful City” after “Finale” to show the resurrection, but that is the director’s choice. Every production I’ve seen ends with Jesus being carried off-stage.
Unless you count curtain calls as resurrection.
I’ve seen two productions and own the Broadway cast album and all ended with the “He’s dead Jim” ending. Ditto Jesus Christ Superstar- no resurrection.
I’m not so sure. I think the idea of Godspell was to present the parables and lessons found earlier in the Gospel of Matthew, rather than focus on the events of Jesus’ last week alive.
The crucifixion is there, certainly; but perhaps it is only because it indicates the story is over. Look at what else is missing: there is neither a trial before Pilate, nor a trial before the Sanhedrin, for example. A good chunk of Matthew is taken up with the events of the last week of Jesus’ life; Godspell reverses this and a good chunk of it is taken up with what happened prior to Jesus’ last week.
I’d also suggest that by returning to a crowded New York, the film provides a neat conclusion. Indeed, it is “bookended” by settings at the beginning and end of the film:
Crowded New York: The disciples are called and baptized.
Junkyard: The gang fixes up the junkyard.
Empty New York: Parables and lessons in various settings.
Junkyard: The Last Supper and Crucifixion.
Crowded New York: End credits.
Given the emphasis on the parables and lessons over the events leading to the crucifixion, and the neatness of “bookending” the film, I’d almost suggest that the Resurrection isn’t necessary in Godspell. We know it happens subsequent to the crucifixion, but because Godspell’s primary subject matter consists of the parables and lessons found in Matthew, it’s perhaps more important to have the audience leave the theatre thinking about those, rather than Jesus’ death.
During the initial run of the movie, I heard one moviegoer causually say to his date As they left: “But it didn’t end that way. I read the book!”
I was hoping someone could address how they filmed the whole movie in NYC without any people, then the camera turns a corner at the end and WHAM, full-on Manhatten crowd, hundreds of pedestrians and cars.
Parts of it- All for the Bestfor instance- were filmed on and around the World Trade Center which was still under construction, which may be why some of the streets were quiet. I remember the movie aired on a cable channel on September 12, 2001- not because of the WTC, it was already set to- but it gave a super eerie significance to it.
FWIW the tradition in the depiction of the Passion for Good Friday is to not depict the resurrection. Applies more directly to JC Superstar than Godspell, but there it is.
I’ve seen two productions: A high school production (resurrection) and a professional one (no resurrection). Part of the charm of this show is that every production you see is effectively a new and different play.
Up until the events of Palm Sunday, when Jesus rides triumphantly into Jerusalem, the Gospels pretty much show Jesus engaged in one of two different activities. One is teaching/preaching: the parables, the Sermon on the Mount, conversations with the disciples, etc. The other is performing miracles: healing the lepers, exorcising demons, allowing the blind to see.
These are present throughout the synoptic gospels (Matthew, Mark, and Luke) in roughly equal amounts.
But in Godspell, the amounts are by no means equal: it’s just about all parable, all teaching, and hardly any miracles to speak of.
It seems like the writers made a specific decision to steer away from the supernatural, for whatever reason, and the omission of a resurrection absolutely goes along with this decision.
Jesus Christ Superstar does not feature Jesus doing any miracles, nor does he resurrect. The final bit of music is named after the biblical passage that refers to Jesus being laid in the tomb. If someone directed that show to include a resurrection scene they are taking extreme liberties with the script.
They did a lot of filming in either places that could be closed off (Grant’s Tomb, the theater where Godspell originally played, under some bridge supports, atop the still-unopened World Trade Center, the fountain in Central Park), or on Sundays in Wall Street. on the Circle Line ship, and so on./ Some of it was choosing clever angles (that long shot of John the Baptist in a swimming pool atop a NYC building). The scene in Times Square was shot upwards at Jesus And John the Baptist dancing against the Timex silhouette sign.
Actually, that final scene isn’t such a big deal – all they had to do was close off a side street. Once they carried him out onto the Avenue they had all the crowd they wanted.
I love the way they filmed this (partly because I love NYC). It is certainly an original interpretatiion for film, since they couldn’t duplicate the intimate atmosphere of the onstage experience, with its bare set and chain-link fence. (When I saw it onstage in Boston, they invited the audience up on the stage at intermission to share the jug wine.)
It would contradict essentially the entire thing. The whiny Jesus of JC Superstar (e.g. “You’ll be lost, you be so, so sorry, when I’m gone!” in “Everything’s Alright”) certainly isn’t anyone’s idea of God.
OTOH, it seems generally accepted by the characters, by everyone from Jesus to Herod, that he has performed miracles (Herod: “You’ve been getting quite a name, all around the place. Healing cripples, raising from the dead…” ).
Close, but what Herod said was that he had heard about Jesus performing miracles. Now he commanded Jesus to do a miracle in front of him to prove his power. Jesus refused.
As Zebra said, you never saw Jesus doing anything supernatural in Jesus Christ Superstar. The movie was surprisingly neutral on the issue of whether he was a secular or divine figure.
Jesus Christ Superstar and Godspell were both produts of the 1960’s, which was a whole nother planet.
I think Superstar holds up surprisingly well. The idea was to show the human side of Jesus (he’s a man, he’s just a man), something the gospels tend to ignore.
