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The Original New York Cast
Godspell is a musical based on the Gospel of Saint Matthew with music and new lyrics by Stephen Schwartz, and book by John-Michael Tebelak.
Following closely on the heels of the similarly-themed Jesus Christ Superstar, it opened off-Broadway on May 17, 1971, at the Cherry Lane Theatre in New York, and has played in various touring companies and revivals many times since. Several cast albums have been released over the years and one of its songs, Day By Day from the original cast album, reached #13 on the Billboard pop singles chart in the summer of 1972.
The show originated in 1970 as Tebelak's master's thesis project, under the direction of Lawrence Carra, at Carnegie Mellon University. Most of the score's lyrics were from the Episcopal Hymnal, set to music by the cast members. Tebelak then directed it, with much of the student cast, for a two-week run at New York's experimental venue Cafe La MaMa, opening February 24, 1971. It caught the eye of producers Edgar Lansbury and Joseph Beruh, who wanted to open it off-Broadway.
John-Michael Tebelak contacted his college friend, Jeffrey Mylett, who had recently dropped out of the University in 1969. This is how Jeffrey got started. He was an original cast member of the show. When Godspell came to the La Mama Theater, he was the only cast member old enough to rent a truck to move the scenery into the theater.
The producers hired Stephen Schwartz, another alumnus of Carnegie Mellon's theater department, to write a new song score (although By My Side was retained from the original score). Schwartz's songs included a variety of musical styles, from pop to folk-rock, gospel, and vaudeville. As with the original score, most of the non-Schwartz lyrics were from the Episcopal Hymnal.
Godspell became one of the longest-running off-Broadway musicals before moving to Broadway in June 1976, where it ended its run in September 1977 after an additional 527 performances, for a total of more than 2,600.
Original Cast List:
Name.................................................Role
Lamar Alford........................................Lamar
Peggy Gordon.......................................Peggy
David Haskell............................David (Judas)
Joanne Jonas........................................Joanne
Robin Lamont........................................Robin
Sonia Manzano.......................................Sonia
Gilmer McCormick...............................Gilmer
Jeffrey Mylett.......................................Jeffrey
Stephen Nathan.......................Stephen (Jesus)
Herb Simon..............................................Herb
(The only characters with actual names are Jesus and Judas. The rest are the actors' first names, and the tradition is to keep the first names of the original New York cast in other Godspell productions.)
Script Notes on Jeffrey's character: Very high energy. Impish and playful. In the original, Jeff played several musical instruments, including concertina and recorder. (Stephen Schwartz)
Costume Notes on Jeffrey's Character: Brightly colored shirt, white jacket, Plaid pants with patches, -Derby, or My Fair Lady Hat, Tennis Shoes - painted tassle.-movement, "Mr. Lightening" Look - Carnival Man. (Susan Tsu)
Opening Date: May 17, 1971
Closing Date: June 13, 1976
Number of Performances: 2,124
The Original New York cast soundtrack to Godspell is still widely available today!
Reunions
The original cast has reunited a couple of times in the past. There was a 10th anniversary reunion at the Advent Theatre. A good majority of the original cast was reunited there (including Jeffrey Mylett). For an online program of the reunion show, click the above 10th anniversary picture, and you will be directed to that page. There is also an article on the 10th anniversary performance of Godspell, which can be viewed here.
There was also a 30th anniversary reunion, combining various Godspell casts. Unfortunately, this reunion occurred when Jeffrey had already passed away. Below is a picture of the "reunited" casts:
(As far as the original cast, Robin Lamont is wearing the light blue blouse and black jacket, and Peggy Gordon is two people to the right of Robin, wearing a black shirt and white pants.)
(Click the picture below to return Home.)
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