With The Book of Mormon being the hottest selling ticket in town and shows like Jesus Christ Superstar even taking over our television casting shows, religiously-themed musicals seem to be in high demand. Now amateur company Sedos takes on the 1971 musical Godspell and puts Jesus on a skateboard. At the Bridewell Theatre.
Conceived in 1971, John-Michael Tebelak’s book is based on the Gospel of Matthew and tells the story of a group of people united through Jesus’ storytelling. When the show had a Broadway revival in 2011 it seemed that in times of severe financial hardship theatre goers were yearning for a bit of starry-eyed idealism and return to Christian values in their evening entertainment. If only the piece weren’t steeped so much in overbearing, religious righteousness, it might actually be a lot of fun to watch.
In Sedos’ version of Godspell, subtitled ‘Occupy London’, much of the viewing pleasure certainly goes to the credit of director Robert J. Stanex. Together with the cast and designers he has found a lot of visually appealing solutions to illustrate the various parables about Christian love or salvation through altruism. Seeing the 19 performers frolicking about on stage, teasing each other here and high-fiving, you can clearly tell that the ensemble has a lot of fun. None of it feels laboured or overly rehearsed, which is refreshing and allows the audience to discover the little quirks and peculiarities of the performers. Adrian Hau and Doug Colling prove especially convincing as members of the community, switching effortlessly between tender moments and high-octane numbers. But with the piece brimming so much with the energy of the actors, sometimes the loveable madness unfolding on stage outstays its welcome slightly.
It is the quiet moments when the piece works at its best. Joe Penny’s Jesus is an uncompromising idealist and he delivers the well-known “Beautiful City” as a hopeful hymn that points towards a utopian dream. Musical director David Griffiths together with the skilfull band guide through an evening full of chequered musical styles from gospel choir to tap dancing as well as reverent solo pieces. As is to be expected with an amateur musical production some of the singing is a little unrefined, and a few of the finer aspects of the show, like the opening number “The Tower of Babble” get lost in table banging and clanging. But this is not to say that I wasn’t very entertained by the beautiful little moments that were created on stage.
This production set out to be an eco-friendly production, and so Scout Isensee’s costumes and Darren Goad’s set are very inventive and use a lot of recycled and upcycled materials. Paper puppetry, bottle cap tap socks and wandering Monopoly board pieces – everything is colourful and integrates very well with the performers’ energetic approach to the material. And I swear I’ve never seen a woman so sexy dressed only in black bin-liners as in Heather Jones’ number “Turn Back, O Man”.
There is just this one big problem with the show that can’t be hidden under colourful clothes, pleasant songs and entertaining circus antics: John-Michael Tebelak’s book is a bit of a stinker. It’s more preachy than Sunday School, and I simply could not bring myself to care about any of the barely-fleshed-out characters. The book makes Jesus and his disciples out to be a clownish cult of scroungers and hippies, and Stephen Schwartz’ (Wicked) songs, however moving and meaningful they might be, simply don’t compensate for a lack of a coherent plot or well-drawn secondary characters. It is a shame then that some of the characters, for example Dan Geller’s broody Judas, get slightly lost in the higgledy-piggledy storytelling.
Considering Sedos is not just any amateur company but the Stock Exchange Dramatic and Operatic Society, a company that maintains very close links to the City, it is telling that the backdrop for the do-gooders community lead by Jesus is the London 2011 Occupy movement. Although there is no satire or cynicism tainting Jesus’ journey in Godspell, that oddly enough is the problem of Tebelak’s book. A more ruthless approach to updating the book probably would have turned this into a much grittier, more relevant piece. If Jesus’ messages were cleared of the religious preachiness there might have been some important points about solidarity and social responsibility for communities to be rediscovered. And to have Jesus die on the stairs of St. Paul’s after he has relentlessly preached about the dangers of greed does give a gloomy outlook on the City’s ability to listen to wake-up calls.
Still, with Sedos a little idealism seems to go a long way. The company creates meaningful and well-produced work and then donates some of the income it generates towards inclusive art charities like Angel Shed. That’s more than can be said for most commercial theatre companies.