Tuesday, November 8, 2011

Prepare Ye the Way of the Revival

40 years after the original production debuted on Broadway, Godspell has opened in a revival at Broadway's Circle in the Square Theatre to mixed-to-negative reviews.

Variety has said that all the ways in which the show has tried to modernize the script and score basically fail. There are many ad libs and updates referencing Lindsay Lohan, occupy Wall Street, and The Book of Mormon, which got laughs in the theater, but the reviewer finds to fall flat and not work well with the intent of the show. Variety also says that the soft-rock score that was counter-cultural in the 70's on Broadway just isn't in 2011. However, the one thing that was praised by variety was the singing across the board.

The New York Times had similar things to say, calling the show high energy but saying that they wished that energy were tempered by some calmer moments in between. The effort put into the jokes was appreciated and understood, even if they did sometimes fall flat. Charles Isherwood did seem to recognize, though (even if not explicitly), the popularity of the show.

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