Worthington Community Theaters Godspell is a delightful
homage to the film with a slight Toy Box twist!
I was privileged enough to see this fun energetic show this
past Saturday night I was pleased with the majority of the show! Composed of various musical parables from The
Gospel According to Matthew. Jesus Christ recruits a group of followers and
teaches them various lessons through song and dance. Toward the end of the
second act, the show begins to follow a more linear narrative as Jesus is
betrayed by Judas and eventually crucified (http://www.broadway.com/shows/godspell/story/)
The show opens with a delightful chorus of Crayons singing
us the ideals of many different philosophers including Socrates, this rag tag
group of colorful wax figures are led by Taylor Waldron, Robbie Markus, Alec Brown, Halle Kaler
Roberts, Megan Gehrlich, Kyle Marler, Dale Giffey, Sierra Getz and Kyle Marler.
The Crayons have a nice energy and balance to their voices but can on occasion overstep
each other in larger group numbers pulling focus from the main cast.
The remainder
of the cast making up Jesus’s disciples featuring JESUS, Garrett Parsons JUDAS/JOHN THE BAPTIST Brad Johnson, ANNA
MARIA Ashley Robbe, CELISSE Annie Kalinoski, LINDSAY Eli Brickey, TELLY Nicholas
van Atta, GEORGE Eric King, MORGAN Hannah Berry, UZO Carole Luley and NICK Greg
Zunkiewicz. They are portrayed as Toys recognized from everyone’s
childhood including a Princess, a Cowboy and Raggedy Anne. Our John the Baptist/Judas
Played by Brad Johnson makes his entrance from inside a Jack in the box as he
sings Prepare Ye he passes over the “Toys” with a bucket for the Baptism as he
passes the Toys come alive. I would have liked to see the baptism be the symbol
of the life giving, Instead of just walking by them.
I found the entrance of Jesus Garrett Parsons interesting a
barefoot G.I. Joe getting washed up I feel his feet should not have been clean
just a bit dirtied would have helped me.
The voices in this production were a bit miscast. Some of
the Crayons had the vocal range and volume to push the individual solo pieces a
bit more. Along with vocals I have to point out the Elephant in the theater the
stage microphones constantly fed back and picked up no vocals. This unfortunately
made certain iconic moments and songs hard to register, including all for the
Best that featured a wonderful dance Duet between Brad Johnson John the
Baptist/Judas and Garrett
Parsons Jesus.
At times the Toy Cast seemed to slide out of character and
into a slumped waiting for my next line to come back to life position. I would
have preferred to see the cast stay in these heightened states the whole time,
but on the opposite spectrum there was an awkward moment after the crucifixion
of one of the women toys openly weeping, now this could be taken as a literal
representation of Mary weeping at the cross but the real impact would have come
in silent tears and not sucking in the post nasal drip louder than the vocals
on stage.
Overall the direction of this show was nice, pulling members
of the audience into the action by playing games (Charades, Pictionary) including
a dear friend and fellow actor Geno Smith.
All in all despite some flaws this is a wonderful piece of Broadway
here in the Greater Columbus Area. Check out http://www.wctpresents.org/ for ticket
information and don’t miss your opportunity to see Godspell August 2, 3 – 7:30
p.m. August 4 2:00 p.m.
