Before he started racking up film and television credits, Canadian actor Victor Garber famously portrayed Jesus Christ as a puffy-haired hippie in clown makeup and a Superman shirt in the 1972 Toronto stage production of Godspell and the movie adaptation that followed a year later.
Subsequent versions of Stephen Schwartz’s pop musical about Jesus and the apostles have often represented Christ similarly, as a colourful harlequin-like figure. But Sara-Jeanne Hosie knew she wanted to take a different, more modern approach when she signed on to direct the forthcoming Arts Club Theatre Company production of Godspell.
“I love the original Godspell. I love the hippie, tickle trunk version of it because at the time it was written, that was present,” she says. “I think bringing it forward is a good thing so other people can relate.”
The show is comprised of a series of musical parables, based mainly on the Gospel of Matthew. “I don’t think you need to have any knowledge of the Bible to see this,” Hosie ensures. “For any belief system, I think this show works.”
As director, her challenge was to make the teachings and Biblical characters relevant to modern-day audiences.
“What I realized was that Jesus didn’t need to be a man, Jesus didn’t need to be a woman, Jesus didn’t need to be a child. It just needed to be a person that we would follow,” she says.
She and her crew auditioned actors of all ages, races and genders for the lead role. In the end, it was Jennifer Copping who emerged as the obvious Messiah.
“Jen walked in the room and she spoke the words and she made the text so contemporary and we just knew we would follow her,” Hosie says.
Meanwhile, Judas will be played by Andrew Cohen and John the Baptist will be played by youth performer Aubrey Joy Maddock, costumed in overalls emblazoned with a heart inside the familiar Superman shield — a nod to ’70s era productions.
“There’s just certain things that you can’t escape with Godspell and you don’t want to escape,” Hosie says.
The Arts Club revival takes place in a train station, a bustling hub for people from a diversity of backgrounds. Enter Jesus, who recruits a group of followers and teaches them life lessons through lively song and dance numbers. A large projection screen behind the performance area will help to bring these parables to life.
“The projection element allows us to escape the train station and go to other places,” Hosie explains. “It’s a very modern approach.”
All of the 12 multi-talented cast members play instruments on stage, and music director Danny Balkwill (also in the cast) has freshened up the Tony Award-nominated score, which still features fan-favourite hits such as “Day by Day,” “Learn Your Lessons Well” and “Turn Back, O Man.”
“People who have heard Godspell in the past and love it, I think, will love it tenfold after hearing the dynamic that [Balkwill] has created from the music.”
Though based on Biblical source material and featuring re-settings of traditional hymns, Hosie says Godspell was never meant to be about religion.
“The show is about a community where people have lost their way, they’ve stopped listening to one another,” she explains.
Those themes are more than relevant today in an age when technology has resulted in people being simultaneously connected and anti-social.
“There’s a solitude in that,” Hosie says, “and this [musical] is about people coming together, all walks of life coming together, seeing each other, accepting each other and then celebrating what life can be. It really is a celebration of love and community.”
Godspell runs June 18 to Aug. 1 at the Granville Island Stage. For tickets and details go to artsclub.com or call 604-687-1644.
