Prepare Ye the Way of la Meme Chose

[ceebeegee]

God, I am SO SICK of productions of Godspell with the same old tired trope of male Jesus and Judas. The show is about the Gospel of St. Matthew with mixed genders apostles dressed as clowns, invoking every current pop reference out there--you'd think SOMEONE besides me would've thought of actually casting a woman as something other than adoring groupie. BORING.

Comments

[ceebeegee.livejournal.com]

You know, DeBaun is doing Tommy this winter...

So, Judas is sort of undefined for a good part of the show until "one of you will betray me tonight" -- the point when the happy happy show gets dark. OK, but if it's staged right, JtB should be doing a silent JCS:Judas for 45 minutes by that point, with spectacular acting letting the audience know that he's just not into the whole happy nonsense going on around him.

See, I see Judas as emerging (well, not overtly) earlier, during "All for the Best"--there's some crankiness going on there. His lyrics are much more cynical than Jesus's--"Someone's got to be oppressed!"

When he takes the role of Judas, he commands attention and is the lead role -- he IS the lead role in Godspell -- so how does he (or she) do this if you split the character?

Did you mean to say he is the lead role in JCS? Jesus is very much the lead role in Godspell. Judas gets only 1-2 songs.

I was thinking of giving "On the Willows" to Judas, instead of the band singing it. (Well, really *I* should be singing it, 'cause I love that song, but that's for the recording :) That should help balance the taking away of JtB, should I decide to go in that direction. And maybe have some sort of silent redemptive imagery at the end for Judas (or have him sing the reprise of "Prepare Ye...")--I always felt bad that he was so reviled by history. He was fulfilling the scriptures after all, and is what he did that much worse than denying Christ three times as Peter did? I like to think Judas repented.