John Michael Tebelak went to church on Easter Sunday in 1970. He found the service to be devoid of feeling. He once said he felt like the service was trying to roll the rock in front of the tomb instead of celebrating the risen Christ. After the service he was stopped by a cop (due to John-Michaels long hair)and searched for drugs. This experience provided him with the inspiration for Godspell. He produced the show in late fall/early winter at CMU. (Schwartz had nothing to do with the project. He was already in New York City trying to sell his idea for a musical called Pippin). The score was made of an original song by a cast memeber and old Episcopal Hymns played by a rock band. (The only song to remain from the original production is "By My Side"). John Michael left school without graduating and took Godspell to New York City where it was produced at Ellen Stewarts's experimental Cafe La Mama theatre. A few producers saw the show and said they would produce it if it had a new score. They brought in Stephen Schwartz without knowing that he had been a classmate of Tebelak's. Schwartz wrote a new score in 5 weeks and the show opened May 17, 1971. CMU went ahead and gave Tebelak his degree(even though he didn't finish all his class work) based upon his Godspell success.
by Thomas Peters
Godspell was one of the major long-running off-Broadway successes, winning unanimous bravos from the critics and drawing long audience lines for three years. The inspiration for the musical arose on a snowy spring Easter Sunday during sunrise service, when John-Michael Tebelak, a long-haired student at Carnegie Mellon University, was stopped and frisked for drugs by a Pittsburgh policeman in the nave of St. Paul's Cathedral. As a candidate for a Master of Fine Arts degree, Tebelak was required to direct a production of a classic or a period piece for his thesis. He asked to be allowed to write his own play for this exercise and, using his Easter Sunday experience, wrote a musical based on the Gospel according to St. Matthew. Godspell was enthusiastically received.
A chance meeting with Ellen Stewart of the Cafe La MaMa in New York paved the way for the musical to move from Carnegie to her off-off-Broadway theatre for a two-week run. A producer saw Godspell while at La MaMa and offered to do the show off-Broadway. The show opened off-Broadway on May 17, 1971, and its success was immediately evident. Every critic proclaimed his/her ardent approval.
Soon after the New York opening, "resident" (non-touring) companies were organized in major cities with the intention of playing extended runs. Among the cities outside of New York that had their "own" Godspell productions were Boston, Washington, Los Angeles, San Francisco, Philadelphia, Chicago, and Toronto. During most of 1972, these seven companies performed simultaneously. Most played for six to nine months. Godspell enjoyed popularity abroad as well. It opened in Paris in the summer of 1972; a London production, which opened in late 1971, ran nearly three years. There were also productions in Amsterdam, Hamburg and Melbourne.
After five years of attracting sold-out audiences off-Broadway, Godspell made its way to the 1,200-seat Ambassador Theatre on Broadway in June 1976. Critics found the show to be just as fresh as it was when it first hit the boards. On September 4, 1977, Godspell ended its run after 527 performances. In all, the musical achieved more than 2,600 performances both on Broadway and off.
As a thank you to Godspell fans and followers, the cast offered a special production on August 14, 1977, in the sanctuary of the Cathedral of St. John the Divine in New York City. In the last four years of its New York run, there were 25 companies performing Godspell around the world, with eight resident companies and three touring companies in the United States and Canada. Perhaps its greatest success was the record-breaking run in South Africa, with a multi-racial cast in Johannesburg and a multi-racial audience in Capetown — events covered by the media worldwide.
This information was found on the official Godspell tour webpage.
NOTE: Also see the "Dramatics" article as well as the article found in "Christian Century" for further information regarding the origin of Godspell. You may also find some useful information in the interview that Ashley Leach conducted with Stephen Schwartz, the composer/lyricist* of Godspell.
Also, you may find information regarding the origin of Godspell in an article published in "America" Magazine.
*"By My Side" was composed by Peggy Gordon and Jay Hamburger.