CHICAGO – Excelsior! Comic book legend Stan Lee’s famous exclamation puts a fine point on the third and final play of Mark Pracht’s FOUR COLOR TRILOGY, “The House of Ideas,” presented by and staged at City Lit Theater in Chicago’s Edgewater neighborhood. For tickets/details, click HOUSE OF IDEAS.
FLASHBACK: Celebrating the 50th Anniversary of ‘Godspell’
- David Haskell
- Gilmer McCormick
- Godspell. Stephen Schwartz
- HollywoodChicago.com Content
- Jerry Sroka
- Jesus
- Joanne Jonas
- John Michael Terelak
- John the Baptist
- Judas
- Lynne Thigpen
- Merrell Jackson
- Parables
- Patrick McDonald
- Robin Lamont
- Sony Pictures Home Entertainment
- The Godspell According to Matthew
- Victor Garber
CHICAGO – Yet another famous musical version of the final days of Jesus Christ is celebrating its 50th Anniversary as a film. “Godspell” began as a college project, moved to off-Broadway, released the film adaptation the same year as its cousin film “Jesus Christ Superstar” and had one actor go through all the iterations, while scoring a hit single with the song “Day by Day” … she is Robin Lamont.!—break—>
Robin Lamont of “Godspell”
She went through all the steps of “Godspell” – even premiering in the Broadway stage version in 1976. Lamont was a student at Carnegie Mellon when a normal class assignment would connect her to the musical for six years. “Godspell” began in Pittsburgh in 1970 as a staged thesis for a Masters Degree by John-Michael Tebelak. It had a whole different set of songs and was structurally different than the show that opened Off-Off Broadway in 1971. After rejecting the original songs, the producers hired composer Stephen Schwartz (“Wicked”) to create the now classic soundtrack.
Robin Lamont in ‘Godspell’ (1973)
Photo credit: Sony Pictures Home Entertainmen
The musical opened Off-Broadway on May 17th, 1971, five months before the similarly themed “Jesus Christ Superstar” had their Broadway debut. The film version, directed by British filmmaker David Greene, used New York City as their setting in 1972. The “Godspell” film opened on May 31st, 1973, and “Jesus Christ Superstar” followed three months later on August 15, 1973.
In PART ONE of an interview Via Zoom with Patrick McDonald of HollywoodChicago.com, Robin Lamont of “Godspell” talks about her I-was-there origins for the show, all the way to filming the movie …
In an PART TWO excerpt, Robin Lamont remembers the precariousness of climbing to the top of the WTC …
The Kinship Series, written by Robin Lamont, is available through Amazon and her website, CLICK HERE.
MORE GODSPELL! Patrick McDonald of HollywoodChicago.com appears on Ian Simmon’s KICKING THE SEAT YouTube series to discuss the iconic movie, which was the inspiration to contact Ms. Lamont. CLICK HERE!
By PATRICK McDONALD |