Jesus in Musicals

Cotton Patch Gospel is one of many popular musicals that uses the Gospels as source material. Each reimagines how the story could be staged and leads to a deeper understanding of "the greatest story ever told." Cotton Patch Gospel built upon this tradition and created a show that incorporated elements of each of them. Below are some facts on each of the most well known four Gospel inspired musicals. They are interesting in their own right and also give some illuminating perspective into Cotton Patch Gospel.

1961 - Black Nativity
By Langston Hughes
Music Traditional

Genesis: Langston Hughes is best known as the most famous poet of the Harlem Renaissance. However, he was also a well regarded playright having written over 20 plays primarily about the African American experience.
Productions: Black Nativity opened on Broadway on December 11, 1961. After a couple of decades of relative absence, African American Theater companies started picking it up and it is now performed all over the U.S. during the Christmas season.
Musical Style: Gospel renditions of traditional Christmas Carols
Hit Songs: "Go Tell It On the Mountain" and "Joy to the World"
Based On: The birth of Jesus as portrayed in the Gospel of Luke
Famous Actors: Marion Williams of the Ward Singers and Professor Alex Brafford who sold more than a million records with "I'm Too Close to Heaven" both were in the touring cast of Black Nativity.
Innovation: Brought the joy, enthusiasm and feel of Christmas African American church services to a mainstream audience.
Interesting Fact: Dancers Alvin Ailey and Carmen de Lavallade left the show before it opened in protest of changing the title to include the word "Black."



1971 - Jesus Christ Superstar
Music by Andrew Lloyd Webber (Evita, Phantom of the Opera, and Cats)
Lyrics by Tim Rice (Evita, Chess, and The Lion King)

Genesis: Andrew Lloyd Webber and Tim Rice had already written Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat together, but that had been for a school production and they were unknowns at the time. They first released Superstar as a concept album in 1970 and it's quick rise to #1 paved the way for two lengthy careers in musical theatre.
Productions: The original Broadway production opened on October 12, 1971 and ran for 18 months. A film version, filmed in Israel, was made in 1973. It has since been produced all over the world and seen many U.S. tours.
Musical Style: Rock Opera
Hit Songs: Murray Head released a single version of "Superstar" in 1971 which reached #14 in the U.S. The same year Helen Reddy recorded a version of "I Don't Know How to Love Him" which reached #12 in the U.S. Yvonne Elliman also had a chart reaching single with "Everything's Alright".
Based On: The Gospel of John from Jesus entering Jerusalem to his crucifixion.
Famous Actors: Yvonne Elliman, who later had a #1 hit with "If I Can't Have You" from Saturday Night Fever, had her career take off with the role of Mary Magdelene, which she played on the concept album, in the original Broadway cast and in the 1973 film. The concept album's Judas, Murray Head most famous for his recording of "One Night in Bangkok" from Chess, and the original Broadway Judas, Ben Vareen most famous for later starring in the musical Pippin and the filmAll That Jazz, also saw their careers take off after their involvement.
Innovation: Jesus Christ Superstar portrayed Judas as a main character. Rather than the villain, he was portrayed sympathetically as a tragic hero trying to prevent Jesus from inciting the Romans to destroy the Jewish people.
Interesting Fact: After the concept album was produced productions of the show began popping up without the authors' consent. They sued and the subsequent ruling is one of the foundations of theatrical copyright law.



1971 - Godspell
Music by Stephen Schwartz (Pippin, Pocahontas and Wicked)
Lyrics primarily from the Episcopal Hymnal
Book by John-Michael Tebelak

Genesis: The show was originally John-Michael Tebelak's thesis project at Carnegie Mellon University. After a two week run at La MaMa in New York Stephen Schwartz was brought in to rewrite the music.
Productions: Godspell opened Off-Broadway at the Promenade Theatre on August 10, 1971. It moved to Broadway in 1976 and spawned a film adaptation in 1973. Since then it has become a community theater mainstay, seeing wildly different interpretations of it's simply set tale.
Musical Style: An eclectic mix of musical theater styles.
Hit Songs: "Day By Day," which reached #13 in the U.S. Other popular songs include "By My Side" and "All for the Best."
Based On: The parables in the Gospel of Matthew.
Famous Actors: The film adaptation of Godspell was the film debut of Victor Garber who had been in the Original Broadway Cast of Sweeney Todd and later would be in the film Titanic. In the ensemble of both the original cast and the film was Lynne Thigpen, known to a later generation as the chief in PBS' Where in the World is Carmen Sandiego.
Innovation: Inspired by Dr. Harvey Cox's "Christ the Harlequin," Godspell focused on the festivity, playfullness and delight in the Jesus story.
Interesting Fact: Stephen Schwartz has said Godspell is realy about the building of a community. His song "Beautiful City" was written for the film and emphasizes that idea. While not in the script of the musical, the rights allow productions to insert the song into the show wherever they think it fits.



1981 - Cotton Patch Gospel
Music and Lyrics by Harry Chapin ("Taxi", "W*O*L*D", and "Cat's in the Cradle")
Book by Tom Key and Russell Treyz

Genesis: Actor Tom Key was looking to write a play transporting Jesus and his story to the present day South. Someone told him about Clarence Jordan's The Cotton Patch Versions of Matthew and John which already did just that. Inspired by Jordan's work, Tom Key and Russell Treyz created a one man show. They asked Harry Chapin to write a couple of songs to start and end the show and he was so excited by it he turned the show into a musical.
Productions: Cotton Patch Gospel opened Off-Broadway on October 21, 1981 and ran for 193 performances. It was filmed in 1988 and has since become a staple musical in the South still performed by dozens of companies each year.
Musical Style: Bluegrass
Hit Songs: "Somethin's Brewin' in Gainesville", "Jubilation", and "I Wonder What Would Happen to This World".
Based On: The Gospel of Matthew
Famous Actors: Adapter Tom Key stared in the original production and continues to perform the show to this day.
Innovation: Cotton Patch Gospel puts Jesus in our own time, effectively exploring how we'd react if he came today.
Interesting Fact: Original Matthew and author Tom Key's life was threatened by the Ku Klux Klan because in the show they are implicated in the murder of Jesus.

Further Reading:
The SF Chronicle's Review of Lorraine Hansbury Theatre's current production of Black Nativity: http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2009/12/16/DDDV1B47OG.DTL

Wikipedia's article on Jesus Christ Superstar: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jesus_Christ_Superstar

Musicalschwartz.com's Godspell page: http://www.musicalschwartz.com/godspell.htm

Loren Collins' Cotton Patch Gospel Website: http://www.lorencollins.net/cottonpatchgospel

The full text of Clarence Jordan's Cotton Patch Gospels: http://rockhay.tripod.com/cottonpatch/

*All photos from www.amazon.com except "Cotton Patch Gospel" which is from http://www.lorencollins.net/cottonpatchgospel/ and "Jesus Christ Superstar" which is from www.wikipedia.com

The Life of Cotton Patch Gospel Composer Harry Chapin

Singer/songwriter Harry Chapin wrote the music to Cotton Patch Gospel right before he died in 1981. Its catchy music brings to life the funny and moving story while bringing light to the hypocrisy of human apathy. It is the culmination of a life dedicated to great music and humanitarianism.


Harry Chapin was born in New York City, the second of four children. His father left the family when he was eight and went and toured as a drummer with the big bands of the era. After high school Chapin spent three months at the Air Force Academy. He then twice flunked out of Cornell University. He went into a band, recording an album with two of his brothers, but the album was unsuccessful. To avoid being drafted his brothers had to drop the band and go to college. Harry Chapin started working in film. While writing a screenplay, he was hired to give guitar lessons to Sandy Chapman so she could play songs to her three children. In 1968 Legendary Champions, the documentary film that came from that screenplay, was nominated for an Academy Award and Chapin became father to thethree children and husband to Sandy Chapman.

Chapin found, while his passion was in storytelling, his drive was still to make music. He combined the two to start writing his now famous, story-songs. In 1971 he pulled together a band and soon caught the attention of Elektra. His debut album Heads and Tales was on the charts for over half of 1972. It’s song “Taxi” became the most requested song in America for ten weeks.

A year later Short Stories produced “W.O.L.D.” which was in the top 50 and the next year Verities and Balderdash became Chapin’s first gold album. The now classic “Cat’s in the Cradle” from that album quickly flew to number one.

Through the rest of the seventies he made seven more popular albums. His solo show, The Night That Made America Famous ran on Broadway for 75 performances and was nominated for two Tony awards.

Despite his great success as a storyteller and musician, Chapin’s greatest legacy is that of activist. Before charity concerts were vogue, Chapin did a hundred a year, raising over 5 million dollars. In 1975 he co-founded World Hunger Year (WHY), an organization dedicated to addressing the root causes of hunger and poverty. For his work to end hunger he was posthumously awarded the Congressional Gold Medal. He also served as a delegate to the Democractic National Convention and was dedicated towards bringing the arts to Long Island, serving on numerous boards there.

In 1981, at the age of 38, Chapin tragically died in a car crash while driving to a benefit performance. His final work, Cotton Patch Gospel, was posthumously produced in New York a few months later. This musical was based on a book by Dr. Clarence Jordan, the founder of Habitat for Humanity. It recontextualized the story of Jesus into the modern day and explored how contemporary Christians would respond to Jesus’ arrival. Harry Chapin’s epitath was taken from the final song from that show “I Wonder What Would Happen to this World”

Oh if a man tried
To take his time on Earth
And prove before he died
What one man’s life could be worth
I wonder what would happen
to this world

Further Reading & Photo Credits:

Harry Chapin photo from Rolling Stone's Biography: http://www.rollingstone.com/artists/harrychapin/biography

Gravestone photo from Wikipedia Article: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Harry_Chapin#Legacy

Rolling Stone Obituary from the Harry Chapin Archive: http://harrychapin.com/articles/rsobit.shtml

Autobiographical Statement from The Harry Chapin Archive: http://harrychapin.com/articles/bio.shtml

"Music Rewind: The Activism & Storytelling Of Harry Chapin" by Hal Licino: http://hubpages.com/hub/Music-Rewind-The-Activism-Storytelling-Of-Harry-Chapin

Interview with "Cotton Patch Gospel" Director, Marilyn Langbehn

Cotton Patch Gospel opened last week to standing ovations. During rehearsals director Marilyn Langbehn sat down with us to let us know what makes the show work.

What brought you to Cotton Patch Gospel? Why this show?

I’m not from the South, I quite honestly don’t know where my affinity for this material actually comes from, except that my grandmother was very much in the old time gospel tradition. I remember as a very little girl going to the Assemblies of God church with her, and honest to God this church was built out of logs; it looked like a log cabin. That whole revivalist feeling around religion and very simple storytelling was what she was attracted to and what she made sure I was exposed to. So, from the time I was a little girl, there was this attraction or this affinity for this style of storytelling and this style of preaching. There’s something about the simplicity of it; there’s something about the music, the bluegrass feel and the fact that Harry Chapin wrote it. He was somebody that I was very keen on when I was in college. Just basically the whole package was very exciting to me, and I’m very glad they asked me to do it.

This show is about the life of Jesus who is, of course, a major figure in Christianity. How do you feel this show speaks to Christians and how does it speak to non-Christians?

The story of Jesus, is one of the great stories that we have, regardless of where you are on the faith perspective. It’s always interesting to me to see the various ways in which it gets told. You have the big three theatrical tellings of it, from Jesus Christ Superstar to this show to Godspell. Those are all very different presentations of essentially the same story. The thing that strikes me about this particular telling is that what you’ve got is the message of Jesus distilled down to its very essence, which is essentially do unto others. At the end of the day, what they want you to do is treat everybody the way you want to be treated, and that’s what they present to you as the message.

You’ve directed Superstar, how does your approach to this show differ from how you directed that, despite both telling the story of Jesus?

Superstar has by intention a much harder edge to it. You know, the rock opera format is designed to drive things in a certain way. This is very much told in the way that we all told stories when we were kids: I be the bad guy and you be the good guy. And that’s all the instruction that you need and that’s all the context that you need in order to just branch off and spin a fantasy for yourself. The way that this is put together, Edward plays Matthew who is the narrator and one of the disciples. All he has to do is play the most basic of contexts for us and we instantly know where we are. There are no props in this show; there are no set changes. The spectacle is that of the inside of a barn and a Chautauqua meeting. It’s a fundamental storytelling style that we all grew up with and are so familiar with.

How has it been working with Edward? What’s it like to direct a one man show for much of the piece.

I worked with Edward one other time. He was wonderful, and ever since that time we’ve been in communication back and forth saying we need to find a time and a way to work together again. It all just sort of fell into place. He’s perfect for it. He understands this method of storytelling. He understands how this music works on a whole different level. He’s very generous with his emotional self in the telling of the story, generous to his fellow actors and generous with the audience. It’s been an interesting and lovely experience working with him. It’s a fascinating process to have just the two of you in a room trying to solve the problems of the text and make sure you’re telling it in as engaging and as theatrical a way as you possibly can. It’s fun.

Then there’s the trio, where did they come from and what do they give the show?

It’s really interesting, because the music is written to be sung by the band, which in the original production was four guys. That’s one of the interesting things about this piece; the authors recognized that you can take this basic structure and do a lot of different things with it. In all the notes that they send along with the piece they say “you’re probably not going to find what we created this piece with,” meaning one actor and these band members “so make it work for you.” When we had the auditions, it became clear that the three women we have were the best musicians to tell this part of the story. So instead of a four man quartet we have a three woman trio singing this. Rona Siddiqui, our music director who is also one of the singers, had to take the music and restructure the harmonies in such a way that they fell more naturally into the women’s range. She’s just done an amazing job, not only in recrafting all of that, but then creating that specific sound that the trio has. The sound that the women have is tight, rich and exactly right. It’s just thrilling. It is a whole new way of looking at the material.

You do have a bluegrass band as well, yes?

Oh my God, the band! Well if this doesn’t knock people’s socks off then I’ll throw in with you. The one thing that I knew from experience about bluegrass musicians is that they are a rare breed, a specific type of musician, and if they are any good, they are very good at what they do. One of those things you know to look for if you’ve done enough musicals is when the singers know that the band has got their backs and the band knows that the singers are worth it. It’s this incredibly magical thing that happens amongst disparate musicians when they become a unit. They become a whole sound of voices and instruments together, and I’m watching that happen in rehearsal. You can’t not dance a little in your seat when you hear this music, and you can’t help but be moved at the simplicity and genuine honesty of the lyrics.

As a director there’s always that moment when something’s working and you have some sort of infallible physical signal that happens to you. You know, when the hair stands up on the back of your neck, that kind of thing. It takes a lot for that to happen to me. The moment when Herod orders the henchmen to find baby Jesus and kill him, the massacre of the innocents for those of you that are following along in your hymnals, is heart-breaking. They end up killing all the babies under the age of two, and in this version they toss a bomb into a church nursery. Of course Jesus isn’t there, but it kills 14 babies and toddlers, which harks back to what happened in the South in the civil rights struggle. Erica Richardson, who is this glorious-voiced African American actress, is singing the role of the mother in that particular number. It doesn’t take a lot of imagination to see how far we have and haven’t come.

Anything else give you that sensation?

It happens several times, and I won’t tell you where they all are, but if I’m dancing in my seat that’s a pretty good sign. Katie Kimball, the other trio member, has the most open face. She understands the joy of the music in a way that is completely unclouded by any kind of guile or bravado or need to protect. She is just completely available to the emotional content of the piece and in the music that she is singing. When she and the rest of the trio started to sing “Going to Atlanta” last night, that group of women were so excited I thought they were going to blow the roof off. It’s thrilling. I have such fun. I do