Venue: Sweet ECA
To give a really fair review, I should see all three versions of this musical, but two of them are finished now, so that’s out. Godspell is one of those musical you can only see every once in a while (unless you’re a believer), as some of the sentimentality I find rather cloying.
The production is in the upstairs theatre at the Edinburgh College of the Arts and it is a fine large room with very good acoustics which is a bit of a pity as they had the volume cranked up to the max for this show. Thus there were a few ‘cracks’ when the sound went over the limit. The band is a small rock combo of two keyboards, some guitars and drums. The room was about half full (Sunday night).
The performers all did a creditable job of their parts, with only a couple of minor ‘fluffs’. The singing was of a very high standard throughout and the telling of the parables was accomplished with aplomb. I did get a bit worried when the show started getting a bit camp in the second half, but the ending was the expected farewell from Jesus which brought the emotions back down.
While there was nothing outstanding about this production, it was a good solid two hour show (no interval) with a lot of energy from the young cast. Finally I’d just like to apologise for my unchristian thoughts about one of the young ladies (hubba hubba) and ask if anyone else thought the big picture at the back of the audience should be covered up during the show (a bit pagan I thought). There were slides used as a backdrop to the stage but I very often couldn’t tell what they were as it was hard to see them.
For booking details go to Godspell