{"id":36385,"date":"2021-12-10T19:23:57","date_gmt":"2021-12-11T00:23:57","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/?p=36385"},"modified":"2021-12-10T19:35:45","modified_gmt":"2021-12-11T00:35:45","slug":"the-bootleg-files-godspell-at-plimoth-plantation","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/2021\/12\/10\/the-bootleg-files-godspell-at-plimoth-plantation\/","title":{"rendered":"The Bootleg Files: Godspell at Plimoth Plantation"},"content":{"rendered":"

BOOTLEG FILES 788:<\/strong> \u201cGodspell at Plimoth Plantation\u201d (1973 PBS production). <\/p>\n

LAST SEEN:<\/strong> On YouTube.
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\nAMERICAN HOME VIDEO:<\/strong> None.<\/p>\n

REASON FOR BOOTLEG STATUS: <\/strong>It fell through the cracks.
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\nCHANCES OF SEEING A COMMERCIAL DVD RELEASE:<\/strong> Unlikely.<\/p>\n

When the 1971 Off-Broadway musical \u201cGodspell\u201d was adapted into a 1973 movie, it was decided to eschew the black box setting of the intimate theatrical staging and lace the film\u2019s sequences through the streets, rooftops and venues of New York City. In concept, it was a good idea by symbolizing how the parables and philosophy put forth by Jesus in ancient days still had resonance in the contemporary urban world. Whether it actually worked is a matter of opinion.
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However, someone at WGBH, the Boston-based PBS station, seemed to have misunderstood that concept and somehow believed that \u201cGodspell\u201d could be picked up and plopped into any setting \u2013 and that setting did not have to be contemporary. Operating under that logic, it was decided to recruit the actors in a Boston theatrical production of \u201cGodspell\u201d and have them perform an abbreviated version of their show at Plimoth Plantation, the historic village that recreates the Pilgrims\u2019 original settlement in Massachusetts. <\/p>\n

But there were several few problems with that idea. First, the \u201cGodspell\u201d performers were dressed in the psychedelic hippie costumes from the Off-Broadway show that were later recycled for the film. The Pilgrims did not arrive in the New World with a Peter Max-worthy wardrobe, and it is quite a strange sight to see the wild colors and patterns worn by the \u201cGodspell\u201d hippies against the monochromatic clothing of the early 17th century.<\/p>\n

Second, the WGBH presentation needed to create some context to explain what occurred when the Pilgrims set up their colony. Historian Henry Steele Commager was brought in to explain everything, but he was anchored in a chair in a dark room and spent a lot of time reading from a book. This elderly man in a black suit offered a strange counterpoint to the young rainbow-hued performers from \u201cGodspell\u201d \u2013 he seems like a real-life Criminologist commenting on actions that \u201cRocky Horror\u201d-style free-spirits enact.<\/p>\n

Third, and perhaps most obviously, Jesus is the central character of \u201cGodspell.\u201d In this production, titled \u201cGodspell at Plimoth Plantation,\u201d the actor playing Jesus (clearly identifiable with his Superman shirt) is just a nameless member of the ensemble. By erasing Jesus as a character, the production offers only a vague faith-based notion of giving thanks without making it a specifically Christian faith tribute that the Pilgrims and the original \u201cGodspell\u201d production undertook.<\/p>\n

And fourth and most fatally, it seemed that no one either side of the camera had any idea how to make this nonsense work. The opening number, \u201cBless the Lord,\u201d is staged on the recreation of the Mayflower, with the \u201cGodspell\u201d cast wiggling, vamping and cavorting on the vessel in a very unPilgrim-like manner. This staging is even dumber than the cutesy-poo antics that many people derided in the \u201cGodspell\u201d film.<\/p>\n

To simulate the hardships that the Pilgrims endured during the winter of 1620-21, we hear the cast sing the mournful \u201cOn the Willows\u201d \u2013 mercifully, they are off-screen and the camera pans the mostly empty Plimoth Plantation. This is followed with \u201cDay by Day,\u201d the one hit tune from the score, which is staged as a springtime celebration of bountiful harvests and barn repairs, with everyone singing and dancing with excess energy to spare.<\/p>\n

One of the funniest songs in the score, \u201cTurn Back, O Man,\u201d is staged to symbolize the discontent that some Pilgrims endured, but references to Jesus in the song are replaced with call outs to John and Priscilla, two of the most notable Pilgrims, and those rewrites make no sense in the context of the lyrics. The first Thanksgiving is recalled with dull visuals of Plimoth Plantation (and no Native Americans) backed by the tune \u201cAll Good Things\u201d performed by an off-screen chorus, while the settlement\u2019s future potential is heralded with absurd giddiness in \u201cBy My Side\u201d and a reprise of \u201cDay by Day.\u201d<\/p>\n

The result is chaotic and confusing. To their credit, the actors from this \u201cGodspell\u201d offering are more endearing and more talented than those who appeared in the film version. But they are cast adrift in a setting where they don\u2019t belong and cannot flourish. Despite a surplus amount of enthusiasm and good cheer, these performers offer a bewildering anachronism that ultimately dilutes the genuine drama of the physical and emotional hardships that the Pilgrims endured in their colony.<\/p>\n

What was even more odd was \u201cGodspell in Plimoth Plantation\u201d was broadcast on WGBH as a Thanksgiving special in 1973, eight months after the film version of \u201cGodspell\u201d went into theatrical release. It is hard to imagine that Columbia Pictures, the studio behind the film, gave its blessing to this shabby little work.<\/p>\n

\u201cGodspell in Plimoth Plantation\u201d would be repeated as a Thanksgiving special on numerous PBS stations during the mid-1970s, and then it vanished. A bootleg video of this half-hour offering has been posted to YouTube (see below), but to date it has never shown up in a commercial home entertainment. And for that, we truly have reason to be thankful.<\/p>\n

Also: a special hat-tip to my pal John Rosa for alerting me to this unlikely 70s artifact. <\/p>\n