A new production of “Godspell” is a good-spirited visit to 1971, when the original show opened.
In the version at Saint Peter’s Church, Steven Schwartz’s lyrics and dialogue are updated and a loosey-goosey, free-ish spirit pervades the proceedings.
Despite these rather superficial changes, it’s basically the same deal. A group of young folks try to expose the hypocrisy of wealth, power and organized religion by enacting the parables of Jesus.
When we first see them, they’re milling around a flea market in colorful rags with posters of Socrates, Thomas Aquinas, Galileo, Sartre and Mandela, but seem confused and torn.
John the Baptist (Will Erat) baptizes them with a yellow sponge from a red pail and washes the arms of Jesus. Jesus is Barrett Foa, in styled blond hair, jeans and a white T-shirt. He can sing and has a simple, eager-to-please charm.
Everybody responds at once to Jesus, who essentially spends the rest of the show standing on a chest upstage and delivering the punch lines to parables.
The cast enacts the stories told by Jesus in the New Testament using contemporary props: A plunger becomes a scepter and Neutrogena is the oil of healing. The script is crowded with references to Johnny Cochran, the Food Emporium and “The Godfather.”
It’s essentially Sesame Street with the parables of the Bible as text. The melodies are often memorable. The direction, by Shawn Rozsa, is floppy and playful. At best, it has an air of great good fun.
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GODSPELL
Theatre at St. Peter’s Church, 619 Lexington Ave. at 54th Street, (212) 239-6200. Through Oct. 7.