Godspell (an archaic spelling of the word gospel) is a 1970 musical by Stephen Schwartz and John-Michael Tebelak.

It opened off Broadway on May 17, 1971, and has played in various touring companies and revivals many times since.

Several cast albums have been released over the years and one of its songs, "Day By Day" from the original cast album, reached #13 on the Billboard pop singles chart in the summer of 1972.

The structure of the musical is that of a series of parables, taken primarily from the Gospel of Matthew. These are then interspersed with a variety of modern music set primarily to lyrics from traditional hymns, with the passion of Christ treated briefly near the end of performance.

It started as a college project performed by students at Carnegie Mellon University and moved to La Mama in Greenwich Village. It was then re-scored for an off-Broadway production that was a long-running success.

A Broadway revival had been announced for September 2008, but it was postponed due to financial pressures.

A film version of the musical was released in 1973, set in modern New York, and starring Victor Garber as Jesus, David Haskell as John the Baptist/Judas, and Lynne Thigpen in her first film role. John-Michael Tebelak co-wrote the screenplay and served as the creative consultant. The song "Beautiful City" was written for and first included in the film.

The show has been references many times in pop culture, such as in "Meet the Parents," "King of the Hill," and "So You Think You Can Dance."

Starring:

Jesus	Kevin Sigman
Judas/John	Wyatt Glove
Discliples	Erin Brenna Nicole A. Carson Emile Doles Corrine Mahoney Rachael Maurer Erik Morris Angelyn Rhode Andrew Sybert
Ensemble	Caitlin Bowden Carney Tara Corless David Landry Heather McClendon Alexa Neilen Angela Rodriguez Mira Strauss Nichole Urban

Directed by Paul Castaneda. Musical Direction by Lindsey Trefz.