Sunday afternoon was the final performance of “Godspell” at the Racine Theater Guild,  and as usual I stuck my head in the door for the closing minutes.  I just find that doing that gives me some sense of closure-  plus the cast in question often is inspired to an especially impassioned performance. (I almost wrote that the cast is typically “on fire” in their last performance of a run, except that in this case that would be a highly unfortunate choice of words, since there was an earlier in the run of “Godspell” during which a small fire broke out onstage during performance.  Thanks to some calm and quick-thinking cast members,  the fire was extinguished almost immediately. . . and the audience nicely maintained its calm and composure as well.  But the incident stirred up quite a lot of talk and necessitated  some time-consuming encounters with the fire department, so I know that artistic director Doug Instenes will scream if he hears or reads the words “Godspell” and “fire” in the same sentence!)

Anyway, I was standing in the back of the auditorium for the end of the final performance (it was sold out, which was a nice problem) and was so pleased to see the cast still pouring out all they had to give.  .  . and the audience, which was mostly elderly (as our Sunday matinee audiences tend to be)  was quite excited and appreciative with what they were seeing and hearing.   The end of the show is so moving, especially the moment right around the Last Supper when Jesus greets each of his “disciples” one by one – each of them striking some sort of little pose for him from earlier in the show (Zach Keil strikes a muscleman pose which is actually borrowed from his earlier portrayal of Gaston in “Beauty and the Beast” –  Ann strikes a somewhat seductive pose from “Turn back, Old Man”) before embracing Jesus.  It’s such a tender set of exchanges,  especially the way Doug Instenes staged it and the heartfelt way in which our cast brought it off.   I watched that with a huge lump in my throat.  And of course there’s all the drama of the crucifixion- all the more heartbreaking and shocking because of how sweet and charming and fun Sam Hoganson was as Jesus.

But truth be told,  the excellence of this “Godspell” production did not spring out of any single superb performance but rather from the excellence of all concerned.  I heard that over and over again from people who saw it – that what was so amazing about this production was how all eleven performers in the cast were so strong.   And behind that was a good working relationship between them which allowed them to trust each other and give themselves fully to all this show demands – – – including the zany goofiness as these ragtag disciples try to make heads or tails of the parables of Jesus.   You can only really give yourself over to that with people you fully trust and believe in.

Which is not to say that the show itself is a masterpiece.  Far from it.   And in fact,  someone whose opinion about theater I value more than anyone I can think of saw our production and very much praised what we did while saying in the next breath “I hate the show.”  I know what they mean;  although I don’t share that opinion,  I can really see how someone could dislike this show.  For me, it was a truly exhausting show to watch – not even so much for the wrenching finale as for all the madcap antics that precede it.  That’s no reflection on this cast or how it was directed, but just on how some people eat up non-stop craziness while for some of the rest of us it wears us out.  (I can’t watch Robin Williams for any length of time for the same reason.  He leaves me with Chronic Fatigue Syndrome.)  But this cast and production and its sheer excellence drew me back again and again, and I am so glad.  And being a small part of this was an honor many times over.

Because the technical director was out of town,  there was no immediate set strike – which meant that the cast was free to gather together (most of them, anyway) for a last meal together.  And Kathy and I joined them for a delicious Mexican meal and for the pleasure of their company, which was one more reminder of how much I like these people and how fun it was to work with them on this show.   In fact, the only unpleasantness of the evening was when Kathy leaned over to me towards the end of the meal and said “XXX beat you eating.”  She was referring to the husband of a cast member sitting right across from me who did indeed inhale his meal even faster than I inhaled mine- an amazing feat roughly akin to when Nadal beat Federer at Wimbledon last summer.  I mean, NOBODY eats faster than I do unless they’re competing in one of those disgusting contests where you shove 50 hot dogs down your throat in three minutes.  That’s not for me-  but when it comes to fast eating while appearing to be at least somewhat civilized, I was winner and still champ until the Godspell Last Supper.  I guess my claims to fame will now have to be limited to my necktie collection and my ability to play the Gilligan’s Island theme song in any key. . . without music.

Anyway, it was great to be together one last time. . . and the exit of Bob Benson (who sang “All Good Gifts” so spectacularly in the show)  was the crowning moment.  . . as he began waving to us in slow motion and he and his cast mates began singing “So long, farewell” from The Sound of Music . . . and as he finally exited the dining room to the last measures of music,  the place erupted in applause.  Such are the delicious moments that are possible when you hang around crazy theater people!

pictured above:  the Godspell last supper at Los Mariachis.  (I suspect I am not spelling that very well.)