Review: 'Godspell' at Artistry has a Judas who resembles Prince and a message of joy

I did not have Prince coming back as Judas on my bingo card.

But in "Godspell," which opened at last at Artistry over the weekend, Jordan Leggett plays the betrayer of Jesus with a physical and stylistic resemblance to the Purple One. His is an uncanny, beautiful performance that does not sound like an act.

You don't have to be a Christian or a believer of any sort to see the Stephen Schwartz musical. But this "Godspell," spirited and filled with warm light, feels like a liturgical service in the Schneider Theater in Bloomington.

The often-produced retelling of the story of Jesus — from his teachings and parables to his betrayal, crucifixion and resurrection — offers a straightforward evocation of Christian tenets. And the songs, including Leggett's "Prepare Ye," Javari Horne's "Day by Day" and Caleb Michael's "Light of the World," are delivered as affirming celebrations.

Music director Bradley Beahen leads a nimble band that accompanies the cast in Vanessa Brooke Agnes' bright, playful production. The director imbues her staging with clownish elements — from painted faces to Jacourtney Mountain-Bluhm's technicolor costumes. The contemporary setting is of a deteriorating housing project. Set designer Katie Edwards gestures to it with a fragment of an exposed brick wall covered with graffiti, all framed by Kyia Britts' chiaroscuro lighting.

Before Jesus (John Jamison II) steps on the scene, a kind of philosophical discord reigns. Thomas Aquinas, Galileo and Jean-Paul Sartre argue about the meaning of life. We know that the tension exists because these historical figures arrive with their names on placards as if coming to a protest. OK, so the directorial vision is a touch ahistorical. And to add to that, save for Jesus and Judas, the characters are the first names of the actors playing them.

But this show has never really been about deep dramaturgy. It's all about the performances, with nearly all the players getting solos. Jamison shows off his pearly whites as he smiles throughout most of the production and is magnificent on "Beautiful City." His Jesus is a font of beneficence even as he's correcting sinners.

And he even sounds like a political leader, employing a rhetorical device that some of our presidents from Kennedy on have been fond of using.

"For any man who exalts himself shall be humbled but any man who humbles himself shall be exalted," Jesus says, using antimetabole. He sounds a touch like Joe Biden and Bill Clinton before that: "We will lead not merely by the example of our power but by the power of our example."

The big surprise in "Godspell" is around Leggett, whose singing of "On the Willows" makes him sound like kin to Prince and Lenny Kravitz.

Grace Hillmyer makes "Turn Back, O Man" into a solo about artists, their questions about their craft and their need for attention.

Theater is the most ephemeral of arts. When it works, it can be magical, transporting us into worlds and realms that's the stuff of dreams before melting away like fairy dust. Sometimes all it leaves is a feeling.

At Artistry, the residue is one of redemptive joy.

'Godspell'
By: Stephen Schwartz. Directed by Vanessa Brooke Agnes.
Where: Artistry, Bloomington Center for the Arts, 1800 W. Old Shakopee Road, Bloomington.
When: 7:30 p.m. Wed.-Sat., 2 p.m. Sun. with a 7:30 p.m. pay-what-you-can performance July 31. Ends Aug. 13.
Tickets: $26-$56. 952-563-8575 or artistrymn.org.