With choreographer Ellen Price instilling some fine, natural movement and musical director Roxanna Ward heading a three-piece combo offstage, Laguna’s young “Godspell” radiates energy and dedication. The show contains a prologue — a sort of tower of babble — in which the great thinkers of history, from Socrates to Buckminster Fuller, expound on their philosophies before John the Baptist scatters them with his opening number, “Prepare Ye the Way of the Lord.” It may have seemed like a good idea to Schwartz and Tebelak at the time, but it’s both tedious and superfluous — and often discarded.
“Godspell” has nearly four decades on its odometer and is frequently revived. Yet the show continues to captivate whether its audience is religious or not.
IF YOU GO
WHAT: “Godspell”
WHERE: Laguna Playhouse, 606 Laguna Canyon Road
WHEN: Closing performances at 2 and 7:30 p.m. today and Saturday, and 1 and 5 p.m. Sunday
