Skokie Godspell brings us in

‘All I need is coffee and Jesus’ - Hopeful folk try out stories to live by.

Godspell, Music Theater Works at Northshore Center for the Performing Arts in Skokie: A cool colab between Curt’s Cafe, that provides young adults with support to thrive, and Music

Theater Works brings the audience into a 70s-ish coffee shop with swirling mural and artfully

haphazard comic book decoupage, mismatched tables and chairs. We are in a community

gathering space familiar to me from my 90s college days as well as 20-somethings in the

generations before and after mine. The set is a timeless everyman’s place where important

conversations and revelations happen throughout the ages. All this I absorbed before the

lights went down, so kudos to the set designer Bob Knuth, painters, and builders. Actors in

floral pants mop and sweep the aisles as we come in, making the audience part of the cafe

scene from the start.

Godspell starts with people sitting at tables separate from one another, reading books, tablets,

laptops, phones, with spot lights on characters who look out as unseen voices sing. There is

frequent movement, people coming and going, swapping places, united as a single audience

only when a man sings and invites anyone who wants to join his group to seal their

membership with drops of water on the head from the cooler on the counter. It was John the

Baptist. Then a rival charismatic guy with a guitar comes through the door and up to the stand

mic. Jesus is here to preach. And that’s what the whole show felt like to me - preaching;

miming and acting out parables with strong moral imperatives to be kind, and no uniting story.

I am clearly not familiar with Christian teaching, so maybe the whole show resonates more with

those in the Church, but as a piece of theater it is disjointed, disparate and frankly drags.

Although I did not like the show itself, I love the way it was produced. The very strong cast

sang and danced hard in true rock-opera style. Stand out performances from Dani Pike, Jacob

Simon and Ben Woods drew the somewhat elderly and reserved audience in, and those sitting

at bistro cabaret tables at the the edge of stage were really into it. Tables whirled around on

wheels, actors used all the levels with impressive leaps onto tables and bar. Costumes are

eclectic and work well together, grunge party dresses over shirts with boots, denim jumpsuit

with Rosie the Riveter red accents, bell bottoms, drag, flowery coats and slogan t-shirts

mashed up into a joyful swirl of colors and celebration, not a drab thing on anyone.

I couldn’t believe the band was only four-strong and was delighted to see them to a turn on

stage with the ensemble/understudies at the start of the second act. I enjoyed fine physical

comedy from Kaitlin Feely and on-the-nose one-liners from the priest and judge in The Good

Samaritan bit - ‘Thoughts and Prayers’ and ‘Where are your papers?’ respectively. Nice use of

the set to be a prison, ark, rave in a barn, and spinning dance podium. The light design by Levi

J Wilkins is very good, and the heartbeat and pulsating red lights at tense moments works well.

Though the second act is predictably more sombre, it opens with an excellent drag song pulled

off with appropriate aplomb by Nicolas Ian. The most moving song is a beautiful duet between

Tafadzwa Diener and Dani Pike, countered by a fine self-referential ad lib by Jacob Simon

turning a prayer to The Father into a flashback appeal to his father ‘but I don’t want to play

baseball, I am creative’, that has the rest of the cast take a quick time out to check he was

good to continue. I would like to have seen Maxwell J DeTogne and Ben Woods be given more

to do, as they drew me in to their subtle performances. I would come back for Maxwell’s JC if

he went on as the understudy. Eldon Warner-Soriano was good as Jesus, calm and inclusive in

the face of adoration. The contrast between his stature and the height/presence of other cast

members worked well in conveying his quiet power.

The British comedian Alexi Style did a great bit in the 80s when I was a kid, on how Christians

making the sign of the cross in blessing evoke the means of execution, and how bizarre it

would be to instead simulate death by electric chair or hanging. This time round Jesus dies on

a cross made up from the coffee bar, and is helped along by the strands of cafe bulbs tying

him to the crucifix buzzing intermittently as he grimaces and dies.

The program notes emphasize community and inclusion, how we all need third spaces to

gather and talk to people who are not like us, made real by the audience down to the stage for

coffee and chat at intermission. It was a bit odd then that at the show’s close champagne and

slabs of cake were being prepared in the lobby, with a barricade of chairs around them, much

like when the chairs on set became walls and jails. If there are celebratory refreshments on

tempting display, why are they not for everyone? I guess it was a private party for cast and

friends for opening night, but why was it on public show, excluding the audience as they left? A

weird way to exit a show about everyone coming tighter in radical love, or as the Producing

Artistic Director Kyle Dougan-LeBlanc has it, ‘your presence helps make this circle of

community, creativity, and care complete’. All the Cs except cake.

Godspell runs at the NorthShore Center for the Performing Arts until November 16th.

Tickets at 847 673 6300 and https://www.musictheaterworks.com/2025-season/godspell/

 For more reviews go to https://www.theatreinchicago.com