Let the Schwartz Be With You

[Music] The closest this gay pagan ever came to having a Christian conversion was from watching the energetic number "O Bless the Lord My Soul" which, ironically, was composed by the gay Jewish composer Stephen Schwartz.

I regret that Schwartz won't be joining the Great Gay Boycott of 2009--but I still call out City Weekly music experts Jamie Gadette and Ryan Bradford to watch the 1973 movie adaptation of Godspell, Schwartz's version of the Gospel of St. Matthew. I love it, and I will hear nothing against it--Godspell is the perfect antidote to dreary postmodernist irony. Watch it enough times and, like me, you might even find yourself in danger of getting Born Again.

(Note: You may recognize Lynne Thigpen, who played The Chief in the mid-1980s PBS series Where in the World Is Carmen Sandiego?)



(Brandon Burt)