This sounds great. Really great, actually. It is one of those endings that just swells in exactly the way you want it to, and on this recording it lands with a real sense of power.
It is not really a traditional Broadway finale in the sense of wrapping up plot and sending you out with one last button. It is more like the show’s emotional and spiritual response to everything that has happened. It is grief, but it is also continuation. The point is not really the Resurrection as a staged event, but the idea that the community has been changed and now carries the message forward.
And that is why it hits. It is hopeful, yes, but not in a lightweight way. It feels strong. Grounded. Genuinely moving.
This is one of those moments where the album reminds you exactly why Godspell can still connect when it is done well. It does not just end. It lifts.
Who Wins This Recording? Hunter Parrish
For me, Hunter Parrish wins this recording. And part of what makes that choice interesting is that Godspell is not really a score built for one giant, flashy star turn. It is an ensemble piece. It moves around. Different people get their moments. So for someone to emerge as the person who really anchors the whole thing, they have to be doing something subtle but essential.
That is exactly what Hunter Parrish does.
He gives the recording its center of gravity. He never feels like he is trying to give you some overly important, overly polished performance of Jesus. Thank God for that. Instead, he stays grounded, warm, and emotionally present in a way that helps the whole album hold together. He brings just enough calm to keep the recording from floating away, but never so much that it goes flat.
And vocally, he sounds great throughout.
Which Song Gets Cut? “Light of the World”
This is the one.
For me, “Light of the World” is one of those Godspell numbers that works better in theory, and probably better onstage, than it does as a listening experience. I get what it is supposed to bring to the show. Energy, chaos, personality, a burst of communal fun. But on the cast recording, it has always felt a little more busy than exciting to me.
Instead of feeling thrillingly loose, it just feels kind of all over the place.
And in a score where I already need the songs to really distinguish themselves, this one has never done that for me in the right way. It stands out, yes, but not as one I am especially excited to revisit.
So if I am cutting one track from this recording, it is “Light of the World.”
Best in the Show: “Beautiful City”
This one is not even difficult for me.
Sometimes Godspell can lean so hard into sincerity that certain songs feel like they are telling you how to feel instead of actually getting you there. “Beautiful City” in this revival does the opposite. It finds a deeper emotional weight, and that makes the optimism land so much harder. It is not naïve. It is not lightweight. It sounds like a song that has actually been through something.
And musically, it is just gorgeous.
This is the moment on the album where everything really comes together for me. The arrangement, the emotion, the restraint, the payoff. It is the clearest example of this revival taking material I liked well enough before and turning it into something I genuinely felt.
So “Beautiful City” is being added to our Best in the Show Playlist.