Playing God

The Bible on the Broadway Stage

Subjects: Theater and Performance, American Studies, Religion, Music
Paperback : 9780472052929, 260 pages, 15 photos, 1 figure, 6 x 9, August 2015
Hardcover : 9780472072927, 260 pages, 15 photos, 1 figure, 6 x 9, August 2015
Ebook : 9780472121519, 260 pages, 15 B&W Photos and 1 Figure, 6 x 9, August 2015
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A fascinating look at how the Bible has inspired Broadway plays and musicals, from Ben-Hur to Jesus Christ Superstar

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Description

Biblical texts have inspired more than 100 Broadway plays and musicals, ranging from early spectacles like Ben-Hur (1899) to more familiar works such as Godspell and Jesus Christ Superstar. What happens when a culture’s most sacred text enters its most commercial performance venue? Playing God focuses on eleven successful productions, as well as a few notable flops that highlight the difficulties in adapting the Old and New Testaments for the stage. The book is informed by both performance studies and theater history, combining analysis of play scripts with archival research into the actual circumstances of production and reception. Biblical plays, Henry Bial argues, balance religious and commercial considerations through a complex blend of spectacle, authenticity, sincerity, and irony. Though there is no magic formula for a successful adaptation, these four analytical lenses help explain why some biblical plays thrive while others have not.

Henry Bial is Professor of Theatre and Director of the School of the Arts, University of Kansas. 

“Henry Bial’s keen dramaturgical eye, love of Broadway lore, and deep respect for faith and faith concerns elevate his subject. He asks what it means to balance the demands of theatrical (and commercial) representation with the challenge of doing justice to transcendent ideas and personages... Bial’s writing is incisive and sophisticated but also accessible and, frankly, fun.”
— John Fletcher, Louisiana State University

“A detailed and entertaining overview of more than 100 years of Biblical theatre on the Great White Way, Playing God asks important questions about the complex interplay between theological, commercial, and aesthetic enterprises found in scripturally inspired theatre.  Henry Bial's love for the American stage and deep respect for religious practice shine as he addresses the interplay between religious antitheatricality and secular antireligious sentiment, all the while asking significant questions about adaptation, representation and transcendence. An important, and enjoyable, read for any scholar of religious performance, or lover of Broadway.”
— The Reverend Canon Julia Whitworth, Cathedral Church of Saint John the Divine

“In Henry Bial’s fascinating study of Broadway stage adaptations of the Bible, theater and church meet and greet, celebrate or offend, garner glowing reviews or get panned, pack houses or close quickly, are frequently revived or quickly forgotten.  Bial offers a terrifically useful series of Broadway Bible-adaptation keywords… through which he smartly reads a wealth of archival materials and playscripts.  This new excavation of U.S. theatre history gives readers—religious or not—compelling performance analyses and a vibrant sense of being-there.”
— Stacy Wolf, Princeton University

Winner. American Theatre and Drama Society (ATDS) John W. Frick Book Award

- ATDS John W. Frick Book Award

Byron Smith Caldwell Award, winner for non-fiction, 2017

- Hall Center for the Humanities