Saturday, July 18, 2020

222. HARD JOB BEING GOD. From my (unpublished) ENCYCLOPEDIA OF THE NEW YORK STAGE, 1970-1975

Stu Freeman, Gini Eastwood, John Twomey, Anne Sarofeen, Tom Martel.

HARD JOB BEING GOD [Musical/Bible/Fantasy/Period/Religion] M/LY; Tom Martel; SC: the Bible: Old Testament and Apocrypha; D: Bob Yde; CH: Lee Theodore; S: Ray Wilke; C: Mary Whitehead; L: Patrika Brown; P: Bob Yde i/a/w Andy Wiswell; T: Edison Theatre; 5/15/72-5/20/72 (6)

An intimate, low-budget rock musical based on episodes in the Old Testament, in which each actor in the small troupe played several roles. Composer-lyricist Tom Martel played one role—God, “a whining creature . . . spavined and spineless,” who hates his job because he has to keep giving, but gets nothing in return.

“Everything about Hard Job was on the same crushing level of unconscious failure,” declared Edith Oliver. Clive Barnes felt likewise about this “simplistic, naïve and distasteful” show. Hard Job Being God had a hard job competing with the era’s other religion-inspired musicals, such as Godspell and Jesus Christ Superstar.