THE LEADING MEN: The Men of Godspell — Two Sides of Wallace Smith: John and Judas

By Michael Gioia
14 Dec 2011

Wallace Smith
Wallace Smith

The Playbill Leading Men columns this month focus on the disciples of Broadway's Godspell. Wallace Smith chats about his handful of Broadway credits, his aspirations as a songwriter and the Godspell "Graveyard."

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Wallace Smith, who was last seen on Broadway "calling out to idiot America" in Green Day's American Idiot, is now calling out to the followers of the Lord — opening the production of Godspell as John the Baptist and gathering the troops with the Stephen Schwartz classic "Prepare Ye." Less than halfway into the show, however, Smith switches hats and takes on the role of Judas Iscariot, a disciple famed for the betrayal of Jesus.

With 11 years of contemporary-Christian songwriting under his belt, Smith explains how religion played a part in his Godspell creative process when faced with the Schwartz material for the first time. Read more about it.

Before Godspell, you came right from American Idiot. Your Broadway credits also include Ragtime, Hair and The Lion King. You've been going from one show to the next.
Wallace Smith: It's been a dream come true. I never expected this journey. It really all started when I began doing Lion King out on the road. After doing the national tour for about three years, they brought me to Broadway in 2007. I did The Lion King for a year from June of 2007 until June of 2008. I never expected to get one Broadway credit, so to get one, I was absolutely satisfied. A year later, they brought Ragtime back and I joined that show. [After Ragtime] I just thought I'd go back to California, which is where I'm from. Santa Monica is my home base.
Smith in The Lion King
photo by Joan Marcus
Surprisingly enough, they were having auditions for Hair. I was cast and I did that for a couple months. Literally, right when that was coming to an end, I had an audition for American Idiot, which I hadn't seen. All I knew was that it was a musical that Green Day wrote. I actually left American Idiot before it closed because I was working on a project called White Noise, which is the show that Whoopi Goldberg is spearheading, so I went to Chicago to do that [through May 2011]. I had the majority of the summer off, and here I am again. It has been such a wonderful rollercoaster ride. I think the journey, for me, has made being a part of this community that much more precious and important to me. It's very inspiring — my journey — to my peers and to me.

How did you first get involved with this production of Godspell?
WS: I had an audition like everyone else. I had never done Godspell — not in high school, not in college. This is my first time ever looking at the material. It was the typical audition process. Right before [the audition process] wrapped up, I had a meeting with Stephen Schwartz — of course, I'm tripping over the fact that I'm standing before Stephen Schwartz — and after that [the producers said], "We want you to be a part of this special show." It just happened. We were all thrown into this show and had to get well acquainted with each other and trust each other really fast, which now we do without thinking.

Tell me about working with the cast.
WS: For me, it's such a great learning experience because we all bring something to the table that nobody else can bring. Because Godspell is such an ensemble-driven piece, you really are able to see the strengths of each and every person. It's like we're all one body. We depend upon each other so much, and that also carries over outside of work. Our camaraderie goes so far beyond the stage. We really do joke around and play around a lot. It seems cliché to say that we love each other, [but] we were thrown into a situation with so much love, that it just transcended into all of us.

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