Godspell (1971)
Stephen Nathan
In striped bell bottoms and clown
makeup, Nathan established the durable image
of Jesus as a happy hippie. He ended up in
a scattering of small-screen work, then shifted
to work in TV production.
Photo: ” Billy Rose Theatre Division, The New York Public Library for the Performing Arts, Astor, Lenox, and
Tilden Foundations
Corpus Christi (1998)
Anson Mount
In Terrence McNally’s award-winning play about
a gay modern-day Jesus who marries two apostles to one another, Mount received good notices;
since then, he’s done mostly film and TV, as well as Classic Stage Company’s recent Three Sisters.
Photo: Joan Marcus
The Last Days of Judas Iscariot (2005)
John Ortiz
Ortiz, coming off his run in Anna in the Tropics, made an intense cameo in Stephen Adly Guirgis’s courtroom seriocomedy. Probably the most successful Savior: He’s co-artistic director of the LAByrinth Theater Company.
Photo: Sara Krulwich/The New York Times/Redux
Passion Play (2010)
Hale Appleman
Meta-Jesus: Appleman played actors
from three different eras in the Easter spectacle’s lead role, to good reviews, in a small Brooklyn production pegged to Ruhl’s Broadway debut with In the Next Room.
Photo: Carol Rosegg
Godspell (2011)
Hunter Parrish
The actor best known for his
role on Weeds starred in Spring Awakening before it closed, but this is his first
time opening a show. Can Parrish
break the streak?
Photo: Jeremy Daniel
