Hunter Parrish's Stunning Performance of Beautiful City

Actor - Hunter Parrish

Sometimes a teen heartthrob is so much more than just a pretty face.

On my writing retreat in Arcata last month, I had no WiFi or cable TV. After long days of editing and writing, I rested my brain each night by escaping into an assortment of movies and television shows on DVD. There were several I enjoyed, but none more than the Showtime original series Weeds.

Weeds is a half-hour comedy-drama that stars Mary Louise Parker as an unlikely pot-dealing soccer mom, whose shady "business" deals and questionable parenting decisions constantly put her family at risk.

But this post is not about Weeds, or for that matter, about my time in Arcata. This post is about Jesus. Kind of.

Weeds co-stars a young actor named Hunter Parrish. In the series, the twenty-five year-old Parrish plays Silas Botwin, the oldest son of Mary Louis Parker who joins the family marijuana business.

Silas is not a character with great depth, and he's seldom given the best lines of dialogue in the show. His character is not especially bright nor does he possess any particularly interesting talents, with the notable exception of having a pot grower's green thumb. Oh, and a well-built torso that the producers wisely find ways to showcase every few episodes.

I don't mean to imply that Hunter Parrish lacks talent or that he turns in an inadequate acting performance. Weeds is well-written and Parrish makes the most of the material he's given as he brings Silas to life. But truthfully, after watching four seasons of the show, I assumed he was mostly cast as Silas because his blonde hair and buff physique were a good match for a shallow SoCal pot-growing college drop-out.

All of this is to say - I was shocked when I recently discovered through Twitter that Hunter Parrish also played the role of Jesus in the 2011 Broadway revival of Godspell. Based on his portrayal of Silas, I would not have guessed that Parrish was mature enough for Godspell or Broadway, and I certainly had no idea he could sing.

Just before I drifted off to sleep last night, as I lay in bed taking a last gander at Twitter for the day, I stumbled on a few references to Parrish's Broadway work. Those tweets ultimately linked me to a YouTube video of his performance of the song Beautiful City from Godspell.

Hunter's performance was so profoundly moving that I wept as I listened to him sing. I watched the video a second time, and I wept again.

This morning I researched how the song fits into Godspell. After Jesus (Parrish) becomes angry and turns over the tables in the temple, he walks away from his disciples. When he is later reunited with them, Jesus sings Beautiful City to try and restore hope to his followers. I watched the video clip again, and with the added context of the song's meaning, found it even more impacting.

A performance like this is a remarkable unexpected gift from the songwriter and the singer, and I for one, am grateful. I hope you like it too.