Just in case you didn’t you didn’t get your hippy-dippy fix with the recent revival of Hair, there’s now the 40th anniversary production of Godspell to help you get your groove on. Stephen Schwartz’s 1971 musical, conceived and originally directed by John-Michael Tebelak, retells the story of Jesus through a series of musical numbers adapted from the Gospel of St. Matthew. In this new version conveniently playing next door to the same composer’s Wicked, you’ll hear references to, among other things, Steve Jobs, Facebook, the birther controversy, Donald Trump, Occupy Wall Street and Lindsay Lohan.

Don’t remember such things from your Bible studies class? Not to worry. This version is designed to be strictly of the moment, as contemporary as a special episode of Glee, which is it most closely resembles.

Your tolerance for this sort of thing will depend on whether you find the idea of the above gags amusing and the prospect of being invited onstage at intermission to mingle with the cast and partake of some “wine” appealing.

To be fair, the mostly young audience ate it up. But to also be fair to those of us of a certain age, they probably haven’t sat through innumerable previous productions of the show, or seen the lamentable film version.

The relentless jokiness of the proceedings, which is thankfully alleviated in the second act—presumably that’s because it’s hard to have quite as much fun with such matters as Judas’ betrayal and the Crucifixion—becomes tiresome.

Not that the evening is without its pleasures. They are chiefly derived from Schwartz’s tuneful pop/rock score, which contains such memorable numbers as “Day by Day” and “Turn Back, O Man,” and the amazingly high energy of the youthful ensemble, who perform as if their life depends on it. The sole weak link was Hunter Parrish (Weeds) as Jesus, who lacks the voice to put over the ballads or the charisma to be convincing as the leader of a new religion. Of course, his hunky good looks went a long way towards overcoming these deficiencies for the young women in attendance, who seemed to melt every time he flashed his toothy grin. Which was a lot.

Director Daniel Goldstein certainly makes excellent use of the intimate Circle in the Square space, having the actors running up and down the aisles while making every effort to directly engage with audience members. The staging even has the band members situated throughout the auditorium, wailing away on their electric guitars. Like everything else about the show, such the overly aggressive musical arrangements, they seemed to be trying too hard.

Circle in the Square, 1633 Broadway. 212-239-6200. www.Telecharge.com.