Making 'His Story': Pop musical retelling of the life of Jesus coming to North Texas
LEWISVILLE, Texas — The greatest story ever told is coming to a Broadway-style tabernacle in the Lone Star State.
Based on the life of Jesus, "His Story: The Musical" tells the tale of the Savior as a “common man from an obscure family” type who arrives in the big city and proceeds to turn the world upside down.
Performing miracles and speaking words of great wisdom, Jesus defies expectations by choosing unlikely friends and hanging out in the wrong part of town, making him adored by the people but disdained by the establishment.
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Based on original music and lyrics from Anna Miriam Brown and produced by Tony Award-nominated Bruce Lazarus, Willie and Korie Robertson, the stars of "Duck Dynasty," and Tony Award-nominated director Jeff Calhoun, "His Story" is set to open next month in the state-of-the-art Broadway Tent at Grandscape in The Colony, about 10 miles north of Dallas.
With a cast composed of young actors primarily from the Dallas-Fort Worth metroplex — “our Jesus is from Plano,” as one of the crew put it — Lazarus said the production will employ as many as 100 people at the Broadway tent, which itself is a state-of-the-art, 1,300-seat theater tent with red plush seating, full climate control and 360-degree overhead projection.
Lazarus said the production was designed to be homegrown in order to help the fast-growing metroplex continue on its path toward becoming a center for theater and the arts.
“This is not a show that’s here for a month or six months, we’re planning to be here for a very long time,” he added.
The show’s genesis began after Lazarus was introduced to a concept album the then-teenage Brown created, which Lazarus first expected to be little more than a “little vanity production.”
“I decided to listen to a song, and the first song just knocked me out, it was interesting,” he recounted. “The second song was, I thought, a pop hit, and I was enthralled with it, and now I was really focused on it, and then the third song made me cry. ... I was just, ‘I have to meet this girl.’”
Brown, who was living in Ukraine at the time, began writing "His Story" after she came across the Broadway hit "Hamilton"and wanted to create something similar.
“I had really just come to my own faith at that point, and … I wanted the story of Jesus to impact people the way the story of 'Hamilton' had impacted me, so I was like, I’ll write a musical.”
After her sister Rachel taught her four chords on the piano, the rest, as they say, was "His Story."
Calhoun, who was nominated for his work on Disney’s "Newsies"and "Bonnie & Clyde," said the project came to him “during a very dark time for me, for a lot of people” at the height of the COVID-19 pandemic.
“The theater was shut down. If you make your livelihood in the theater, what do you do for two-and-a-half years?” he recalled. “And that affects your personal life, and you realize my happiness is intrinsically related to my career … and so it was a dark time for me professionally and personally.”
Since then, said Calhoun, "His Story" has been a “blessing” that has helped him to heal.
“I feel really blessed every day to wake up and be doing what I feel like I was born to do,” he added. “I’m so grateful for that.”
Robertson recalled his reaction to hearing the producer’s name when Calhoun reached out to him about the musical.
“I think the story of how this came together is really just wild,” said Robertson. “When I heard the guy’s name was Lazarus, that got me interested.
“The story of Jesus of Nazareth ... started with pretty much the size group that you’re seeing here, with no money, with no fame, with no internet, with no phone," he said. "Two thousand years later, we’re still talking about it halfway across the globe from where it happened."
"His Story: The Musical"launches an open-ended run starting May 5, with tickets ranging from $39 to $139. For schedules and more information, visit HisStoryTheMusical.com.
Ian M. Giatti is a reporter for The Christian Post. He can be reached at: [email protected].
