If you know me, you know my love and enjoyment of musical theater. That is my other job, teaching voice for the theater department at Texas Wesleyan University. You may have also heard that Broadway is back and opening up. So just get ready for my comments and dialogue about it. It has been way too long for the performing arts to be silent...and even more so for the performing artists who create magic on the Broadway stage, on the Concert Stage, and in Places of Worship to be silent. How much we have craved the magic of making music together, telling a story that only music can do, and enjoying and experiencing that as a group of people on the same journey towards the same goal. I know The Lion King is not a "church" show, but it does have an impact on the audience. When I played the tour when it came through Dallas, there was not a show that I didn’t walk in the stage door and want to vomit. It is definitely the most difficult show I have ever played!! However, when the show started with that solo voice and when the "elephant" walked across the bridge over the orchestra pit, I suddenly became a part of the magic that was happening. Something I wouldn’t trade for anything!
Here is a link for a Youtube video of the first rehearsal of The Lion King into Broadway’s return. I want you to listen to what the director has to say at the beginning. And then watch the emotion and excitement as the cast begins to sing for the first time in over a year and a half.
Incredible! Right? I want you to think about what the director said:
They are surrounded by beauty. You see the people, and they don’t know why but they cry. It’s the sound, it’s the beauty, and it’s the reality of what the power of theater is which is to suspend disbelief.
Is that not we want to do every week in worship? If The Lion King can elicit that kind of excitement and emotional response, shouldn’t what we offer in worship elicit even more? Let’s offer beauty. Let’s offer hope. Let’s offer excitement. Let’s offer anticipation. Let’s offer the joy of knowing our Savior, Jesus Christ! Did you notice all of that on the faces of the cast? I don’t expect you to pound on your chest or jump up and down, but isn’t that inspiring to see? Can we find that kind of joy in creating beauty for our God? I pray so!!
Written By: Michael Plantz