Anna Brown and Korie Robertson Discuss New Faith-Filled Project, HIS STORY: THE MUSICAL
By Movieguide® Staff
After seven years in the making, singer-songwriter Anna Miriam Brown announced the debut of her musical, HIS STORY: THE MUSICAL.
After a mission trip to Africa as a 16-year-old, Anna heard the Broadway musical HAMILTON for the first time.
Shortly after, Anna began to write songs for a musical that tells the story of Jesus in a unique, vibrant and multi-genre style.
After the release of her studio album in 2019, HIS STORY: THE MUSICAL will hit the live stage in May, 2023.
Their site reads:
His Story: The Musical is a Broadway-style theatrical event, 2000 years in the making. In this new contemporary pop musical based on the life of Jesus, a common-man-from-a-sketchy-family arrives in the big city and defies expectations. He speaks great wisdom, but chooses friends from the dregs of society and hangs out in the wrong part of town. Mocked by the establishment, he is adored by the people. His Story: The Musical brings this iconic story into the third millennium with a contemporary voice and timeless perspective that engages the essential struggles of our global humanity reminding all of the universal power of love and redemption.
Two-time Tony Award nominated director Jeff Calhoun Tony Award nominated producer Bruce Lazarus directed the project, with DUCK DYNASTY’s Willie and Korie Robertson as producers.
Korie recently told Movieguide® how excited her and her husband were to support Anna’s project after watching a workshop version of the musical.
“It was just this beautiful, creative, artistic way of showing Jesus and his disciples and the life he lived,” she said. “All these things that you read about the Bible just came to life, even just on an iPhone, just imagining what that’s gonna look like on the stage really brought us to tears.”
The Robertson’s are no strangers to the entertainment industry, which is often lacking in high-quality, faith-filled projects.
However, Korie said that HIS STORY checked all the boxes when it came to its quality.
“That is a key element of this project, that the quality is done by people who are at the top of their game in the Broadway musical industry,” she explained. “You just don’t get that a lot.”
“It’s a-list people that know what they’re doing in every aspect from music design, to director, to executive producer, they have all done this before in the mainstream world, and have been hugely successful in that,” she added. “So to get to see people at the top of their game, do something that is actually spreading the name of Jesus and furthering the kingdom of God. It’s just really, really exciting and powerful.”
Anna, 21, said that despite the idea for HIS STORY years ago, the purpose behind telling the story of hope and faith has remained the same.
“It hasn’t changed, but it’s definitely deepened,” she told Movieguide®. “Just over the last few years especially, seeing how crazy the world has gotten, and how much the world has been through together… I’ve seen so many people dealing with so much anxiety and depression and it’s gotten so dark at points,” she said. “But for me, I’ve been able to keep a stable peace. I know that’s because of our relationship with Jesus and my faith.”
She continued: “If anything, just seeing everything the last couple of years, it’s really made my passion grow for getting this message out because I know how much His story changed my life, the story of the gospel, and I just want more people to be able to experience that as soon as possible.”
Korie said that one aspect of the musical that first drew her and Willie to the project was Anna’s lyrics.
“There’s so much actual scripture in the songs and the lyrics throughout it,” she said of the songs. “They’re so fun. As a believer who loves the word of God, whenever you watch it, you’re hearing pieces of Scripture all the way through it. I think that’s such a beautiful thing.”
“It’s so true to God’s word, and I can tell that she[Anna] loves God’s Word so much and is just putting it on stage for us,” she added.
HIS STORY: THE MUSICAL is set to debut at The Broadway Tent at Grandscape in Colony, Texas on May 5, 2023.
Despite recognition of her musical from award-winning directors and industry experts, Anna said that she and her sister surrendered the project to God from its earliest stages.
“Me and Rachel, my sister, we do a lot of this together,” she said. “We never even really had a big dream to do this. It wasn’t like we wanted to get a musical and put it on the stage and all this kind of stuff. It was God’s dream, and he shared it with us.”
“We don’t ever know what the next step is going to be. It’s just incredible how the Spirit has led,” she continued.
Anna added that the faith-filled musical is not only meant to appeal to Christians, but act as a ministry tool to share the good news of the gospel with anyone who watches.
“For me, the goal is for people, even people who aren’t interested at all in a spiritual journey, that they would go and they would see a new side of Jesus that would just attract them to the gospel and to who Jesus really is,” Anna explained. “I really have been praying for years that the true presence of God would come and people would encounter not just a beautiful, artsy experience that’s creative and masterfully done, but the actual presence of God would be there.”
“I know that that’s possible because I’ve experienced it,” she added. “I’ve experienced it through music and worship. So that’s just what I have really been praying and fasting for, the real Shekinah glory of God, and that people would just really be changed and get set free.”
Korie added: “I think that our focus is that people just fall in love with Jesus. People are gonna identify with the different storylines, the different characters who are biblical characters… Peter, Judas, and Mary Magdalene, and mother Mary…”
“The hope is that we’re telling our story to introduce them to the story of Jesus because a story of Jesus is what impacted our lives,” she continued. “It’s who we are. It impacts everything that we do. So we hope that they’re introduced to Jesus. But in this we get to just go straight to the source. We just need to introduce people directly to Jesus. That’s so exciting for us to get to just be involved in this project.”
Tickets for HIS STORY: THE MUSICAL can be found on Ticketmaster.com.
