Premiere Announced for ‘His Story’ Musical About Jesus
By Movieguide® Contributor
A homeschooled daughter who first heard the Hamilton album on a bus in Kenya, set out to create a musical God called her to write.
Anna Miriam Brown didn’t know how to play the piano just 6 years ago but now has written the musical, His Story.
“I was praying and talking to God, and I felt like God spoke to me and told me that my way of sharing the faith I’d found wasn’t going to be through traveling or telling people the old-fashioned way,” Brown stated. “It was going to be through music, and through the way this ‘Hamilton’ musical had impacted me.”
Brown made many alliances in the making of the show, some being with Broadway Veterans and other evangelical celebrities. Bruce Lazarus and Jeff Calhoun are amongst those who joined producers Willie and Korie Robertson from Duck Dynasty.
According to Calhoun, he felt extremely “blessed.”
“Normally it takes, like, seven years to put a musical together; we put this together in, like, 14 months, and we raised 7.5 million dollars in a very short period of time,” Lazarus expressed.
Brown envisioned the show to provide encouragement to other Gen Zers that are anxious about the purpose and meaning of life. With that said, she created the concept album however, she never thought it would go any further.
By the time Lazarus heard the third song he just wept. Soon after, Lazarus met Brown in NYC to team up and create the show.
“Coming out of the pandemic, it gave me time to look at my career in the rearview mirror. I was going to an insecure or dark place,” said Calhoun. “This show fulfills many voids. I felt confident I could turn it into a beautiful piece of art for the stage, but also it was healing for me, too, being around this material. It’s been healing for me, both professionally and personally.”
Movieguide® recently reported on the musical:
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.
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