Article: "A Broadway Show Friendly to Christians? That's Amazing (Grace)!"

[l***@yahoo.com]

Betsy Hart is a columnist and author. I tried to find this article in more
than one place - but couldn't, oddly.

http://www.betsysblog.com/wordpress/2014/10/30/a-broadway-show-friendly-to-christians-thats-amazing-grace/
(includes photo from production)

First lines:

"If one heard that a musical on Broadway featured a story of a slave
trader turned evangelical - who helped end the institution of slavery in
England almost 60 years before it ended in the U.S. - one would find the
story itself as fantastic as the idea that Broadway would portray the
Christian life in any kind of a positive way.

"But both the history and the positive depiction of Christian faith are
real: 'Amazing Grace,' the musical which opened in what's being hailed
as a pre-Broadway run in Chicago, features the story of John Newton, the
author of the best known hymn in Christendom..."

(snip)


Lenona.

[Steve Newport]

We need more musicals.

"There's nothing quite like the power and the passion of Broadway music.
Musicals carry us to a different time and place, but in the end, they
also teach us a little bit of something about ourselves. It's one of the
few genres of music that can inspire the same passion in an
eight-year-old that it can in an 80-year-old. It transcends musical
tastes. In many ways, the story of Broadway is also intertwined with the
story of America. Some of the greatest singers and songwriters Broadway
has ever known came to this country on a boat with nothing more than an
idea in their head and a song in their heart. And they succeeded the
same way that so many immigrants have succeeded through talent and hard
work and sheer determination. Over the years, musicals have also been at
the forefront of our social consciousness, challenging stereotypes,
shaping our opinions about race and religion, death and disease, power
and politics. But perhaps the most American part of this truly American
art form is its optimism. Broadway music calls us to see the best in
ourselves and in the world around us; to believe that no matter how
hopeless things may seem, the nice guy can still get the girl, the hero
can still triumph over evil, and a brighter day can be waiting just
around the bend."-- President Obama

"Musicals blow the dust off your soul."-- Mel Brooks