‘Nazarene’ has ‘Superstar’ feel
Michele Marr
It’s not an icon of generations like “Jesus Christ Superstar” or
“Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat.” It’s not a tradition
like the “Oberammergau Passion Play.” It’s not advertised on
billboards like “The Glory of Christmas.”
But if the pre-sale success of this season’s production of “The
Nazarene” is any indication, it might just be on the road to all
those things.
This original musical, a fresh take on the age-old nativity story
told in the gospels of Matthew and Luke, will debut Saturday at the
Huntington Beach Playhouse Theater.
It started as just a song, a song about Joseph -- not Joseph of
the many-colored coat but Joseph, husband of Mary -- and about
Christmas.
Moses Toth had been a working musician since the age of 10. He had
recorded and toured with Kids Praise and Kolby, two popular Christian
children’s choral groups, and later worked with the high school and
college-age Heartsong while he studied music education at Orange
Coast College and Cal State Long Beach.
“I’d begun messing around on the piano ... just to see if I could
[write the song],” said Toth, who is now director of music at Seaside
Community Church. “It was a personal challenge.”
His mother mentioned the song “Joseph” to the pastors at Seaside
and they asked Toth, “Why don’t you write a musical?”
The church’s Web site describes the musical as “The Christmas
story and the message of salvation presented through humor and song.”
He wanted the characters to be funny and serious. So he modeled
them after his family.
“I am Jewish,” Toth explained. “So I put in a lot of Jewish
humor.”
He finished the two-hour, 13-song play just before summer this
year. Then he and Steve Wilber, director and co-producer of the
musical, began auditions.
The story begins, according to Wilber, before man is created,
tracing God’s plan back in time, setting the ground to illuminate why
Mary was chosen, why Joseph was chosen, to be the parents of Jesus.
Toth believes the play, performed by a 25-member cast and a live
orchestra, has broad appeal and is enjoyable and accessible for
Christian and secular audiences.
“If the message of this musical is what the last song says, ‘I
need a savior,’ which I believe it is, I want people ... when they
hear that song, to have seen a couple of hours worth of people just
like them, so they can say, ‘I need a savior just like Mary and
Joseph, just like those people back then did,’” Toth said.
* MICHELE MARR is a freelance writer from Huntington Beach. She
can be reached at michele@soulfoodfiles.com.
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