‘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.