Entertainment

Stage set for 'Moses'

The cast of 'Moses' sings one of the selections from the musical which opens April 30 at the National Arena. - Winston Sill

WHILE THE STORY of the painful passion of Christ continues to make waves at international box offices, the story of Moses is preparing to make its way to the Jamaican stage.

Written by Father Richard Ho Lung and directed by Alwyn Bully, Moses will open at the National Arena on Friday, April 30 and will run through to Sunday May 9. Moses will generally run from Friday to Sunday, except in its final weekend, when a Thursday morning show will be run instead.

Moses was launched at the head offices of its major sponsors, Grace Kennedy and Company Limited on Tuesday. As with previous Father Ho Lung and Friends productions, the proceeds from the musical will go toward running The Missionaries of the Poor projects

Precedent

In 2000, Father Ho Lung and Friends set a precedent to Moses by staging Jesus 2000 which received overwhelming crowd support, at the National Arena. Boasting a cast of 81 members, almost three times that of Jesus 2000, Moses promises to be a spectacular event which captures the miraculous nature of the story.

At the launch, Father Ho Lung noted that the numerous miracles in the story of Moses, was one of the major challenges to staging the production. Another major challenge was making a story taken from the Old Testament of the Bible remain relevant to today's world.

From the sample presented on Tuesday, the music appears to be very varied. A small sample of the cast, accompanied by Wynton Williams on Keyboards, performed three songs: I Am Who Am, Baccanal and Our Father. Williams, also leads the cast in the role of Moses' and assisted in creating music for the production.

Other lead players for Moses are Karl Williams (Pharaoh), Darcy Tulloch (Zipporah), and Leroy Palmer (Aaron). The creative team also includes PJ Stewart assisting with set design, Denise Robinson as costume designer and the choreography of Paula Shaw.