Amazing Grace: The saga continues

Ten years ago WORLD, I believe, was the first national publication to report of an effort to bring a strong Christian musical to Broadway.

We don’t like to follow a sad but common journalistic tendency—get a story and then abandon those whose lives are tied to it—so it’s a pleasure to report that Amazing Grace, after a short and unsustainable Broadway run in 2015, will in November become the first production ever on the boards of the brand new World Stage Theater at the Museum of the Bible in Washington D.C.

Some critics panned the musical, but some theatergoers walked out onto 41st Street with tears in their eyes.

Amazing Grace is the story of slave trader John Newton, who became a pastor and wrote the famous hymn. The musical comes out of the brain and heart of Chris Smith, a former youth minister and police officer who began work on the musical in 1997. Some critics panned the musical, but some theatergoers walked out onto 41st Street with tears in their eyes.

The production is slated for an eight-week Washington run. Opening night is Nov. 18, followed by a national tour.