Fox announced plans for their next live musical, The Passion of the Christ, set to air on Palm Sunday, according to several reports.
Though the cast has yet to be announced, director, writer and actor Tyler Perry is set to narrate the final days, death and resurrection of our Lord and Savior.
TV Line reports it will involve many iconic New Orleans locations and will culminate in a procession of hundreds carrying a 20-foot, illuminated cross from Champion Square outside the Superdome to the live stage at Woldenburg Park on the banks of the Mississippi River.”
“The Passion is both wonderfully entertaining and genuinely inspirational,” Fox Entertainment president David Madden tells Deadline. “Tyler Perry is the perfect host to lead the cast – and viewers – through the streets of New Orleans in this contemporary re-telling of a timeless story.”
According to the Wall Street Journal, this telling of The Passion is inspired by an annual production that started in 2011 in the Netherlands by Eye2Eye Media, which is serving as a producer for the Fox production along with Dick Clark Productions and Anders Media Inc.
While Easter is supposed to be a time of celebrating Christ’s sacrifice for us, some are questioning if the musical edges on satirical.
“Whether this proves to be a sensation like The Passion of the Christ or an absurdity at the same level as its description will have to remain to be seen until spring,” writes MIC’s Kevin O’Keeffe.
Blogger Erin Wilson watched the Dutch rendition of the musical in 2013.
“Given who its main supporters are, one would be forgiven for thinking that it is an attempt to evangelize, to bring the message of Christianity back into the Dutch mainstream,” Wilson writes. “Yet the support of secular news programs and broadcasters seems to undermine this interpretation. The presentation also does not include any particularly proselytizing elements, other than the retelling of the story itself.”
But Mark Bracco, executive vice president of programming for Dick Clark productions says the musical is about uniting the sacred and the secular.
What do you think? Sound off!
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