Branson Part Tres

In my last post I talked about how we figured out a way to have school on our vacation. Well on Wednesday we figured out a way to have church. We went to see The Noah Musical. This was one of the most incredible musicals I have ever seen. Before the musical we got to have a backstage tour. We were only allowed to take pics of certain things, one being our tour guides, and the other pic of us on the stage with the rows of seats behind us. Our tour guides played a couple of different roles in the musical. The tall guy Mel played Noah's brother, and Jesus at the end, and the shorter guy Kevin played Methuselah and a merchant. They were so nice and funny, and prayed with the group when the tour was over, and even asked if any of us had prayer requests that they would take with them and pray over as the actors met and prayed together before the show started. I was so touched I had to wipe a few tears out of my eyes because you could just feel the presence of the Spirit there. Yes, in this musical they did add more characters and story to the actual Biblical account and they did that to show what people and society were probably like during this time. We got to see where the actors dress and put on their makeup, where they keep the animals, where they keep all of the props and sets and how they move them around the stage, and so much more! The kids loved it. One neat fact is the room where the sets are stored has the same dimensions as the actual ark had, but they didn't realize this until after everything had been built! It was so cool to stand there and look around and see the height, and width, and length that the real ark had.

Sight and Sound is a company that is based in Pennsylvania and began there with their Christian musicals. Then they expanded to Branson. The building was incredible. It was like you were walking in Greece or Italy with beautiful decor and columns, etc. Noah will be playing through 2011 and then in 2012 there will be a new musical, but they wouldn't tell us what it was going to be. The stage is the largest in Branson and the show seats 2000 some people. It wasn't sold out when we were there, but it was pretty close. They use some live animals, and some animatronics, and some people in costumes. Where we were sitting the usher told Evan he had an important job to do. When it was time for the animals to make their way to the ark, two gorillas (people in very realistic costumes, I must say kind of freaky) usually had a tendency to stop by where we were sitting and get off track and not always continue to the stage. Evan's job was to raise his finger and say "No" to them and then they would continue to the stage. Well, that's what happened, and Evan did what he was supposed to and the gorillas continued to the stage and everybody sitting around us got a good laugh out of it. Once Noah and his family are aboard the ark, and after intermission, you come back to your seats, and curtains open up on both sides of the theaters and it is as if you are in the ark. You can kind of see what I mean in the pics I took of the little theater model. The rows of seats you see in the model are just the ones on the floor, there is more raised, stadium-type seats that are not shown in the model. Everything about this place was amazing and I would love to go back at Christmastime and see their show about Jesus' birth, and then go back when their next musical comes to Branson.