A Christmas Celebration

Last night Jessica and I took some time together to enjoy the Spirit of the Season. We went to Michael McLean's production of The Forgotten Carols. Neither of us have ever seen the play. I'd heard the album (it being among the rich variety of LDS "approved" music I learned to love as a missionary), and Jessica had both listened to the album and read the book. We really didn't know how it would be--whether Michael McLean himself would actually be there or not, whether it would just be one song after another or more of a play, etc.

Well, as it turns out, it is a play and Michael McLean is not only there but plays the main character, John (as in, the Beloved Disciple). The play was wonderful. The Timpview High School Choir provided the choral parts--just as a side note, I love Utah where it is still permissible for high school choirs to learn and perform songs with religious themes. The music was amazing, and the main soloist had a most incredible voice. We loved it.

But what really made the night special was the "encore" as it were. I'd heard before that Michael McLean is a very personable performer, but what he did after the play was over was just terrific! As is customary after musicals, the cast came out on stage and bowed while the crowd cheered, but after the rest of the cast left, Michael stayed on the stage and starting engaging the audience and told us that he wanted to perform his carol from his own heart--a beautiful song that he had the soloist from the play perform. The choir joined in and the words said something about "Arise, and let His light shine through you." It was clear that they really wanted the audience to arise, to stand up, to get into the song (which was very Gospel-esque). Finally, the majority-Mormon crowd stood up and began to clap along, perhaps feeling a little bit of what it would be like to attend a Pentecostal worship service.

After this song ended, Michael went over to the piano and after some banter about performing with his wife of 33 years, he began tapping out one of his most famous tunes (at least to Latter-day Saints): "Together Forever." He said that he has a difficult time with goodbyes, and what was wonderful is that he was being really sincere. He loves to perform and loves to lift and inspire, and he hates to end his performances. So he bid us farewell for about 45 minutes while having us sing along to the chorus of "Together Forever." After the first attempt by the audience to sing, he said, "Well. That was really reverent."

He stood up and said, "Some of you might be Mormon, so I'll try to help you out a bit," and proceeded to sing the chorus while leading with his hand moving up for higher notes and down for lower notes (hoping, I'm certain, to give us all Primary flashbacks). He then had us "link-up" as he called it. This simply meant holding hands or linking arms with those next to you, something I was already doing with Jessica but (obviously) not the person on my left, whom I had never met and whose name I did not get. But we went ahead and linked anyway, and then sang with more heart...

It was a wonderful performance. After all this, he then asked that we not applaud anymore, but all hum together "Silent Night" while we thought about the Savior. It was a powerful moment. What a fun night we had.