Theirs Is The Bounty

J. Todd Anderson Presents Nativity: A Pop Opera

“And the angel said unto them, Fear not: for, behold, I bring you good tidings of great joy, which shall be to all people. For unto you is born this day in the city of David a Saviour, which is Christ the Lord. And this [shall be] a sign unto you; Ye shall find the babe wrapped in swaddling clothes, lying in a manger.”
~Luke 2:10

With cascading voices held aloft by the melodic phrasing of an electric guitar, the influence of Hair, Godspell and Tommy can be palpably felt through the works of J. Todd Anderson's Nativity: A Pop Opera. Anderson, whose career was profiled in the DCP recently, wrote and performed the opera some years ago, setting it aside momentarily as his own career began to take off. In 2008, he reprised the opera, mildly surprised to find that the audience was still waiting for this electrified Christmas story.

“We did the opera years ago and then I just got busy after that for many, many years, and we decided to reprise it because people remembered it. We performed it last year and we kind of picked up where we left off years ago...kind of like one of those Twilight Zone episodes.” Anderson then said, “I was kind of worried that the material got old, but it didn't seem to get old. People still enjoy it. We did it last year and it was good and we decided it was a pretty good success and we'd do it again.”

With a crew of around seventy volunteers, Anderson has updated the opera with a few new numbers as well as higher production qualities.

“It's just much bigger now.” Anderson detailed that, “We added a few songs and better sound, better lighting and a lot more voices.”

In describing what kind of music and atmosphere that the opera projects, Anderson describing as being;

“In the vein of the old rock opera. If you grew up in the seventies and you experienced all that great music from that era, all that great melodic music that came out of that era. That great melodic rock and roll that we all grew up on, that's what we're trying to emulate.”

One of the unique qualities of the opera is that it is written through the eyes of the angels that attended the Nativity.

“The 'secret' is between the audience and the angels and everybody else is kind of going through exactly what you've been told all your life. In fact, we take it way back to John the Baptist.” Anderson went on to say , “That's where all the Christmas stories started and we take it back to that, with Zachariah and things like that.”

Anderson went on to describe the vibe of the opera as a whole as being;

“A lighthearted approach. I mean, there's a lot of things that happened two thousand years ago that just weren't written about, so we kind of guessed at those things, like with the innkeeper. Maybe he was a little irritated by people bugging him.” Anderson went on, “Or like Herod, a very paranoid king...we just took what was written about him and then we just kind of embellished it a little bit because of his history of being kind of a rotten guy. As Hitchcock used to say, 'the picture is only as good as the villain,' so we made sure that Herod was a good villain...good in the sense of theatrically, not good in that he was a characteristically good fellow. He was a rotten guy and we kind of play that up.”

The inspiration for the opera itself may have ranged from Tommy and Hair to an innate need to celebrate Christmas, but the idea to donate all the proceeds came from quite another source altogether.

“Quite a few years ago, I worked on this movie called The Hudsucker Proxy and I met Paul Newman. And when Paul Newman was there in the office, I would say hello to him because we were both auto racing fans. He would always have this assistant with him. It wasn't his travel assistant...it was a different kind of assistant. This assistant gave away his money every day.”

Anderson related the story of how this woman saw to Newman's many philanthropic endeavors and how Anderson was amazed at how Newman gave away money to those less fortunate with such a cool hand. Anderson decided, along with some of the original members of the opera, to make Children's Medical Center the beneficiary for the proceeds raised by the ticket sales.

“It's about Christmas and it was about kids at Christmastime and that's not a fun place to be in a hospital at Christmastime.” Anderson said. “We thought that if we could help parents and kids that were in that position, that would be the ultimate byproduct of the show because it is Christmastime and while other people are having a pretty good Christmas, some people aren't. So, we're just there, hopefully, to add some comfort and make a difference.”

A 100% of the money raised goes to the Children's Medical Center's 'Needy Patient Fund,' which provides the necessities of life to those who are are not financially able to sustain the essentials of day to day life, such as food, prescriptions and medical equipment, among other things.

Where: Miamisburg Christian Church 1146 E. Central Avenue, Miamisburg, OH
When: Friday December 11 at 8:00pm
Saturday December 12 at 8:00pm
Sunday December 13 at 8:00pm
Thursday December 17 at 8:00pm
Friday December 18 at 8:00pm
Saturday December 19 at 8:00pm
Sunday December 20 at 8:00pm

To purchase tickets, you can call (937) 866-4893 or go online at exploremcc.org. Tickets are $10 each or six tickets for a group rate price of $30.

“Lord, now lettest thou thy servant depart in peace: according to thy word.
For mine eyes have seen: thy salvation”
~Nunc dimittis (Canticle of Simeon)

(This article originally appeared in the December 2nd, 2009 issue of the Dayton City Paper. This is the article as I originally wrote it.)