New musical draws from Book of Mormon lessons

It's one thing to read the Book of Mormon and recognize truths that pertained to an ancient people.It's another to realize those truths pertain as much to today's people with today's problems: a man who's lost his job, a mother whose child has died, a teenage girl faced with protecting her virtue, parents dealing with a wayward son, couples faced with leaving grandchildren behind while they serve a mission.The new stage show \"Receive These Things,\" produced in Utah County by Sally Johnson, brings those truths into the modern-day world and sets them to music.\"In 2005, when President (Gordon B.) Hinckley challenged everyone in the church to read the entire Book of Mormon, our bishop called a committee together to come up with ways to keep our ward on track,\" Johnson said. \"They designed little reading charts and coloring books and one woman, Holly Smith, came up with the idea of putting her stories — she'd written some 'letters to the prophet' pieces — on stage. She told me she felt I should be the one to see it happen and convinced the bishop to call me as the producer.\"I just came home stunned. I knew what this entailed, costumes, lights, holding auditions. It was a tremendous undertaking.\"She may have been stunned, but Johnson took on the challenge.She has thus far invested four years and $25,000 in the project ($20,000 of that money came from Maria Humphrey Sanchez, who attended the original production in the North Field Pleasant Grove Stake).Johnson wrote the words for several of the songs, including \"Women and Children,\" \"A Woman's Heart\" and \"More Than an Angel.\"She recruited a number of celebrity LDS artists: Merrill Jenson, Janice Kapp Perry (who had to be persuaded to sing), Roger Hoffman, Sandra Turley, Daniel Beck, Kevin Mackley, Jared Young, Darin and Kim Underwood, Michele Baer, Danny Davis, Artie Hemphill, Zachary Hess, Taylor Olson and Dyanne Riley, to create the original music and orchestration.With the help of committee members Lynn Shurtleff, Rebecca Hawkes Martin and Daniel Johnson, she's built a script and created music based upon a series of short stories written by Smith.Johnson arranged for studio recordings.The result is a dramatic new show with CDs that can be put on stage by wards and stakes throughout the LDS Church, either as a whole or as individual scenes and readings.\"This is my gift to the Lord,\" Johnson said. \"It's very adaptable and flexible.\"It's also a powerful piece of theater, one Johnson took to a workshop conducted by actress Anne Sward Hansen.\"We read it in her basement and afterward I saw tears in the eyes of my fellow thespians,\" Johnson said. \"The spirit was so strong.\"Copies of the CD and more detailed information about the show are available from www.receivethesethings.com.