Composer Thomas Hogge is having trouble getting his musical off the ground.
His work, titled Forever and Ever: The Christian Musical, isn’t a musical per se as it is a concert with religious music.
There are no actors or narrator cast — though he’d like there to be some storytelling component to his production one day — but there are videographics to accompany the sound and dancers.
The presentation is, in fact, a combination of his original music from his two albums using the Bible as a source of inspiration.
A former Coquitlam resident, Hogge turned from classical music to rock anthems — via his band Punch and Judy and The Biz — then spiritual songs in 2012.
“I was sitting in the basement and it came to me,” the Peachland homebuilder said. “I realized I’ve been writing the same songs all my life, just in different ways. They’re all love songs.”
Hogge tapped fellow musician Miles Foxx Hill to co-produce his second album, Forever and Ever, and the pair began to structure the ecclesiastical production, Forever and Ever: the Christian Musical.
A bassist, Foxx Hill has worked with some of the music industry’s biggest names including Van Morrison, Michael Buble and Chad Kroeger of Nickelback.
Foxx Hill will be on the Evergreen Cultural Centre stage next Thursday along with other top working musicians under the New Jerusalem Project Band to showcase Hogge’s Christian tunes.
They are: Tom Arntzen (keyboards/vocals); Keith Bennett (vocals/harmonica); Olaf DeShield (guitar/vocals); Laura Doyle (vocals); Vince Mai (trumpet); Steve Hilliam (saxophone); Rod Murray (trombone); Phil Robertson (drums); Ashley Tendesai (vocals); and Tim Porter (guitar).
Taylor Rowe, who trained with The Dance Initiative and The Source Dance Company, choreographed the steps.
“We have a lot of people on stage,” Hogge quipped.
As for his target audience, he hopes to draw in non-believers of the Christian faith.
“I think they will be touched by the music and we will let the Holy Spirit take it from there,” he said. “This is uplifting music that tells the story of the gospel. It’s about Jesus and his return. And though this is still very much a work in progress, we just want to get the music out there because it’s such a positive message.”
• Forever and Ever: The Christian Musical is at the Evergreen Cultural Centre (1205 Pinetree Way, Coquitlam) on Nov. 29 at 8 p.m. For tickets, call the box office at 604-927-6555 or visit evergreenculturalcentre.ca. It also runs at the Michael J. Fox Theatre in Burnaby on Dec. 21 as a benefit for the MS Society of BC & Yukon. Visit foreverandevermusic.ca.
