Watch: Actors, producers discuss Journey to Bethlehem in a new featurette
The Nativity musical comes to theatres November 10.
Christmas may be more than three months away, but it’s never too early to promote a Christmas movie.
Affirm Films has released a new featurette for Journey to Bethlehem, the Nativity musical coming to theatres November 10, and it features soundbites from over a dozen of the people involved in the making of the film. (At 4 minutes and 35 seconds, the featurette is also longer than both of the existing trailers combined.)
Here is the video:
The actors profiled in the video include:
Fiona Palomo — Mary
Milo Manheim — Joseph
Antonio Banderas — King Herod
Joel Smallbone — Antipater
Lecrae — Gabriel
Moriah — Deborah
Geno Segers, Rizwan Manji, Omid Djalili — Balthazar, Gaspar, Melchior
And the producers featured in the video include:
Adam Anders — director / writer / composer
Nikki Anders — executive producer / composer
Alex Anders — music supervisor
Alan Powell — producer
Ryan Busse — producer
Rich Peluso — head of Affirm Films
A few quick comments:
Lecrae and Powell both comment that a musical version of the Nativity has never been done before. This feels like something I’d want to fact-check, but off the top of my head I cannot think of any previous live-action Nativity films that have featured characters singing—just an animated short film or two.
I had forgotten Powell was involved with this. I know him from The Song (2014), a movie about a country-music star based on the life of Solomon.
Smallbone makes the noteworthy point that there is arguably “sort of a musical at the heart of” the Nativity story, because the angels that appear to the shepherds actually seem to sing to them (Luke 2:13-14). But do the angels dance, too?
I would also note that the Magnificat, which Mary recites while pregnant with Jesus, is arguably a sort of song, too—and a much longer one than what the angels sing (Luke 1:46-55). But I have no idea if this film will include it. The biblical Mary recites the Magnificat during her visit to Elizabeth, and I have seen no indication yet that this film will include that part of the story.
Moriah says Jesus was “born in a barn”. Strictly speaking, that’s not necessarily true. Many people have traditionally assumed that Jesus was born in a stable because Luke’s gospel says Jesus was put in a “manger”, i.e. a feeding trough, after he was born, but many modern scholars argue that Jesus was actually born in a house, and that the manger was on the lower level of the house, where the animals ate and slept.1 Not that I expect a film like this to challenge popular perceptions about the circumstances in which Jesus was born.
Nikki Anders says this movie has gone through “iterations” and “close calls” where it almost got made, then it didn’t get made, and then it got made again. I’m vaguely aware of some of these twists and turns, and have written about them before: in December 2020, it was said that the film was going to be shot in Utah in early 2021 from a script by Christy Hall; but in the end, the film was shot in Spain in early 2023 from a script by Adam Anders and Peter Barsocchini.
The e-mail announcing this video included the disclaimer: “Heart of interview footage with talent filmed before July 15, 2023.” So, before the actors’ strike, then.
A number of films have been bumped to next year because of the strike, but obviously this movie can’t be one of them, tied as it is to the Christmas season. The release date is seven weeks away… will the strike be over by then? Will the actors be able to promote the film by then? Who knows.
Speaking as a middle-aged man who hasn’t kept up with the latest trends in high school musicals, I have no idea what to expect from this movie musically. The soldiers dancing behind King Herod look a little cringe to me. But I like the bit we hear of the song that Mary sings while she’s holding Jesus.
And that’s about it, for now. More later, maybe.
Past posts on Journey to Bethlehem:
‘Has The Road to Bethlehem not been filmed yet?’ (August 19, 2022)
‘Adam Anders’ Nativity musical now filming in Spain’ (February 23, 2023)
‘Adam Anders’ Nativity musical gets a title’ (April 3, 2023)
‘Watch: The teaser trailer for Journey to Bethlehem’ (April 28, 2023)
‘Watch: Earnest and jokey moments mix in the official trailer for Journey to Bethlehem’ (September 14, 2023)
Luke 2:7 says Jesus was put in the feeding trough because there was no room in the katalyma, and that word has often been translated “inn”—which creates the impression that the entire family, including Mary and Joseph, had to stay outside the hotel somewhere. But katalyma is the same word Jesus uses in Mark 14:14 and Luke 22:11 when looking for a “guest room” within which to eat the Last Supper, and that’s how some newer translations render the word in Luke 2:7, too. The idea now is that Jesus was, indeed, born in the house, but the house was crowded and he was put on the lower level with the animals.