Tomorrow is Palm Sunday on the western calendar — and that means tomorrow is the day that the live musical version of The Passion will air on the Fox network.
If you miss the broadcast, though — and especially if you live overseas — have no fear. Deadline reports that Netflix has signed a deal to stream the musical everywhere outside the U.S. beginning Tuesday (except in the Netherlands, which has its own live musical; there, the New Orleans musical will start streaming on Good Friday).
Variety notes that a few scenes will not be live:
In order to make a production of this scale possible amid multiple locations, certain scenes were pre-taped weeks before, including those depicting the Last Supper and Judas’ betrayal. Still, the show will provide a live experience for viewers, thanks to a choir and band performing simultaneously with the pre-shot segments, on-site at Woldenberg Park near Jackson Square.
“We’ll be cutting back to the live band, the live choir, the crowd in the park,” exec producer Mark Bracco of Dick Clark Prods. tells Variety. “It will all play as one big live experience, even though there are a few scenes that we have shot ahead of time, just because there was no possibility of getting from location to location within a commercial break.”
Deadline also posted an interview with Tyler Perry, who grew up in New Orleans and is hosting the musical. Perry also spoke to Fox News, as did music director Adam Anders and co-star Prince Royce, who plays Peter.
In addition to various mainstream stars like Trisha Yearwood (as Mary) and Seal (as Pontius Pilate), the cast includes Christian musicians like Michael W. Smith and Shane Harper (the latter of whom had the lead role in God’s Not Dead).
I’m not going to bother linking to any more videos tied to this show because a few of the videos I’ve already posted have been yanked offline by the network and, well, what’s the point. But there’s a gaggle of them at the show’s Facebook page.
Four of the songs are now on Spotify, too, and you can listen to them here:
— The picture above, of Judas (Chris Daughtry) betraying Jesus (Jencarlos Canela), is from the Facebook page for The Passion: New Orleans.
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