'The Prodigal Son' Musical


Wonderful new insights from a familiar bible story

brought to life in contemporary music and song






About the Musical



Composer


Maggie Jemmett was heading for a career in medicine, when she suddenly changed course and instead plumped for a career in what she loved – music!

 

Having spent three years at The Royal College of Music, studying piano and oboe, she reluctantly applied for a teaching course at St Mark and St John College in London. Not only did she find that she loved the challenge of teaching, but she also met the love of her life, Kevin. God had his plans!


Throughout her life she has not only been involved in teaching music in schools (as an instrumental teacher, a specialist music teacher, a primary teacher and a music advisory teacher) and also in her leisure time within a church setting (leading worship, writing songs for kid’s clubs and directing musicals.)

 

In her final few years of teaching Maggie ran a drama academy and conducted the Brighton and Hove Community Choir: probably the most fun time of her career. It seems that God has combined all her gifts so that they were ready for writing this musical.

 

Find out why and how she was inspired to write 'Lost and Found' here:  READ MORE 

Setting


 Lost and Found is suitable to be performed by Schools, Youth groups, Drama groups and Church groups as there are parts for people of all ages. It is possible to perform it with a minimum of 15 people, but could easily include over 40.

 

Although there are great truths in the content, Lost and Found is also great fun to perform as the songs are very varied in style: from ballad to rock; folk to classical; and G&S to rap. The full choruses are catchy and therefore very easy to learn with simple optional harmony parts in a few of the songs.

 

It is written as a musical, but it could also be performed in Concert Style with choir and soloists. Both versions have five main soloists (see below) and chorus (some of whom can be soloists in cameo roles).

 

Lost and Found comprises 33 songs which tell the whole story which includes some very short songs and some which use the same melodies as previous songs.

  

It is also possible to perform the musical with narration which reduces the number of songs to 22, although the length of both versions is approximately the same: 70 minutes, with an appropriate place for an intermission (if desired) after 45 minutes.   Below is a list of the songs. (The songs which are just in the version with narration are in bold.) 

 

Synopsis


Prologue: The Narrator is joyful.  She knows how much she is loved by God, and knows that it is not because she has done anything, but because Jesus has died for her. Grace! Amazing grace! She finds herself amongst all sorts of people who are troubled by life, or just plain busy. They don’t seem to know the point of life? This includes the Young Son from the Prodigal story. Jesus (incognito) asks questions about their lives mentioning ways in which they may have been hurt or ways in which they have sought to find meaning. The Narrator then asks them if they know what is their purpose in life. She then tries to explain how much God loves each of them, as portrayed in The Lost Sheep and The Lost Coin (both acted in mime). Most don’t seem to understand the analogy (21st century people!) so she introduces the story of The Prodigal Son. (These are based on the passage in Luke 15.)

 

Rebellion, Regret, Return, Reunion and Rejoice:  The Prodigal Son story is acted out, with the poignant return of the Young Son when he finds that his independence has brought him to a very low place. It also reveals the rejection of love by the Older Brother.

 

Response: As the Narrator queries whether the Older Brother ever understood how much he was loved, the participants return to the characters as created in the Prologue. Thence ensues a section in which there are testimonies of God’s love by the Narrator and other characters. Finally, Jesus speaks to the lost, both outside the church and those in the church, who have not yet understood that his message of love is about relationship not religion. Everyone is left with that challenge!

 

Songs


PROLOGUE                                                   

1.    Amazing Grace                       

2.    What’s the Point?                        

3.    Stories                              

4.    God Loves You All                       

5.    Questions                                                       

 

 REBELLION                                                              6.   Planning                     

7.   Freedom                                        

8.   Request                                             

9.   Father’s Song                                

    10.   Leaving                                             

    11.   Gossip                                             

    12.   Hurry 

    13.   Demands                                          

    14.   Family Feud                                                 

    15.   Cash                          

    16.   It’s Your Home 

 

 REGRET                                                                         

     17.   Desperation                                  

     18.   Rock Bottom  

 

 

 RETURN   

       19.   The Brothers 

       20.   Watching  

 

REUNION        

  21. Reconciliation    

  22. Celebrate  

 

REJOICE

23. Lost and Found

24. Feast Celebration

25. What is going on?

26. Feast Celebration (Rep)

27. Good News

 

RESPONSE  

28. Did he hear?

29. Amazing Love

30. Set Free  

31. Come Home  

   

REPRISE    

 32. Curtain Call 1 

 33. Curtain Call 2


Characters


NARRATOR

Mezzo soprano or Tenor voice.

 

JESUS

Baritone/ Tenor

(He needs to be able to Rap or use spoken word in time to the music – unless this part is used in audio only)

 

YOUNG SON

Tenor

 

FATHER                  

Tenor/ Baritone

 

 

OLDER BROTHER     

Baritone

 

 

OTHER CHARACTERS

(gossips/ friends of young son / servant)   

Mezzo/ Tenor/ Baritone

(possibly taken from The Chorus)

                                         

 CHORUS                 

Mezzo/ Tenor/ Baritone

 

 

 

 



We would love to hear from you especially if you are interested in performing 'Lost and Found'.  We can tailor a package of resources to suit your needs.

Please contact us for further information.