Origin: The musical of Narnia, produced by the company MusicArt, is a project of the Spanish Bible Union in which over 200 volunteers and 12 evangelical churches in Catalonia have collaborated.

It has already been performed in four cities, with over 4,500 spectators.

The director of the musical, Melani Zarco, explained to Spanish news website, Protestante Digital that they put on “a quality show for the whole family, in which the message of the gospel contained in the story created by C.S. Lewis is transmitted with beauty and creativity”.

Since 2018

It started at the beginning of 2018, when Zarco and her husband put together a creative team with whom they spent six months working on the basis of creating the musical script and the ideas they wanted to transmit.

In mid-2018 they began the castings, then the rehearsals, and at the end of 2019 they premiered the musical for the first time in the Catalan city of Tarragona. In 2022 they began it again after the pandemic.

Now, “the aim is to take it wherever doors open and it can be organised, so that the message of the gospel reaches many more cities”, stresses the director of the project.

The gospel from the ‘origin’

Zarco explains that it is called Origin: The musical of Narnia “because it is based on the origin of the novels”.

“Many people don't know that The Chronicles of Narnia has a first book that is previous to the first film that was released in the cinema and that talks about how the story is created”, she added.

From there, they have taken the role of the professor, “who will be explaining the parallels between the story of Narnia and the Christian message behind it”.

“From the very beginning we wanted it to be a musical that would bring the gospel in a direct and clear way, as many people know these stories of C.S. Lewis, but don't know the message behind them”.

The authors have drawn on the book God in the Land of Narnia (Kurt D. Brunner, 2005), which helped them to “study and deepen the significant elements of each part of the novel”.

Real impact

The company has seen the impact of the musical “in the testimonies of family members who came to see the musical and were impacted. Even people who since then have wanted to start attending a church and learn more about God”.

For Zarco, “it is beautiful to see how many people make their talents available and they do it because they know that their goal is to serve the gospel”.

“We know that we don't do it ourselves [...] but that art is a way of enhancing our gifts and expressing ourselves in a different way. It's a tool that opens doors and helps us to bring the gospel in a clear way that reaches many lives that otherwise would not be reached”, she concluded.