The musical history of the African-American experience will be chronicled in the Bermuda Festival performance ?Great Men of Gospel? that opens tomorrow night at the City Hall Theatre.

?The Great Men of Gospel? will sing old favourites and classics such as ?Oh Happy Day?, ?We Shall Overcome?, ?His Eye is on the Sparrow?, ?Steal Away? and ?Wade in the Water?.

The ensemble of actors, singers and musicians, including the internationally acclaimed Jeff Bolding, Ralph Carter, Gary E. Vincent, Richard Bellazzin and Montroville C. Williams, will portray slaves, the Jubilee Quartets and sings songs of Dorsey, the Five Blind Boys of Alabama, The Pilgrim Travelers, The Dixie Hummingbirds, The Soul Stirrers, James Cleveland, Kirk Franklin and more.

?Great Men of Gospel?, written and directed by Elizabeth Van Dyke has been described as ?filled with God and good music?.

?Great Men of Gospel? brings together an exciting mix of African-American history, music, evocative dance and skilful use of pantomime.

It is a compilation of gospel classics that melodically chronicles the black American experience, specifically from the male point of view. Its reach stretches from the years of slavery and bondage and the birth of Negro spirituals to the recording studios and concert hall performances of contemporary gospel artists. It is a story of strength, ingenuity and redemption through adversity and suffering.

Tritano Evans, critic on the website TheatreScene.net wrote of them: ?It might not take much more than basic theatre skills to string together a musical revue or choreograph a movement piece. However, from time to time, somebody comes along who creates a work that incorporates both of these elements in a way that is fresh and fun, in a way that reminds us why we?re religiously drawn to theatre.?

?One almost shouldn?t review the ?Great Men of Gospel? at all. It not a show to be intellectualised ? it?s a show to open your ears, to clap your hand to, wave your arms to, sway back and forth and catch the spirit to,? wrote Joshua Tanzer of offoffoff.com.

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