Lost and found
synopsis
Note: Clicking on the song title will open a window in SoundCloud that will play a short clip of the song.
The play begins as the cast, in street clothes, assembles and begins to discuss what a “parable” is, and as they begin to assume their characters, they sing about the “Family” they are going to become. The scene is the family farm, where the usual morning work has begun, and banter between Mama and David, the elder son, leads to David’s gleeful assessment of the real estate that is “Someday Gonna Be Mine.” He goes off, and Papa and Judah, the younger son, come on the scene, and Judah’s discontent with his situation in life brings him to attack his father, asking that Papa “Let Me Out of Here.” Reluctantly, Papa gives him his share of the inheritance, and lets him go.
The scene switches to the Distant Land Bar and Grill, where Judah is welcomed by comely lasses who assure him that “You Made It, Kid.” Soon, Judah is regaled by all of the bar’s customers who sing and dance about the joys of “Wine, Women, and Song.” By the end of the song, Judah’s money is gone, and he loses his friends. The bartender sends him down the street to another establishment, “Hog Heaven,” a bar for...pig bikers.
A new bartender gives him work in the bar that keeps him alive, but the patrons of the bar amuse themselves at Judah’s expense, seeing how far he’s fallen, by telling him to lower his expectations and assume “The Proper Attitude” for his new environment. Devastated, Judah leaves the pig bar, finds himself alone, and begins to regret his actions in “Judah’s Lament.” In the entr’acte, his sister, Sharon, sings her lament to the audience as well, that there are “Too Many Walls” in all of our houses.
Back at the farm, Mama and Papa are rising to do their chores, and each prays a prayer, Papa singing a lament about the pain of a life that knows “Sons that Slip Away.” Mama, concerned for all of her family, begins her work by singing words from Psalm 40, “Long was I waiting for God...”, when Papa hears her, and realizing that wherever his son may be, he is in the hands of God, begins a duet with Mama acknowledging that all of us are “Lost and Found.” As Papa finishes his prayers, he sees Judah approach in the distance, and runs out to meet him. Summoning the family and servants, he orders a celebration and all set about with a joyful heart to “Let the Feast Begin.”
Out in the fields, David hears the noise, and comes in to find that his brother has returned. David angrily confronts his father. It doesn’t matter how we act? he wonders aloud. “Now You Tell Me!” But Papa insists that Judah was dead and has come back to life. Everyone is rejoicing. He, and the whole cast, ask David to join in the feast, and the set goes dark.
As the lights come back up, the cast is getting back into their street clothes as they ask the audience, all of us, to “Step Inside the Door,” and “Let the Feast Begin.”
