The Musical Midrash Podcast

Not every sacred story begins in Bethlehem. Some begin in Blaine, Missouri.

In this episode of Musical Midrash, we crack open the red-white-and-blessed glory of Waiting for Guffman — Christopher Guest’s mockumentary masterpiece and a surprisingly holy love letter to community theatre. Through awkward choreography, civic delusion, and one very glittery pageant, we find something sacred underneath the satire.

This is a gospel for the weirdos, the stage managers, the chorus kids, and the dreamers who dare to believe the show still matters — even when the seats are empty.

We talk:

Red, White & Blaine as civic scripture

Stool Boom as psalm

Corky St. Clair as prophet

Community theatre as communion

Holy failure and almost-miracles

Plus: a personal reflection on the theatres that formed me, the saints who shaped me, and the sacredness of storytelling when no one is watching.

Let the lights dim. Let the overture swell. And may the Spirit move — even if Guffman never shows up.

follow my reflections at dustinwilsor.substack.com

Sermon Series: Always Hoped That I’d Be an Apostle (Week 5)

Description:

This week, we tell the stories of nameless men, forgotten women, and the sacred power of being seen. From Saul’s transformation to Thecla’s bold discipleship… from Frank Curtis in Iola, Kansas to a mummified outlaw rediscovered on a California pier — we follow the threads of hidden identities, lost authorship, and queer midrash.

Was Luke/Acts written by a woman? Could Thecla — a transgressor of gender roles, a healer, a disciple — be the author we’ve forgotten to name?

This is a sermon about choosing Jesus, even when the world doesn’t choose you. About claiming your place in the story. And about what might happen when the scales fall from our eyes, too.

Scriptures:

* Acts 9:1–31

* 2 Corinthians 11:4–12a

* The Acts of Paul and Thecla 40–42 (trans. Melissa Harl Sellew)

Featured Musical Reference:

Dead Outlaw: A New Musical by David Yazbek, Erik Della Penna, and Itamar Moses

Episode Summary:

What if worship is performance — not in the flashy, ego-driven sense, but in the sacred, embodied, intentional way? In this episode, I explore how musical theatre taught me to show up in worship with my whole self: voice, breath, presence, and vulnerability.

From rehearsal rooms to sanctuaries, from curtain calls to communion tables, I reflect on the rhythm, beauty, and risk of performance as sacred offering. We’ll look at how liturgy and theatre share more than structure — they share soul.

This isn’t about spectacle. It’s about presence.

It’s not manipulation. It’s incarnation.

Let the liturgy begin.

🎧 In this episode:

What the Church gets wrong (and right) about performance

Why worship needs blocking, rhythm, and breath

How musical theatre shaped my theology of liturgy

A benediction for preachers, performers, and anyone who dares to show up

🎙️ Mentioned in this episode:

Marcia McFee’s Think Like a Filmmaker

Walter Brueggemann, Don Saliers, and the wisdom of ensemble work

📖 Read the full essay version here: dustinwilsor.substack.com

This week on Musical Midrash, we’re doing something a little different — and a lot more fun.

Join me and my husband, J. Kyle, for the next installment of J&D Talk About Musicals, where we dive into two exciting casting announcements:

✨ Jesus Christ Superstar at the Hollywood Bowl (with Cynthia Erivo, Adam Lambert, and more)

✨ A benefit performance of The Drowsy Chaperone featuring an all-trans and nonbinary cast (Laverne Cox, Alex Newell, Jonathan Van Ness, Betty Who, and more)

We talk queerness, theology, casting as canon-expansion, Jesus with soft eyes, and why musicals might just be the perfect place to imagine a more inclusive gospel.

Spoiler: Alex Newell can do anything.

Featuring Themes Like:

* Trans and nonbinary representation on stage

* Queering sacred roles (and sacred texts)

* The Drowsy Chaperone as queer psalm

* Jesus and Judas as queer-coded dynamics

* The aesthetics of holiness, protest, and eyeliner

🎧 Listen now — and bring your favorite cocktail and Broadway hot take.

Because the theater is a sanctuary, and every conversation can be a blessing.

Musical Midrash is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber.

📖 Scripture:

Numbers 11:4–17

1 Corinthians 11:20–22

🎭 Featured Musical:

Merrily We Roll Along by Stephen Sondheim and George Furth

🧵 Description:

This musical sermon wrestles with nostalgia, resistance to change, and the cost of transformation — in the wilderness, at the communion table, and on the Broadway stage.

Drawing from Merrily We Roll Along’s bittersweet backwards journey and the lectionary texts for a hungry and fragmented people, I explore what it means to lead together, to share what we have, and to believe in a future we cannot yet see.

Through stories of failure and longing — in Moses, in Paul’s church, and in Sondheim’s doomed collaboration — we ask:

“What happens when yesterday is done, but the new world hasn’t arrived yet?”

And more importantly:

“What might the Spirit still make of us — even now?”

This week, we’re telling the story of belief—how it can be betrayed, manipulated, and still somehow survive.

In this episode, I turn to the real-life scandal of Rebecca, the satirical con of The Producers, and the ancient story of the golden calf to explore what happens when faith becomes spectacle and when the show that should have failed keeps on playing.

This is a theology of performance. Of manipulation and meaning. Of lies that become legends and stories that get a second act.

📖 Based on the essay published on Musical Midrash: https://dustinwilsor.substack.com

🎭 Featuring:

Rebecca, The Producers, and the strange resurrection of a Broadway scam

✝ Exodus and the golden calf

💡 Belief, betrayal, spectacle, and the fine line between sacred and show

🔖 Topics: Musical Theatre | Spectacle | Idolatry | Resurrection | Sacred Storytelling | Performance Theology

🔔 Like, subscribe, and share if you’ve ever clapped for something you didn’t fully believe.

What does it mean to meet God with new language — and to tell old stories in a new voice?

In this restored sermon, we meet Abigail Adams, Broadway, and the ever-expanding God of Isaiah. We trace the evolution of theology, of national myth, and of who gets remembered. And we affirm that welcoming the new doesn’t mean eliminating the old — it just means recognizing that God has always been more.

✨ Featuring reflections on:

– God as Creator of the Way

– Abigail Adams and the theology of founding

– 1776, Hamilton, and casting as sacred re-narration

– Inclusive God-language

– The gentle work of learning new names for the Divine

📖 Isaiah 43:16–21

📍 Preached April 6, 2025 | Summit Avenue Presbyterian Church, Lent 5

In this episode of Musical Midrash, I’m joined by my husband and theological co-conspirator J. Kyle Wils0r for the first-ever edition of J & D Talk About Musicals — and we’re starting at the very beginning (a very good place to start) with The Sound of Music.

Together, we revisit this classic through a theological lens: Where is God in the hills, in the music, and in the quiet acts of resistance? What can the story of the Von Trapps teach us about moral courage, exile, and the choices we face in times of rising authoritarianism? And is Climb Every Mountain just the best sermon song ever written? (Spoiler: yes.)

Along the way, we share our own childhood musical memories, talk about the theology of joy, the weight of grief, the meaning of protest, and why The Sound of Music still has something to say in this moment.

🌄 Two voices. One stage. Infinite showtunes.

Tell us what The Sound of Music means to you. Share your thoughts, disagreements, and favorite moments. And if this conversation sings to your heart, subscribe, share, and stay tuned for more.

#MusicalMidrash #SoundOfMusic #TheologyOfMusicals #QueerTheology #ClimbEveryMountain #MusicalTheatre #ProtestAndFaith #RodgersAndHammerstein #SacredStorytelling #ExileAndResistance

Find Dustin:

💌 Substack: dustinwilsor.substack.com

🎥 YouTube: @dustinwilsor

🦋 Bluesky: @dustinwilsor.substack.com

🎭 TikTok: @dustinwilsor

🏳️‍🌈 Happy Pride, and welcome to the very first installment of “One from the Vaults” — a recurring segment of The Musical Midrash Podcast where we revisit earlier sermons with fresh eyes and sacred context.

This week, we open the vault and travel back to 2017. The Trump administration was seven months in. Transgender military service members were under attack. And I was a 34-year-old talent agent — not yet an elder, not yet imagining ministry — preaching my very first sermon in a small but fiercely loving congregation in Seattle.

The passage: Ephesians 6:10–20, the “armor of God.”

The theme: what it means to stand — not in violence, but in courage.

The call: to come out, not only as queer, but as Christian.

Originally broadcast live on Facebook, this sermon was meant to be both a spiritual act and a public witness. The video quality is grainy. The intro was lost to time. But this episode includes a full restoration of the manuscript and a new reflection on what this moment meant then — and what it might still mean now.

While this isn’t a sermon about musical theatre, it lives in the spirit of La Cage aux Folles, and was originally paired with a performance of “I Am What I Am” sung by my husband, Jeffrey. We also visit Marie’s Crisis Café in a moment of post-Obergefell celebration. Theatricality. Testimony. Transformation. It’s all here.

📌 Highlights

– Reflecting on queer Christian witness in the Trump era

– Wrestling with the battle imagery of Ephesians

– Stonewall, ACT UP, and the spiritual discipline of standing

– Facebook Live as a pulpit

– Why sometimes it’s harder to come out as Christian than as queer

📖 Scripture: Ephesians 6:10–20

🎭 Musical Reference: La Cage aux Folles – “I Am What I Am”

📍 Location: Woodland Park Presbyterian Church, Seattle, WA

🧡 Wherever this finds you — may you find the strength to stand. May it be so. Thanks be to God.

This week, I had something quieter planned. But the world changed again. In this episode, I turn to the musicals that don’t offer escape — they offer resistance.

From the seductive silence of Cabaret, to the resurrected rage of Parade, to the looped lament of A Strange Loop, these stories don’t just entertain. They protest. They prophesy. They pray.

This is a theology of theatre-as-truth-telling. Of sacred memory and unfiltered survival. Of musicals that refuse to stay silent.

📖 Based on the essay published on Musical Midrash:

https://dustinwilsor.substack.com

Featuring:

🎭 Cabaret, Parade, A Strange Loop

🕊 Jeremiah, James Cone, and Black prophetic lament

🎶 “This Is Not Over Yet,” Lift Ev’ry Voice and Sing, and psalms in survival mode

💡 Themes of memory, queer theology, fascism, and sacred refusal

With quotes from Prepare Ye, the Way of the Lord: A Theology of Musical Theatre for the Church, the Stage, and the Sanctuary

🔖 Topics: Musical Theatre | Protest | Process Theology | Lament | Queer Survival | Sacred Storytelling

🔔 Like, subscribe, and share if the revolution is already singing.