Q&A / BRAD SHERRILL: By-the-Book show always inspired
Rosalind Bentley - Staff
Saturday, August 28, 2004

There are nearly 20,000 words in the Gospel of St. John, and Brad Sherrill knows every one of them.

He has to. It is largely the way he makes his living.

For the past four years Sherrill has been performing the entire Gospel as a sort of one-man show. Though he plays primarily in churches around the country, Sherrill had a six-week, off-Broadway run last year at Lamb's Theater. Well known in Atlanta theater circles for his performances at the Alliance Theater and the Georgia Shakespeare Festival, the Chamblee resident will be in town on Saturday performing at Sugar Hill United Methodist Church.

So we chatted with him this week about faith, the musical "Cats," and "The Da Vinci Code" theories.

Q: You've performed this show almost exclusively at churches. But in many ways John is an appeal to the searching nonbeliever. Why not branch out more often into other venues?

A: This is year four of doing this and I've had four theater runs in that time. What I've found is that people who are hesitant to go into church will go into a secular setting like a theater. So part of the journey of this is to pursue and get theater runs and not just preach to the choir.

(Plans are in the works for a fifth theater run in Toronto at Brookstone Performing Arts Theater).

Q: Of all of Christ's miracles, which, for you, is the most amazing?

A: It would have to be the one that is singularly in John, the raising of Lazarus (from the dead). Even if you look at it as a metaphor, it's a metaphor for being brought back to life, that there's new life in Christ.

I believe miracles happen now, it's just we're slow to recognize them.

And I would say that the shortest scripture verse is in John: "Jesus wept."

Q: So is that your shortest line in the show?

A: (Laughs) That's my shortest line.

Q: OK, so which of the miracles do you have the most difficult time believing?

A: The hardest is also the Lazarus one. Of all the ones, that and walking on water. Because they are so amazing. But either you believe them or you don't. I do.

Q: Do you ever worry about being typecast?

A: No, I don't. As an early part of my career I was cast as the young lover because I looked so young. But I've done the Georgia Shakespeare Festival and I've done things completely different from John, such as a naughty British farce, "What the Butler Saw."

Q: Ever feel that with John you're doing the biblical version of "Cats," in that your show is so long-running? How do you keep such a show as yours fresh, if that's possible?

A: John is 75 percent of my work now, so it's nice to leave solo work from time to time to do different things.

But I don't consider (John) a play; I consider it a proclamation. So here's what I tell myself to keep it fresh. I tell myself before each performance that 'This is the last time I'll be able to tell it, and the first time they'll be able to see it.' That sets the bar high. And because the Gospels are alive and infused with a spirit, there's something different every night. And people respond in different ways. Some people come to see it as purely theater.

If I ever felt that it was becoming rote, I'd stop. But I'll tell you that it's a lot easier to stay fresh with this than if I were doing "What the Butler Saw" over and over. Or "Cats." That is if I could sing and dance.

Q: What did you think of the book, "The Da Vinci Code"? A good bit of your "material" is fodder for that book.

A: I think it's good in that it's getting people to talk about faith publicly. People are so nervous about doing that, wondering what others will think. So I think it's good when things pop up to make us examine faith.

But I thought it was a great read; I read it fast. And there were things in there that I didn't know about, like this idea of Da Vinci hiding things in his work. I mean, I looked at a picture of the Last Supper after that and I did see where one of the disciples maybe kind of looked like a woman, though I don't know if it was Mary Magdalene or not.

It was a great read. But it didn't shake my faith.