How Sweet The Sound

I hadn’t written anything more than an accident report in years. So what made me think I could write a Broadway musical?

- Christopher G. Smith

I STOOD BENEATH THE THEATER marquee, the name of my show in bright lights. Broadway, the Great White Way, a place where dreams are born. And die. My wife, Alana, squeezed my arm. The last of the audience trickled into the theater. “I guess that’s it,” I said.

“It was still worth it,” she said.

Nothing she could say would hide the truth. Eighteen years of writing and rewriting, readings, tryout runs, backers’ auditions and countless rehearsals. This was it. My musical had opened on Broadway and now, four months later, was closing.

That I’d come this far was amazing enough. I was the least likely person to write a Broadway musical. A police officer and an education director at a church. I loved working with kids, loved our church and community—but part of me wondered if I was meant to do more.

One hot summer day, the roller hockey team I coached was playing in an outdoor tournament. Between games, I had to get out of the heat. I was desperate for an air-conditioned place to eat my lunch. What I found was the school library. I ducked inside and wolfed down a sandwich. With a few minutes to kill, I wandered over to the shelves. I pulled out a book at random, John Newton: Letters of a Slave Trader Freed by God’s Grace. Sat down and began reading.

Born in England in 1725, Newton captained several slave trading ships. His life took a dramatic turn after a storm at sea—and the conversion experience it inspired. He became a pastor and repented his former life. In his pamphlet Thoughts Upon the Slave Trade, he detailed the atrocities of slavery and decried his part in it. He allied himself with William Wilberforce and advocated for the abolition of the slave trade.

He also wrote several hymns. One was “Amazing Grace.”