Black Nativity Goes… Somewhere Else

Black Nativity has had 12 hyperjolly and gospel-rich seasons at Intiman, serving the holiday-hungry masses more exuberant Baby Jesus love and soul-shaking vibrato than the Mormon Tabernacle Choir hopped up on Red Bull and spinning in a blender. It’s a holy-rolling, roof-raising yuletide riot of soulful gospel, ancient yuletide standards, interpretive dance, African-Americanized retellings of the Christmas story, and Sanjaya. (This is the pony-hawking American Idol finalist’s third year in the show—he sang “His Eye Is on the Sparrow.” I cried.

But this is the last season Black Nativity will shake the boards at Intiman. They’re moving the show elsewhere—but where elsewhere is, is anyone’s guess.

“We have not yet finalized a new location,” says Stephanie Coen, Intiman’s communications director. “But Intiman is committed to producing the show, so we’re working on it”—ready to wander in the desert until they find a home.

“In answer to the obvious question—it’s outgrown our space,” she explains. “We’ve got 40 people onstage, and each year we have to turn away audiences who can’t get in because the performances are sold out.”

It’s true: Black Nativity is insanely popular. It’s been often repeated that there is “nothing like it in Seattle,” but that’s not strictly true. It’s an awful lot like church—tons of jumping around and waving one’s hands and “Hallelujah!” (It does get a bit heavy—especially if one is a nice quiet atheist expecting a passive evening of theater—but one participates anyway, lest one risk sitting there like a big Savior-hating Scrooge-lump of joyless Xmas coal. But I digress.) Rest assured that Black Nativity will be with us next year—somewhere—ensuring that future holidays are up to their jingle bells in buoyant brotherly love, and bouncing birthday love for Baby Jeebus.

Hallelujah!