Excerpts from "The Evangelist"

The Story

"The Evangelist" is a pop opera based on the life of Tammy Faye Messner, (the former wife of the controversial televangelist Jim Bakker, who gained world wide notoriety in the late 1980's after corruption entered his very successful television ministry), and her last interview on Larry King Live just weeks before her untimely death from cancer.

The show opens on the set of the Larry King show. As Larry King greets the audience, he introduces his guest, Tammy Faye Messner... enters a terminally ill and emotional Tammy Faye.  Larry King begins his interview with Tammy, and she openly tells her life story.

Throughout the show, Larry King and Tammy Faye Messner narrate as Tammy takes the audience through the crucial and important parts of her life, beginning with the first time she met Jim Bakker at bible college, to the betrayal by their friend, Pat Robertson, to the rise of The PTL club, to its corruption and the widely publicized sex scandal with Jessica Hahn, the fall of their ministry and Jerry Falwells secret takeover, to Jim Bakker's arrest, and lastly, to Tammy's diagnosis of cancer. The show ends back on the set of The Larry King Show as Larry King announces the death of Tammy Faye Messner to the audience.

This is not a parody of her life, nor is this a Cinderella story, but rather a heartfelt presentation, which is based in part on her own autobiography. This pop opera is filled with passion, heartache and redemption told entirely through song.... "The Evangelist" is indeed a dark musical but with just enough light to warm the heart, mind and soul.....like the brightest star shining on the darkest night.

 

(Note: There are two actresses who will be playing Tammy Faye. one plays Tammy Faye Messner/narrator, and the other will play Tammy Faye Bakker, formerly Tammy Faye Lavalley, through the different stages of her life.)