The time a small church performed a dramatic Handel’s ‘Messiah’, and it went badly wrong

2 December 2020, 15:57 | Updated: 3 December 2020, 11:22

Handel's Messiah Disaster

A small church tried to put on a dramatic performance of Handel’s Messiah, and the worst happened.

During the Christmas period of 2011, a local church in Florida decided to present a small-scale production of Handel’s Messiah.

A wonderful idea in theory – the Baroque composer’s great oratorio is a fixture of the Christmas season, and includes that wonderfully uplifting ‘Hallelujah’ Chorus that we all know and love.

But it seems like these actors might have skipped a much-needed tech rehearsal.

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The singer who posted the video, David Lyon, describes the production as “well-meaning” but “disastrous”.

Since being posted in 2011, the video has been viewed over 300,000 times on YouTube.

Let’s hope next year’s production winds up in a safer pair of pants. Sorry – hands.