As the Tony Awards celebrate another year of Broadway, millions continue to gather around stories unfolding on stage because live theatre remains one of the few art forms capable of commanding sustained attention, emotional engagement, and moral reflection all at once.
Yet many Christians continue to view theatre cautiously or dismiss it altogether as peripheral to a robust spiritual life. Given the theatre world’s frequent impulse to push against moral boundaries Christians affirm, that concern is justified. But forfeiting one of the culture’s most powerful storytelling forms is, I believe, a mistake.
In a distracted culture, theatre demands presence in a way few forms still do.
At the moment the house lights dim and the curtain rises, anticipation begins to build. The entire room becomes focused on a single event unfolding in real time. In a sense, the whole room becomes one mind. Whether consciously or unconsciously, people begin to ask: How will this affect me? Challenge me? Change me?
That helps explain why live theatre endures in a fragmented and distracted culture, especially among young adults. It cannot be paused or scrolled through. There are no retakes, no edits, and no distance from the human struggle unfolding on stage.
I have spent much of my life using theatre to bring the writings of the Bible and C.S. Lewis before audiences. Over the years, I have watched hundreds of thousands sit in silence as these stories unfolded before them.
At Notre Dame, a PhD chemistry student who described himself as skeptical of God’s presence in his life told us after a performance of C.S. Lewis On Stage: Further Up & Further In, “What the author did in today’s show was say, ‘Have you thought about this and that and that?’ It made me realize God wants me to look deeper.”
After a performance of The Screwtape Letters at the University of Kentucky, one freshman told us, “I’m honestly not a big theatre person… but I was wide awake through this. It really hits your soul and convicts you.”
These kinds of responses suggest this work is not passive entertainment, but active engagement that challenges assumptions, awakens moral conviction, and forces people to wrestle with belief, doubt, temptation, meaning, and truth.
Years ago, after a performance of Mark’s Gospel at Duke University, I received a letter from the drama director. He wrote, “I was dragged kicking and screaming to your show. I anticipated it with all the pleasure of dental surgery. And what did I see? … A piece of material that is powerful, succinct and moving, irrespective of one’s religious belief—or even whether or not one has any religious beliefs. Mark’s Gospel made me—for the very first time—understand why it is such affecting material.”
That response captures something many Christians overlook. Theatre places eternal truths before people in a way that is imaginative, sensory, and difficult to avoid. It confronts prevailing worldviews and challenges assumptions about the Bible, Christianity, morality, and faith itself.
That, I believe, is why this work matters.
Now, as we continue touring C.S. Lewis On Stage and The Screwtape Letters across the country, prepare a national tour of The Great Divorce, and develop the feature film adaptation of The Screwtape Letters, I see audiences responding with the same hunger for stories that grapple honestly with the spiritual dimension of life.
For some, it remains only entertainment. But for others, these performances become awakening moments — a recognition that the questions beneath the story are real, unavoidable, and worth wrestling with.
As theatre continues to be one of our culture’s most influential storytelling and entertainment forms, the question is whether Christians will remain distant from it, or whether we will use it seriously to engage the imagination for God’s glory and our good.
Article written by Max McLean. Max is an award-winning actor, founder and the artistic director of New York City-based Fellowship for Performing Arts, which produces theatre and film from a Christian worldview meant to engage diverse audiences. Max is one of the world’s most adept at adapting C.S. Lewis’ books to the stage, and recently starred in bringing C.S. Lewis’ story to film in “The Most Reluctant Convert”