Outside of the convention center, at the corner of High and Vine, the cast from “The Upside-Down King” raised their voices in four-part harmony, singing the lyrics “He’s alive and the road has returned.”

The cast was on their way to lunch, after a tech rehearsal for their evening performance, but the short impromptu performance was enough to earn claps from people nearby.

“The Upside-Down King” has been a work of collaboration from the beginning.

“What’s dynamic about this musical,” said William Eash, a professor of music at Bethel College, “is the collaboration between Western District Conference and a Mennonite college.”

In 1987, Doug and Jude Krehbiel, who perform and record as Road Less Traveled, read Donald Kraybill’s “The Upside-Down Kingdom.”

“The thing that floors me,” said Doug Krehbiel, “is that it all came out of one song.” After reading the book, the Krehbiels wrote a song and called it “The Kingdom That’s Upside Down.”

“We thought it could be a song that would fit in a musical,” said Krehbiel. Inspired, for over 20 years, the Krehbiels collected songs for a potential musical, and put them in a file. When the file reached three inches thick, it was time. “We had our music for our musical,” Krehbiel said.

After organizing their 20 songs in chronological order according to the book of John, the Krehbiels asked Carol Duerksen, a freelance writer and book publisher from Goessel, Kan., to write a script.

“It’s not like you’re telling a new story,” joked Krehbiel as he explained the irony of writing the songs before the script. It took seven performances for Krehbiel to finally see the show; he was always busy performing in the four-person band. He wanted to understand the people coming up to him after the performances with tears in their eyes, exclaiming how moving the show was.

“Oh, wow,” said Krehbiel after he watched a DVD of the performance one evening. “What Carol did with the script was amazing. That was a total surprise.”

Initially, “The Upside-Down King” was a fundraiser to benefit the Western District and South Central Conference, an initiative of the Krehbiels that resulted in $11,000.

It was a crowd pleaser from the start. A year and a half later, with only two of the original cast members, new choreography and four-part harmony, the musical has come to Columbus.

Some of the elements remain the same. The entire band, including Doug Krehbiel on guitar and banjo, Jude Krehbiel on bass guitar and penny whistle, Ted Krehbiel on drums and Jason Peters on keyboard, played together in the original band.

According to Bethany Amstutz, a Bethel graduate and original cast member, “Now the musical is more structured and defined.”

With help from Eash, Doug Krehbiel learned how to edit the music on a computer program, and soon the music was in organized four-part harmony. It took three weeks of intensive practices (22 hours per week), and the musical was finally ready for an audience by the end of May.

John McCabe-Juhnke, professor of communication arts at Bethel College and the stage director of “The Upside-Down King,” appreciates the worshipful, celebrative and comic aspects in the play, which he feels are “all connected and build community.”

Playing the role of Jesus is McCabe-Juhnke’s son, a senior at Bethel College, Austin.

“It would be fun to see how other people would model the role of Jesus,” said Austin McCabe-Juhnke. “The way I have chosen probably says something about my theology and the way I was raised.”

For Doug Krehbiel, the new additions to the musical are wonderful and more powerful than before. In the original performance, Bridget Kratzer appeared in a scene as an adulteress while the other cast members sat on stage and watched her sing.

After help from McCabe-Juhnke, however, Krehbiel described the scene as “thick with choreography.”

“This year, it’s like a music video,” Krehbiel said. “They bring her in while she sings and throw her on the ground…I get goose bumps just thinking about how intense it is.” (As if on cue, the hair on Krehbiel’s arm stood on end.)

Before the evening performance in Columbus, McCabe-Juhnke gave the cast some last minute tips. “Do what you need to do and it will be excellent,” he said.

For this cast, the Friday night performance will be the last. Clinton Harris, a junior at Bethel College, has not regretted a minute of it. “This show has been a crazy amount of fun,” he said.

Cast:
Bethany Amstutz, Clinton Harris, Bridget Kratzner, Joshua Powell and Kelly Reed are Followers.
Austin McCabe-Juhnke is Jesus.