The Great Passion Play will present “Will Hearn’s Grand Ol’ Christmas Show” at 7 p.m. Saturday, Dec. 2, at The Auditorium.
The Grand Ol’ Christmas Show is a live, one-of-a-kind musical variety retro radio show bringing all-time favorite Christmas classics and sketch comedy antics, broadcasting live on Christmas Eve from the 1225 AM N.O.E.L. Radio Studios. The show is an original by “The Grand Ol’ Production Company” celebrating its 20th year in production and featuring Americana standout Blue Water Highway, The Dirty River Jazz Band and a cast of the best entertainers in Texas.
Tickets for Saturday night’s performance range from $10-$25 with special discounts for locals on the night of the show.
Performed through the framework of a vintage radio show and made for music and comedy lovers from boomer to millennial, this tribute to American Christmas traditions cleverly and progressively blurs the lines between heartfelt nostalgia and contemporary pop-culture satire. An inspiring Holiday tradition that gets better every year, the show is proudly supported by the Mid-America Arts Alliance and the National Endowment for the Arts.
The Great Passion Play is also hosting a drive-through Christmas light display now through New Year’s Day on Fridays, Saturdays and Sundays from dark until 8 p.m. The by-donation, drivethrough display features thousands of Christmas lights, a Christmas tree forest, several nativities and the entire set of the Passion Play lit up for Christmas on the way to the Christ of the Ozarks memorial statue.
“The Great Passion Play has hosted the Christmas light display since 2013 with great success,” said Randall Christy, the Passion Play’s executive director. “Ten years ago, the Passion Play had a very uncertain financial future. From then to the present, the Passion Play has been able to retire the debt from $2.7 million to zero. We are excited to celebrate the birth of Jesus Christ during this Christmas season and to celebrate being debt-free!”
The Passion Play is also excited to host the largest Christmas village with trains display in the south! The exhibit consists of well over 300 buildings that take visitors back to a 1930s-to-1950s landscape of small-town America, with three Lionel 0 scale trains, a Lionel 0 scale trolley and a Polar Express train. The Christmas Snow Village with trains will be open on Fridays, Saturdays and Sundays beginning at 4 p.m. through December 31. Admission is $5 per person with kids under 5 free. The proceeds will benefit the Eureka Springs Historical Museum and The Great Passion Play. Also, in the Great Hall, the Passion Play will be hosting special choir and band presentations on Dec. 8, Dece. 15 and Dec. 16 at 6 p.m.
