According to creator Damon Cardasis, Saturday Church the musical was inspired by a tweet from pop singer/songwriter Sia. Back in 2017, Cardasis had written, directed, and self-produced an indie movie musical called Saturday Church. It was about a teenager who stumbles on a support group of gay and trans youths and finds the courage to come out to his Christian family. It also starred Michaela Jaé Rodriguez, before Pose, and Regina Taylor.

Saturday Church was well-received when it was released, with one of its most vocal fans being Sia, who tweeted: "For those who haven’t seen 'Saturday Church,' go out and support this lovely film."

"It was more plausible to me that someone had created a fake Sia account and decided to tweet about my musical than it was Sia," Cardasis remembered feeling. It turned out, it was the real Sia. Cardasis' agent reached out to the pop singer-songwriter to see if she was interested in collaborating on a stage musical of Saturday Church. "Two weeks later, he came back and he said, 'She'll do it.' And I was like, What?" Cardasis recalls, his face utterly shocked by the fast response.

And now, that fast yes has turned into a stage musical that has audiences on their feet. Saturday Church the musical is currently running Off-Broadway at New York Theatre Workshop, where it's been extended multiple times (its final extension is now to October 24). But Cardasis teases that this is not the end of the stage musical, which stars Tony winners J. Harrison Ghee and Joaquina Kalukango (the concept album is out now). 

"We're still figuring out sort of what next path to take, but it seems like there's a lot of excitement around the next path," he says. "I was talking to somebody who's a big theatre producer who doesn't live here, who said, 'What you guys are doing is what every show is trying to do right now. Usually I walk into a theatre and I recognize, like, 50 percent of the crowd. I didn't know anyone [at Saturday Church].' It was people from all walks of life, all backgrounds, people that are coming two or three times. It's not just one demographic...it's incredible."

Especially because the show wears its queer heart on its bedazzled sleeves (it does end with a ballroom dance party). In Saturday Church the stage musical, Cardasis collaborates with Grammy winers Sia and DJ Honey Dijon on the music, and Pulitzer Prize winner James Ijames (Fat Ham) on the book (the disco-dance score features Sia's existing music and new songs). Though he used to be a dancer and went to NYU Tisch for acting, Cardasis pivoted to film; he wanted the stage musical to include artists from different worlds—especially from the queer community. For instance, Qween Jean, the show's costume designer, is also the founder of Black Trans Liberation.

That ethos extended to its cast. While there are stage veterans, the show is anchored by newcomers Bryson Battle (from The Voice), as the main character Ulysesses, and B Noel Thomas (of American Idol) as Ebony, the house mother of the aforementioned Saturday Church.

"It's about making a story as truthful and as possible," says Cardasis. "It was deep consultation and having members of the ball community as part of the film leading me along the way. I ended up being awarded by Lee Soulja, who's the executive director of New York City Black Pride, the Community Ally Award, which was a huge honor for me. The making of this musical was in lock step with everyone who's from the community, whether it's having the fabulous Qween Jean as our costume designer to the casting...this show is so much bigger than just me."

Cardasis was inspired to write Saturday Church because of his own church, though he admits as a gay man, "My relationship with Christianity and religion is obviously a very unique one." His mother is an Episcopal priest, and she introduced him to a church in the West Village called St. Luke in the Fields, that had a support group for LGBTQ+ youths called Art & Acceptance. "They would come to this program, and they'd get free food and social services, and they could hang out," explains Cardasis.

Volunteering at the program, he got to know the young people who showed up week after week. "Hearing their stories of survival and what they've done, and building this community and this family within this program and watching out for each other was so inspiring. Adjacent to the cafeteria where the kids would eat and hang out, there was a gymnasium, and the kids would put on a boom box and perform." He then smiles warmly at the memory. "One girl, Sasha, who I love (one of the characters in the show is named after her), put on headphones and would do, like, full-on Beyoncé numbers. And then other kids would vogue, and there was something about the performance, the strength and the power that I was like, 'Oh my God. This is a movie. It needs to be a musical!'"

Turning his film into a stage musical also allows for more surreal elements than the hyperrealist medium of film—for one, Ghee's character, Black Jesus, is not in the film. "J. is godly, I will say that," enthuses Cardasis. And in the show, Black Jesus preaches a different kind of Christianity, one more rooted in love and acceptance than the intolerant one spearheaded by conservatives. It's the type that Cardasis grew up with. "My understanding of Jesus and God was, it was pure love, love thy neighbor, all the good stuff, Jesus hanging out with all types of people from all walks of life. Yet somehow it's turned into hate this one, hate that one." He sighs, "It's so boring, it's so basic."

And what better place to preach that message than at the artistic church, the theatre. Seeing this story in front of a live audience has reaffirmed for Cardasis why Saturday Church needed to be seen on a stage. He points out the statistic that 40 percent of homeless youths are LGBTQIA+. Not to mention the political attacks against the trans community from the current president. 

"I want the show to be accessible and inclusive," says Cardasis. "Going back to that producer, [who said], these demographics are bananas, from older white theatre-going audience to young, queer youth. And they're all being impacted. I saw a straight, cisgendered, 78-year-old man come out crying and not being able to talk. I think people want to treat each other well, and they want to lead with love. It's just like they don't know how to and there's so much bile and hatred thrown about now. People just get defensive and they become calcified. And I think there's something about the show that's really hitting them emotionally and then people thaw out and be like, 'I don't have to be so hateful.' It is so much easier to love one another. So I'm hoping in this dark time, it can be some light." 

Amen.

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Photos: Saturday Church at New York Theatre Workshop

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