SPRINGFIELD – A musical performance about one of America’s darkest chapters will return to be performed under the stars in downtown Springfield in late July and early August.
The Civil War is a powerful, two act show that will be performed July 24, 25, 26, 30 and 31 and August 1. Show times are 8 p.m. each evening, and the production is performed on an outdoor stage in Union Square Park at the Abraham Lincoln Presidential Library and Museum. The powerful and emotional series of 26 songs performed by an ensemble of 20 singer-actors will draw on letters, firsthand accounts, diaries, newspapers, and the words of Abraham Lincoln, Frederick Douglass, Walt Whitman and others. The show tells the awe-inspiring personal stories of those who lived, fought and died during this chapter of our history, answering the question, “what does freedom mean?”
Songs will include: Brother, My Brother, A House Divided, River Jordan, Freedom’s Child, The Day the Sun Stood Still, I Never Knew His Name, Candle in the Window, Old Gray Coat, Someday, and many more. The production is staged by Phil Funkenbusch and Ed MacMurdo and features a local cast.
Pre-show entertainment begins at 7:15 p.m. with The Civil War at 8 p.m. each night. Tickets are on sale at www.abelincolnmuseum.org or (217) 558-8934. Prices are $12 for adults and $8 for children, general admission; lawn chair seating, sold the night of the show, $8 for adults with children eight and under free; and blanket seating, also sold the night of the show, $5 for adults with children eight and under free.