A Texas youth group will perform “Godspell” in Vicksburg on Friday.

The SPIRIT Youth Choir from First United Methodist Church in San Angelo, Texas will perform the musical that opened on Broadway in 1971 at 6:30 p.m. Friday at Crawford Street United Methodist Church.

This is the youth groups’ 21st year to go on tour.

Tony Walker, who is the youth ministries director at the Texas church, said the group started touring after the kids found out his youth group had toured performing “Godspell” when he was a teen.

“The kids asked if they could do “Godspell” and I said we can give it a try. We had planned to do one performance in 1996 and after we did it everybody loved it, and they asked me if they could go on tour like I had and we have been doing it ever since,” Walker said.

Anybody in the church youth group can participate in the production, Walker said, as long as they come to rehearsals.

Walker said the youth typically get involved with the production when they are in 7th grade, “And they grow into having an interest in a particular part or a particular song and I try to fit it with the kids’ personality,” he said.

“As far as the lead roles go, it usually winds up being somebody that is a junior or a senior, who has kind of waited their turn and expressed an interest in it,” Walker said.

The group provides their own sets and props, does all of their sound and has their own band.

This year, Walker said, 27 youth are participating in the production and at the end of the tour the group will have performed at seven different churches across the southeast.

Walker said the youth group likens the production to a worship service.

“We take communion in the service with the congregation, so it is also like a worship service not just a performance,” he said.

“Godspell” was written by Stephen Schwartz and is based on the Gospel of Matthew. The musical depicts the life of Jesus Christ beginning with His baptism by John the Baptist and ends with His death and resurrection.

Songs from the production include “Prepare Ye the Way of the Lord,” “On the Willows,” “All Good Gifts” and “Day by Day.”

For more information about Friday’s performance, call 601-415-6667, 601-618-7117 or email csumcnews@aol.com.