JOYFUL NOISE, by Tim Slover (like Amadeus about Handel’s Messiah) at Town Players of New Canaan

A joyful play that "hits all the right notes"! Clever and funny as well as inspiring. If you love Handel's Messiah, this play is a MUST SEE! This play has the feel of a juicy soap opera, with dueling diva sopranos, a plot combining religious protest, political alienation, social humiliation, and a sex scandal. Based on actual historical facts, George Frederick Handel is in trouble: his last opera flopped, he is no longer in favor with King George II and preachers are raging that his latest work is blasphemous. In this climate, he struggles to present "The Messiah." Handel's travails are linked with those of his leading soprano. Forced into retirement because of a scandal, she is slated to make her comeback in his new masterpiece and fears a nasty reception. A malicious, back stabbing alternate is waiting in the wings to replace her. A devious bishop and Handel's bulky librettist add to the conflict in this true story of the politics and passion that nearly prevented "The Messiah" from ever being performed.