'Transcendent': Broadway couple creates magic in Tabernacle Choir Christmas concert

SALT LAKE CITY — Despite being a Tony Award-winning actress, Stephanie J. Block was intimidated to perform in front of 21,000 people at the Conference Center. But Thursday night when she stepped on the stage, she felt like the whole audience was giving her a hug.

"It felt very comfortable ... this is a magic trick. There's 21,000 people, and yet you do feel like you are being embraced. There is a hug factor to this Conference Center," Block said in a press conference Friday.

Block and her husband Sebastian Arcelus are the first ever husband and wife duo to be the guest artists at the Tabernacle Choir at Temple Square's annual Christmas concert.

"As a husband and wife, you can feel that magic between the two of them as they perform," said President Gary B. Porter of the choir presidency.

This year's show utilizes dozens of projectors to display complex lighting, photos and videos all across the stage. In one such part, you see the love between Mary and Joseph as Jesus is born, and "to have that reflected in our narrators and performers is just wonderful," Porter said.

Performing together for a united cause, spreading the message of Christ was a "transcendent" experience for both of them.

"Stepping on stage and the first person you lock eyes with is your own wife, it changes the chemistry of the entire evening. To be working together, to be living in a moment together, in service of something larger together. Last night was a fairly transcendent experience," Arcelus said.

Sharing the stage with someone you love and have an unspoken understanding with — whether it's blood family or chosen family — automatically creates warmth for the audience, Block said.

"No matter how good of an actor you are, there's an authenticity that you can't fake. Having your spouse or the person you walk through the world with, that sort of being at home in your own skin and feeling comfortable amid tens of thousands of people, I think translates," Block said.

Block expressed how every time she goes to perform, whether it's on Broadway or for a religious show, she fuels her acting, performance and connection to the audience through her faith in Christ. The only difference was for this show, they weren't putting on a character, they were just performing as themselves.

"When we do something like this, we stand in our true self, which might take even more vulnerability because I'm hiding behind nothing. The good news is I have my partner beside me who is able to anchor me," she said.

Arcelus agreed, saying performing in this capacity, they just want to be in service of the message by being threads in the tapestry of the choir's traditions.

Some of the family and friends who attended the show Thursday night do not share the same faith as Block, but she said they all felt the message of peace and unity.

"(It) moved them and shook them to their core regardless of their genesis of faith. When that happens, we felt like something transcendent was really going on. Everyone walked out of this Conference Center changed divinely; however, they want to define that in their personal life," Block said.

After Tony Award-winner Kelli O'Hara performed with the choir in 2019, music director Mack Wilberg reached out to O'Hara asking who she recommended for future guest artists. At the top of her list was Block.

"From the very beginning, our initial conversations, we knew we were in for something very special. ... We could tell from the beginning these two were very much connected and very much in love," Wilberg said.

Block first learned of the choir through a Christmas song it did with Josh Groban, and she says the choir's version of "Carol of the Bells" is the "absolute best version." Performing among the choir that has become a part of their holiday traditions is a "real honor," she added.

This year's program is a bit different as it focuses on the story of the first astronauts orbiting the moon and being transformed by seeing Earth from a different perspective. When Wilberg first spoke with Block about that story being the basis of the program, Block was so excited and started discussing details even Wilberg didn't know.

Turns out, Block and her husband are huge astronomy buffs who deeply love the Apollo missions. In fact, Arcelus even wrote a play about the astronauts, and whenever the couple gets stressed, they go to a planetarium to give themselves perspective.

"We look and say, 'We are so important because we were created, but we're so small in this massive, expansive universe.' It puts things back into perspective for us," Block said.

Arcelus said creative director David Warner created a wonderful script that incorporated the lunar story, showing how people can be changed by perspective and aspiration. He explained how the picture taken of Earth from the moon was the first time humanity saw themselves as "a little Christmas tree ornament floating in space."

"How can you not then zoom out as you're zooming in and think about your place in the universe, your place in humanity, your place in the cosmos? It's an extraordinarily moving mission. ... To speak on it in this capacity was, for me, divine," Arcelus said.

Arcelus praised Wilberg's original compositions used in the show, saying the music is "like floating on a cloud."

Special to this year's concerts are guest musicians Julián Mansilla and Leandro Curaba. The two performed with the choir in Argentina in August, and Wilberg was so impressed he wanted to weave some of their music into the Christmas program.

"We couldn't believe this all came together. All I can say is it was meant to be," Wilberg said.

The Tabernacle Choir at Temple Square Christmas Concert will perform Friday and Saturday night. Block and Arcelus will also perform during "Music and the Spoken Word" on Sunday morning.

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