To sign up for Meridian’s Free Newsletter, please CLICK HERE.
Saturday’s Warrior began with a phone call in 1971, while Doug Stewart and Lex de Azevedo were living in Southern California. Lex had read a film script written by Doug and called him to see if he would be interested in collaborating on a musical project. Lex had a contemporary musical in mind, through which a slice of LDS life could be portrayed on stage.
Doug immediately came up with the “Jimmy” character, a young man who was struggling to discover who he was. Within a week he presented his first lyric to Lex, which began, “Who am I, where am I going… Here I sit all alone, not knowing why. Brace me up I’m so discouraged… Help I think I’m going to die.” It was destined to become the climactic moment of the play, where Jimmy chooses between family and outside influences– “Brace me up.” But at the time, Doug didn’t have a story line to hang it on. Other lyrics would come before the actual story, including “Paper Dream,” “Summer of Fair Weather,” and “Voices.”
The title Saturday’s Warrior, also preceded the script. “I remember sharing the title with friends, and got strange reactions,” says Doug. “They thought it sounded militant, Indian, and too strong for a musical.”
But Doug gives credit to the title for inspiring him in writing the lyric that would give impetus to the rest of the play—“Who are these children coming down, coming down… These are the few the warriors saved for Saturday, to come, the last day of the world.” Once Lex had set this to music, Doug knew the title was right
The concept of using the pre-existence as an important element in the script, didn’t come to Doug until he moved with his young family to Provo, Utah, to accept a writing position at the BYU Motion Picture Studio. After settling in, he received a call from Lex in March of 1972, asking if he had come up with any other ideas for the story line. Doug confessed that he hadn’t. Lex said he’d be visiting in a couple of days, and Doug promised he’d try to come up with something.
It was on a Sunday night that the inspiration finally came. “Mary and the baby were in bed, “ says Doug, “And I sat with a stenographer’s note pad in hand. The moment was magical, as the situations, characters, and musical moments came flooding into my mind.”
To Doug’s surprise, every song that had been written to that point had a place. He describes it as a very humbling experience. But the real magic came when he decided that the opening scene had to be in heaven—where Jimmy and his seven brothers and sisters awaited their turns to be born.
Two days later, Lex sat across from Doug in his office at the BYU Motion Picture Studio. After reading the outline to him, they both were chocked with emotion. They knew there was something special about this story. “It’s right,” Lex said. “What you’ve come up with is right.”
Doug found himself walking the streets of Provo that afternoon, unable to work. “I felt such a wonderful, exhilarating spirit,” he describes. “I know there was something very good about this project, but had no idea where it would lead.”
Over the next few months, Doug would go to work at 5am to spend an hour or two each day to develop the script. When finished, he decided to enter it in the annual Utah Arts Council Playwriting Contest . He because a finalist, which allowed him to do a small production of the piece in the Spring of 1973. It was performed at Theatre 131 in Salt Lake City. This “workshop” production won playwright, Doug Stewart, 1st place in that competition and a fully staged production at Brigham Young University in the spring of 1974.
The response to the BYU production took everyone by surprise. They sold out all performances, and for the first time in their theatre’s history, extended the run. Doug and Lex knew they had a hit on their hands.
During the summer of 1974 the Chatsworth LDS Stake produced the show in Southern California. This was Lex’s home stake, and cast members included many of the King family, and other notable LDS entertainers, who would go on to be featured on the original cast recording.
In the fall of 1974, Doug and Lex formed a production company to handle the demand for the show. That fall they staged their first professional production in Pasadena, playing 21 sold-out shows. The next spring it played 48 performances at Spanish Fork High School, then on to an incredible summer run in Salt Lake City. Despite the sweltering heat and no air conditioning, crowds packed the old South High auditorium for 86 consecutive performances. That same year, a California touring company played to sold-out audiences in every major hall throughout the Northwest, California, Nevada and Arizona.
Doug describes Saturday’s Warrior as “an unexpected phenomenon” in his life. “When Lex de Azevedo and I got together to create it, we anticipated a few LDS Stake Productions. I now look back in amazement.”
According to Stewart “Warrior” has been staged in over 300 US cities, as well as locations in Canada, England, Australia, New Zealand, France, South Africa and South America.
Following the musical’s 1998-99 nation-wide fifty city tour, it has been estimated that the show has been seen by over 2 million people, and continues to endure the test of time.
Enduring the test of time infers “classic,” and achieving that status can be a tricky thing according to Stewart. “When your musical’s message deals with bringing families into existence, missionaries out to save the world, and teenagers struggling with self-identity, the trickiness seems to fade away into what is really important to the viewer—it simply resonates with the best that’s in each of us.”
“If the musical continues to resonate with audiences,” says Stewart, “It will not be because of a grand production design, or special effects, but because the story will speak in spiritual ways to the human soul.”
Doug Stewart resides in St. George with his wife, Mary. They are the parents of 8 children and have 23 grandchildren. Doug serves as Stake Patriarch.
