Pageants

After a three-year hiatus, more than 700 volunteers have once again come together to celebrate the life, death, and Resurrection of Jesus Christ through live performance and music.

Since the final Hill Cumorah Pageant took place last summer, the Church has been hard at work rehabilitating the historic site.

After a three-year hiatus, this Mesa tradition will be back this spring with a new set, new script, and new music.

From fireside skits to stake roadshows, drama has always been part of Latter-day Saint life, with the Church’s pageants at center stage. Here’s a look back at the four pageants that were phased out in 2018.

Due to the ongoing impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, the Hill Cumorah Pageant, originally scheduled to have its final season in 2021, has been canceled and will not be held in future years. The Nauvoo Pageant will also not be held in 2021 but will continue in 2022.

In 2020, the Hill Cumorah Pageant will celebrate its 83rd and final year. This iconic religious event has attracted the attention of media outlets across the nation, from the New York Times to USA Today.

The following story originally ran on LDS Living in June 2016 but has been updated to celebrate the last year of the Mormon Miracle Pageant.

The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints is growing across the earth. As this occurs, local Church leaders and members are encouraged to focus on gospel learning in their homes and to participate in Sabbath worship and the Church’s supporting programs for children, youth, individuals and families. The goal of every activity in the Church should be to increase faith in the Lord Jesus Christ and to share His gospel message throughout the world. Local celebrations of culture and history may be appropriate. Larger productions, such as pageants, are discouraged.

The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints announced Wednesday it will end four of its seven large, faith-promoting pageants and continue three of them.

On Saturday the Church made an announcement discouraging pageants. Find out what will happen to the seven Church pageants around the world.

The Church released the following statement on October 27, 2018:

Mud. Animals. Pioneers. Stories. Food. Flash floods. Everything you could possibly want to celebrate summer, the great outdoors, and pioneer history. And you can find it all at the Castle Valley Pageant in Castle Dale, Utah. One of a handful of pageants sponsored by the Church, the Castle Valley Pageant is based on true stories of pioneers who were called by Brigham Young to settle the Castle Valley area. And like its sister pageants, it inspires crowds of people every time it runs, just like it’s creator, Montell Seely, dreamed it would. Read on to learn about the miracles that accompanied the pageant’s beginning and what its cast and volunteer workers have to say about it.

"I want you to know there are angels from across the veil that are with us as well," Sister Jones said. "I have a feeling there are a lot of family members and friends of yours that are very, very aware of what you're doing, the sacrifice you're making to create this wonderful, faith-promoting experience."

For the full list and more information about the Church pageants held this year, click here.

Mackenzie Ford, usually a rough-and-tumble sort of girl, won the title for Arizona's Miss Maricopa’s Outstanding Teen in September.

Earlier this year, 17-year-old Abigail Manery was crowned the 2017 Idaho Miss Amazing Teen Queen. She is currently preparing to compete at the National Miss Amazing Pageant, which will take place this August in Chicago, Illinois. Abby will be featured in an upcoming documentary highlighting her preparations for the pageant, as well as her life and the disabilities she lives with daily.

Latter-day Saint JessiKate Riley will be heading to the Miss America Pageant this September in Atlantic City, New Jersey.

“I think one of the hardest things about playing the role are the expectations that everyone has of you,” Maxson said. “People are very free with how they feel about the Savior and the faith. They project all that onto you when you’re on stage. It’s difficult to shoulder.”

Her fingers were crossed and she was nervously swaying back and forth on the stage when she heard the words: "Our Senior Miss Queen is . . . Tara Goodson!"

The Mormon Miracle Pageant in Manti, Utah, is celebrating its 50th year and will kick off on Thursday, June 16 and run until June 25. Along with the pageant, the city will host a series of devotionals, concerts, and delicious turkey dinners prior to the pageant to help celebrate this landmark event.

MR Says: Check out more fascinating behind-the-scenes facts about the Hill Cumorah Pageant.

The last glow of daylight disappears as hundreds of costumed Latter-day Saints of all ages excitedly line the aisles of a temporary seating area at the base of New York’s Hill Cumorah. With an opening blast from the trumpets, everyone is cued into action. And the thrill of those several hundred people rushing onto a massive stage on the hill gives you more goosebumps than the chilly night air. Welcome to the Hill Cumorah Pageant.

First-time pageant-goers will find the following tips useful: Arrive early for optimum seating. First-come seating is provided for 14,500 and there is room on the grass for additional spectators. June evenings can be cool so bring a sweater or blanket. Blankets may be used on chairs but are not allowed in the aisles. The blanket area is now larger.

The Missionary Department is currently accepting applications for the 2014 Young Performing Missionary program. Those selected will receive a call to serve as young performing missionaries (YPMs) for the 2014 summer season, May 2 through August 12, 2014, in Nauvoo, Illinois.

“You are the future of the Church in the British Isles,” declared Elder Russell M. Nelson to the cast and crew of the British Pageant, which was staged July 31–August 3 and August 5–10. Subtitled “Truth Will Prevail,” the pageant tells the story of the Church in the British Isles. August 8 and 9 saw three Apostles, the senior President of the Presidency of the Seventy, and the Europe Area Presidency, accompanied by their wives, take time out from training new mission presidents and missionaries to attend performances of the British Pageant on the grounds of the Preston England Temple in Chorley, where they also met on sequential days with pageant cast, crew, and organizers.

Following are the dates, times, locales, and other information for 2013 Church pageants. Admission to all pageants is free and, unless indicated, no tickets or reservations are required. More information can be obtained at www.lds.org/locations/pageants or on indicated websites for individual pageants.

When my husband and I exited the interstate to Palmyra, New York, the first thing we saw was nature having its way with the earth. There were overgrown bushes and thick forests, but no towns, not even a farm, that human attempt to control chlorophyll. Then we saw a sign: pageant traffic ahead. Prepare to stop. Police directed us to a field-turned-parking lot with the vehicles of 6,000 pilgrims here for the Hill Cumorah Pageant, a 90-minute extravaganza chronicling the Book of Mormon. It stars a cast of 800 – all Latter Day Saints – a script composed by Orson Scott Card, music by the Mormon Tabernacle Choir, and a 40-storey fire-and-water-spewing set.

As the LDS Church's annual Hill Cumorah Pageant opened two weeks ago, local media outlets were wondering if Pageant attendance would go through the roof in light of the current ongoing "Mormon Moment." The answer is in: no.

Don and Lee Preston, who teach at an international school near Shanghai, were sitting under a gaily striped tent on a recent Saturday in a field near the birthplace of the Mormon prophet Joseph Smith, helping entertain a group of Mormon teenagers. The Prestons could have gone home to Arizona for their vacation - "but we wanted to do something more meaningful with our summer than eating in restaurants and seeing movies," said Lee, 43.

The 9,000 folding chairs facing the Mormon holy site called Hill Cumorah are filling up quickly two hours before the annual pageant is set to begin just after sundown. This is the opening performance of what will be a week-long run and each night pilgrims who have travelled from all around the world to be here will occupy nearly every seat.

With its cast of 700, 1,300 costumes, 10-level stage and thrill-a-minute special effects of earthquakes, floods, fireballs, airborne deities and burnings at the stake, the annual Hill Cumorah Pageant, one could argue, has more in common with the spectacle of “Spider-Man” than with the merry snark of “The Book of Mormon.”