The goal of many a theater-maker is not to create a simulacrum onstage but to bring the real thing into the playhouse. With "Black Nativity," director Lou Bellamy has brought the church to Penumbra Theatre.

The holiday tradition, which opened Thursday in St. Paul, brims with righteous zeal and deep faith. Singers Greta Oglesby, Dennis Spears, Yolande Bruce and Deborah Finney, backed by a supple Sanford Moore-led orchestra and the lyrical Fellowship Missionary Baptist Church Choir, deliver music that is transporting.

As one avid theatergoer quipped, it sometimes got so hot, you might need to bring a bucket of water.

"Nativity" re-enacts the story of Jesus' birth as his pregnant mother and her husband seek a place of shelter. The hymns and spirituals, arranged as jazz, blues and R&B, show that the rejection that Mary, Joseph and Jesus faced would not emerge as their destiny. From such humble beginnings came celestial power.

The metaphor of the show seemed especially resonant Thursday night as the performance was colored not only by biblical history but contemporary vibes. It was easy to draw connections between the songs about something that happened 2,000 years ago and what is happening today in Ferguson, Mo., and Staten Island and Cleveland and Utah and Florida.

The urgency was in Oglesby's pitch and passion. She poured her gorgeous soul into her numbers, getting happy, even, and bringing the spirit into the place. But Oglesby, who shone on a riff on "There Was No Room at the Inn," was hardly alone.

Spears also lit up the theater with his melismatic trills and runs.

The four vocalists stood out often, including on "Oh, Jerusalem in the Morning." Each of them is a singing star, but their chemistry and collaboration made sweet harmony.

Even Bellamy, who narrates, speaks with the fervor of a preacher telling of a figure who is rejected by the powerful, yet comes to redeem all.

Still, in this oratorio-style setting, I miss the dancers who play the roles of Mary and Joseph. They usually bring another kind of beauty to this show, which plays on a simple, elegant church set by Lance Brockman, lit evocatively by Grant Merges.

Rohan Preston • 612-673-4390