The gospel according to Mahalia

Talk about lifting your eyes up to the sky. Sanford Moore's eyebrows almost got there last week when Jearlyn Steele made a controversial suggestion, one that could send gospel-music purists into an unholy tirade.

"What if, for the sake of moving the show along, we edit the song down so it's not 5 minutes long?" the singer asked, while she and pianist/music director Moore rehearsed the Mahalia Jackson standard "How I Got Over." Which, by the way, very much did not sound too long.

Steele herself then questioned the question: "I'm not sure if we can claim the license to do that."

Moore, Steele and the Penumbra Theatre Company are treading carefully over a lot of precious ground with this week's unconventional production of "Come on Children, Let's Sing!"

A narrated musical tribute to the Elvis and Run-DMC of gospel music -- as in, the first to bring it to mass audiences -- "Come on Children" certainly is not Penumbra's first show about an African-American music hero. It follows this spring's hugely successful Nat King Cole musical, "I Wish You Love."

However, the Sister Mahalia revival is a first for Penumbra in another way, since it will be staged in a church: Fellowship Missionary Baptist Church in north Minneapolis. The location fits. Unlike her acolyte Aretha Franklin, Jackson famously refused to cross over into secular music, right up until her death in 1972. Despite that, she was the first black gospel singer to sell a million records and perform at Carnegie Hall.

There's another reason for the production's location: Penumbra artistic director Lou Bellamy also admitted that his company is going to church looking for a little redemption.

Aside from whatever rearranging might be done -- everybody involved hopes to emulate Jackson's divine talent, not imitate it -- there's little that could be deemed controversial in this Penumbra production.

The show features three singers representing different stages of Jackson's life, tied with narration from Penumbra regular (and Sounds of Blackness singer) Jennifer Whitlock.

Mahalia No. 1

Newcomer Kennadi Hurst, 14, will start off the show as the young Mahala (she would later add the "i" in her first name). Born in New Orleans in 1911 in the household of her grandfather, an ex-slave who bought his freedom and became a minister, Jackson suffered hardships even by the standards of a Southern black girl. Her mom died when she was 5. Her aunt beat her. She suffered a disease that left her with bowed legs.

Mahalia No. 2

Mahalia #3

The veteran Steele, best known from "A Prairie Home Companion" and the Steele Family's concerts, will take Jackson home. In the '60s, she became a hero of the civil rights movement and sang at John Kennedy's inauguration in 1961 and the March on Washington in 1963. She also owned several businesses and bought a giant Cadillac, where she would sleep or eat if a hotel or restaurant refused her service.

"That's my favorite part of the story," laughed Steele. "I mean, can you just picture her in that big Caddy?"

Come on, children

Both of the younger singers in "Come on Children" expressed regret that -- like a lot of people their ages -- they never considered Jackson a major influence, not realizing her songs are still a cornerstone of modern gospel music and many church services.

Said Hurst, a student at St. Paul Conservatory for Performing Artists, "When I started looking her up and researching her music, it sounded very familiar. I knew her music, I just didn't know it was hers."

As for Steele, she has been familiar with Sister Mahalia since age 5, when her gospel-singing family performed with Jackson and the Blind Boys of Alabama at a concert in the Steeles' native city of Gary, Ind.

"I can still remember her holding my baby sister Jevetta in her arms and treating her so sweetly, probably because she never had children herself," Jearlyn said.

Steele has experience performing in a Mahalia tribute: She starred in the 1994 production "Mahalia" at Old Log Theater. Still, she believes this show is groundbreaking.

"Her life story is about perseverance, which is something we can all learn from right now," Steele said.

Which is to say nothing of the landmark music she left behind. Though many of her recordings are nothing more than her voice and a piano, they still rock harder than a front-row seat at a Metallica concert.

Said Moore, who is also the music director at Fellowship Missionary, "her rhythmic patterns were really innovative and ahead of her time. That's probably the hardest challenge we face musically."

For Steele, though, the challenge is much greater.