NEW ORLEANS — A New Orleans museum plans to launch an elaborate nighttime sound-and-light show next year to showcase individual stories of bravery and sacrifice during World War II.
The National WWII Museum plans to premiere its Expressions of America show next November, on Veterans Day 2022. It will use music, art installations and projections of what the museum calls “living murals” on the various facades of the expansive museum in downtown New Orleans. The plan is to draw from the museum’s archives to tell personal stories of soldiers, nurses and chaplains who served, their loved ones and others who played a role on the home front, including factory workers, artists and entertainers.
“All of the words in the show will come directly from the men and women of the WWII generation, and the production’s original musical score will feature 1940s-era songs performed by New Orleans’s legendary Preservation Hall Jazz Band,” the museum said in a news release.
The show also will feature actor and veterans advocate Gary Sinise.
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Expressions of America is being produced at an estimated cost of about $5 million, according to museum spokesman Keith Darcey. It will be sponsored by the Bob & Dolores Hope Foundation, a charitable organization founded in the name of the late comedian who famously entertained troops overseas, and his wife.
“I know my father would be so honored not only to be featured in such an innovative production but also for the Bob & Dolores Hope Foundation to be supporting an effort that will inspire the same appreciation that he had for all those who served in World War II and beyond,” said Bob Hope’s daughter, Linda Hope, CEO of the foundation.
The museum says Expressions of America will be a permanent production with multiple ticketed showings per week after its premiere on Nov. 11, 2022.