Fifty years ago a passion play was first staged in a remote Brazilian village. “Now titled ‘The Passion of Christ in New Jerusalem,’ it has become the best-known religious entertainment in Brazil, the largest Roman Catholic country. The play, being performed nightly through Saturday, has grown into a lavish million-dollar spectacle that annually draws as many as 70,000 people to what is described as the biggest open-air theater in the world. It is so successful that it has even inspired a rival, dissident pageant.” But last year the founder died, and attempts to modernize and show-biz it up are ignited big controversy.