God Gets Roughed Up in Colorful, Poignant 'Children of Eden'

"Children of Eden" opened a two-month run at Ford's Theatre in downtown Washington, D.C., last week. At this Tuesday's "media night," the musical was greeted at its conclusion by a thundering standing ovation from a sell-out crowd that included a heavy contingent from the local press.

Colorful, energetic, creative, moving, inspiring are all words that work describing this rendition of the first books of Genesis in the Bible. The music and lyrics are by Stephen Schwartz of Wicked, Godspell and Pippin fame and the storyline comes from a book by two-time Tony Award winner John Caird (Les Miserables and Nicholas Nickleby).

The first half chronicles in song, dance and energetic gymnastic stunts the Creation and adventures of Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden, including the clash between Cain and Abel, closing with the death of Eve. The second half focuses on Noah and the Arc and his conflicts with his children.

In addition to numerous rousing applauses for solo, duet and production song and dance numbers, the biggest applause came from an almost hypnotizing slow Pilobolus-style gymnastic effort by a dozen or so characters to combine and bend themselves into stylistic shapes of the various animals boarding Noah's Arc.

The final one stole the show as it came together slowly, finally revealing its intended shape with the last minute addition of two large tusks.

(One of the tusks was carried by Falls Church's very own Miles Butler. The 12-year-old's role as one of the production's children storytellers is his second in a Ford's Theatre production this season).

In a national cultural environment heavily impacted by Mel Gibson's version of religiosity, Children of Eden is a healthy antidote, reverent in its own way in its perhaps seeming irreverence.

God (Bradley Dean) gets roughed up a lot in this production for being arbitrary, authoritarian and, mostly, neglectful and missing in action.

The conflict between Adam and Eve, Cain and Abel and Noah and his sons is a conflict between compliance with arbitrary authority, on the one hand, and the passion to pursue knowledge and make independent decisions, and mistakes, on the other.

Eve fervently defends her decision to eat from the tree of the "knowledge of good and evil." Cain fights for his right to make up his own mind, even though it results in the unintended death of his brother. "That (the fatal blow inflicted on Abel) was meant for you," Cain cries to Adam, who'd been insisting his son remain blindly obedient to his absent "grandfather's" edicts, as he flees. The same goes for Noah's son's insistence he bring aboard the arc a member of the forbidden tribe of Cain and then marry her.

"The thing he most treasures is the freedom to make mistakes," Noah sings about his son Jacob.

In the end, God comes to realize that the gift he endowed his children with from Creation, the gift of the capacity for independent decision making, was his greatest gift of all. Alas, he sings at the end, "The hardest part of love is the letting go."

The storyline as a metaphor for general familial relations, and among all persons who've bonded through the developmental stages of their lives, also comes across.

Kudos to the entire cast, including a number of exceptional voices. The production, under the direction of Paul R. Tetreault, features Becca Ayers, Nicholas Belton, Joe Cassidy, Andre Garner, Telly Leung, Karen Olivo and Dean. It has been underwritten by Nortel Networks.

Performances are Tuesdays through Saturdays at 7:30 p.m., with matinees Thursdays at 1 p.m. and on weekends at 2:30 p.m. Discounts are available for groups of 20 or more. A "Teacher's Guide" to the play is available. Tickets at $29 to $45 are available a tickets.com (703-218-6500), at the box office (202-347-4833 or in person) or at most Olsson's Books.

Ford's Theatre is at 511 Tenth Street NW. The added plus to attending a production there, of course, is the museum in the basement with artifacts chronicling the April 14, 1865 assassination of President Abraham Lincoln at the site.