Children of Eden Far from Paradise
By SARAH WARNER
After an 11-year dry spell, composer and lyricist Steven Schwartz has tried in vain to recapture the premature fame he acquired with the scores of "Godspell" and "Pippin." Schwartz used similar themes of love and the dogmatic nature of religion in his new musical, "Children of Eden," which opened January 15 at the San Jose Center for the Performing Arts. This time Schwartz teamed up with "Les Miserables" co-writer John Caird, hoping to create an epic musical with a simpler plot and deeper meaning. What Schwartz achieved is the opposite; the plot is so simple it seems as though the characters barely have anything to sing about. It also lacked the childish and comedic qualities that made "Pippin" and "Godspell" a success.
In "Godspell" it was the Gospel of Matthew, in "Pippin" it was the empire of Charlemagne. Now, it's Genesis: the story of Adam and Eve, Cain and Abel and Noah's ark. What Schwartz attempted to show was the emotional struggle of the characters as they deal with their faith, sins and corruption. For the big screen the idea could work, but somehow the stage version is lacking.
The first act drags through the tragic tale of Adam and Eve and their progeny, in which the simple story of the tree of knowledge and the banishment of the couple from the Garden of Eden becomes a melodramatic seesaw of songs that lack any sort of catchy rhythm. The songs are muddled by not-so clever lyrics: "In the wasteland /the land of waste / the forbidden fruit has a bitter taste." The plot, along with the dialogue, is choppy and insincere. Schwartz also changed the original story so that only Eve eats from the tree before "Father" discovers her wrongdoing. When confronted by God, Adam chooses Eve over the garden and is banished. Somehow Schwartz tried to use this as one of his central themes: sons will choose women over their father, for it was demonstrated again in the tale of Noah's Ark with a romance between one of Noah's sons and a servant, Yonah.
The play's worst flaw has to be the characterization of the biblical couples. In an attempt to be politically correct, Adam is Caucasian and Eve is African-American. Their children, however, are not mixed - Abel is black and Cain is white. Of course, we all know that Cain killed Abel; could this have been done in order to compensate for putting Eve, an African American woman, in a bad light for disobeying God?
"Eden" has a few redeeming qualities; however, Eve is not one of them. Too busy trying to be cute, or trying not to crack on the high notes, LaTonya Holmes should have been "caned" (no pun intended) off the stage after she wisened up from the tree of knowledge. On the other hand, SCU should put their hands together for alum Elizabeth Traub, who did a beautiful job as Yonah. Traub's solo "Stranger in the Rain" brought a haunting ethereal quality to the song which made the lyrics and the melody one of the more memorable moments of the play. The other shining star was Timothy Gulan, who played the rebellious characters of Cain and Japheth. Gulan won the audiences' hearts when he belted out his solo, "Lost in the Wilderness," in the first act. Gulan's wily and rebellious demeanor made him the most lovable character in the play. The other characters - Adam, Eve and Abel, got no sympathy from the audience as they whined through their lukewarm performances. Their skewed perceptions of God and faith made their characters predictable and inaccurate.
Unfortunately, only half the audience stayed to see the second act. Children of Eden has potential, but clearly Schwartz should stick to writing for Disney.