Volume 3, Issue 11
May 24 - June 6, 2001

Acting Up

Cilicia Yakhlef

THUMPING THE BIBLE
@
THE MOST FABULOUS STORY EVER TOLD

Theater on Broadway
13 S. Broadway, 303-860-9360
F-Sa 8p through June 2
$14-$16
303-282-0466

Adam and Steve and Jane and Mabel meet up at Broadway and Ellsworth for the Theater on Broadway's ragingly funny production of The Most Fabulous Story Ever Told by Paul Rudnick. Creation rears its head on stage at the hands of a surly stage manager who acts like she thinks she's ... well, God. She gets the cosmic womb all wound up and Adam steps out of the quantum soup like some kind of dream in bikini jockeys. The God chick has some fun with creation, especially when Adam meets up with Steve in the Garden of Eden. "Boners, go!" she says from her director's chair. Adam and Steve have a fabulous start ... just like the title says.

But then Adam goes and gets them kicked out of the garden-- no, not for sex ... it's that damned apple thing again-- and just because Adam ate the forbidden fruit, that control freak stage manager, God, relocates them to a world soon to be filled with lust, envy, sloth and all those other deadly sins.

On the upside, God also introduces them to Jane and Mabel. "Who are those poor, ugly women?" asks Mabel, who is warm and kind and beautiful and very much in love with Jane. The couples make friends, find their commonalities and and begin to construct a world in which taste and levity rules, rather than procreation. Mabel and Steve though, are always asking questions, always looking for something else, until finally, they find God. In the 400th year of their affiliation, Steve and Mabel reveal their encounter with God to their lovers and life suddenly becomes very complicated. Jane and Steve don't believe in God. They take the humanistic point of view. There lies between the two belief systems a chasm that spans several thousand years.

The playwright uses this gap as an avenue to stage several comedic episodes of classic Bible stories, including the Ten Commandments, Noah's Ark and finally the Nativity. The stories, however, are bent towards a somewhat broader range of lifestyles than the righteously pious might consider proper. Which is, I suppose, just one more reason to laugh heartily at these bright and witty translations.

As if in some twisted up tornado dream scene from The Wizard of Oz, the whole crew winds up at Adam and Steve's apartment on Christmas Eve, ca. 2000 AD. Adam is a "post-modern, multicultural genius" (more commonly referred to as a teacher) who has just begun recasting Bible stories. His first production, a gay version of the Nativity, was a total hit with all the folks at the wannabe current expeditionary school for children of wealthy [will pay big $$$ to be] avante garde parents. The foursome are still friends, and through the miracle of stage, we watch as the wisdom of the ages unfolds on old faces with new ways of expressing themselves and their love for each other. I won't spoil the ending, except to say you absolutely don't want to miss it, for it is at this juncture that the play makes the shift from funny to elegant and moving.

Playwright Paul Rudnick gives the audience plenty to laugh about, but also plenty to think about with this very different rendition of Biblical history. Director Steven Tangedal wins acollades for getting the most out of the production and the cast. On behalf of both the playwright and the director, I'll mention it is never easy to span large amounts of time on stage. Those writers talented enough to do so-- and those directors talented enough to make it happen believably on stage-- deserve special recognition. In this case the script, production and timing was flawless and the sequences were seamless.

Richard Cook as Adam, Doug Rosen as Steve, Trina O'Neill as Mabel and Cini Bow as Jane were truly fabulous, with a strong chemistry and completely natural interaction during some very difficult scenes (it just can't be easy to annunciate convincing lines whilst standing fully nude, under a spotlight in front of a crowd). The foursome presented a touching, yet lighthearted love story that, in its nonjudgment, open mindedness and good humor, reveals God to the audience in large degree. This is one truly fabulous story. Since it runs through July, there's no reason anyone should miss it. For a fun evening of theater that is remarkably different, pick up Adam and Steve and Jane and Able at the Theater on Broadway. A
--Cilicia Yakhlef