Falling For Eve

It’s bright and pretty and loud, but it’s not enough. Falling For Eve, the ambitious new musical in performances at the Theater at S. Peter’s Church, puts forth a valiant effort, but the weak material overshadows the strong performances, resulting in an unsatisfying production.With a book by Joe DiPietro, music by Bret Simmons and lyrics by David Howard, Falling For Eve revisits the Garden of Eden and the concept of original sin. Adapted from Howard’s play Adam Alone, this story makes more than a few alterations to the one told in Genesis, presenting it in a sarcastic, tongue-in-cheek manner in which God is not all-knowing (or only one gender, for that matter). This time around, after God creates Adam and Eve and puts them in Eden, there is no Devil to tempt Eve into eating the apple. It’s God who presents the temptation, and it’s God who sends two angels (Nehal Joshi and Jennifer Blood) to Earth to lure the humans into eating the fruit. Eve (Krystal Joy Brown) gives into temptation but Adam (Jose Llana) refuses to disobey God.Banished from Eden, Eve wanders the Earth alone, aging and suffering, while Adam remains in the Garden, desperately missing her. (At one point, God offers to provide Adam with a replacement woman named Nicole, but Adam is not too keen on that idea). Llana is an amusing (and quite attractive) Adam, presenting his childlike innocence with a slight sarcastic edge and singing his numerous ballads. As Eve, Brown is stunning, depicting her curiosity and resulting wisdom in a carefully nuanced performance. Her solo, “Where Will I Sleep Tonight?” sung after her banishment from Eden, is extremely moving.The role of God is shared by a male and a female actor (Adam Kantor and Sasha Sloan) and is presented as slightly sarcastic, slightly arrogant, yet not all-knowing. After Adam refuses to eat the apple and remains in Eden, God is thrown for a loop and isn’t sure how to encourage the creation of the human race after the one man and woman on Earth are separated from each other. He /She is supported by the two angels who serve as backup singers and dancers and offer advice from time to time.It’s an interesting perspective, but also a bit disconcerting. It is unclear what the intention of the show is. Are the writers trying to disprove the Bible? Say God is not what the Bible says He/She/It is? Given that it was God who tempted Adam and Eve in this story, what is the play really saying about original sin? And it was God who told Eve to try to seduce Adam into having sex with her, even though the two were not married.The sarcastic tone established in the beginning of the play could elevate this confusion by clarifying that this is a pure satire, but the tone is not maintained throughout the show, which quickly slips into sappy sentimentalism, especially when Adam and Eve duet in a love song titled, “Paradise is You.” Paradise can be many things to many people, but unfortunately, this show is not one of them.