Children of Eden is a two-act musical play with music and lyrics by Stephen Schwartz based on a book by John Caird. The musical is loosely based on the Book of Genesis.
Act I tells the story of Adam and Eve, Cain, and Abel, and Act II deals with Noah and the Flood. While using the Bible as a plot source, it freely deviates in many details, and is a story of parents and children without a specifically religious point-of-view.
Though it had a very short run on London's West End and has never played Broadway, the show is extremely popular in community theatres worldwide.
Children of Eden was originally written in 1986 as Family Tree for a production by Youth Sing Praise, a religious-oriented high school theatre camp at the National Shrine of Our Lady of the Snows in Belleville, Illinois. Stephen Schwartz adapted the script and music of Family Tree into a full length musical, giving it the title it uses today.
The initial version of Children of Eden opened in London's West End on January 8, 1991. The show closed on April 6, 1991 after the Persian Gulf War put a damper on tourism worldwide. The show's quick closing meant that any hope of a Broadway transfer was abandoned, at least for the time being.
However, the show still managed to become popular, and throughout the 1990s it received numerous productions at both the amateur and professional levels; the show was also reworked and edited, with songs and scenes being added and cut.
In 1997, a major production was mounted at the Paper Mill Playhouse in Millburn, New Jersey, featuring Stephanie Mills. A cast recording of this production was produced by Schwartz himself. This revised version, commonly known as the "American version" or "Paper Mill version", is substantially what is currently licensed for production in the United States.
The show's publisher, Music Theater International, reports that Children of Eden is one of their top 20 most-frequently-licensed properties, which is very unusual for a show that has never had a Broadway or Off-Broadway run. Its popularity is partly due to its ability to accommodate a large or small cast; its universal themes of family, love, greed, anger, and many others; and its religious material, which make it a favourite for churches, synagogues, and post-secondary schools.
It was recently announced by Playbill though that Children of Eden will finally get a Broadway run in the 2008-2009 season.
Source: Wikipedia
Stephen Schwartz
official website
Children of Eden at
musicalschwartz.com
Music Theatre International
