"Children of Eden" a review

I took my little neighbor, Anna, to see the musical "Children of Eden" for her birthday. With music and lyrics by Stephen Schwartz and the story by John Caird, the musical was “freely based” on the creation, the fall of man and the flood in Genesis. The show itself was a nicely directed and choreographed ensemble production by the Fox Valley Youth Theatre. However, I soon began to feel the story and message of the musical were extremely negative. After the glory of creation, God was portrayed as an arbitrary earthly father. And, can you imagine a Noah story with no rainbow?

Two messages disturbed me. First, the musical conveyed the message that creativity belonged only to God and not to curious humans. That seemed to be a major theme and was repeated again and again.

A second message of the musical was that God was a racist – unbiblically portraying God as prejudiced against the children of Cain.

The musical’s final message was that we should love each other. Ironic, since the musical showed human failure to keep every promise made, especially loving your family.

The only thing I could say to Anna at the end of the musical was “thank God for Jesus.”