There are some stories which should be taken with a LARGE pinch of salt. ‘The Creation’ story is just such a one.
However, in Chandler Warren and Wayne Moore’s take on events in the Garden of Eden, Adam and Eve…and Steve which has just opened at The Kings Head after finding success at both the Hollywood and Edinburgh Fringe Festivals, you might be better advised to pour yourself a pineapple daiquiri, kick back, and let the events wash over you. Like Titanic, you know how it’s going to end. Just enjoy the ride…
The story is delightfully simple (Spoiler Alert). The urbane Beelzebub (the charismatic Stephen McGlynn in show-stealing form) is fed up with life away from Heaven, so when God (Michael Christopher who remains a disembodied voice right up until…well, I won’t spoil the moment for you…) lets slip that he’s going to be creating Adam (the pec-tastic Joseph Robinson) from a little heap of dust, he sees the opportunity to make some mischief and before God can create a partner for Adam, Beelzebub creates Steve (the winsomely puckish Dale Adams) so that ‘the guys’ can have a little fun together.
As nobody’s yet eaten of the tree of knowledge, they don’t actually know what they want to do, exactly, but love each other nonetheless. After all, they’re identical, so why wouldn’t they?
Well, God steps in and puts a spanner in the works in the shape of the shrewish and manipulative Eve (Hayley Hampson) and that’s where everything starts to unravel.
Needless to say Eve gets the blame for tasting of the fruit of the tree of knowledge and the world goes to pot, leaving poor old Steve on his own…or nearly.
It’s an enjoyable seventy five minutes, though the cast seem to have trouble projecting even in this tiny space, which might be something to do with the baffling effect of the otherwise ingenious set by Maeve Black.
Dean Austin musically directs from keyboard at the sidelines, and does a fine job. It’s just a shame that there’s no song list in the programme to be able to relate the stand-out numbers. However, from memory, when Adam and Steve first want to set up home they have the best number of the show about wanting to buy furniture together, which really hits home.
If you’re the sort of person who gets annoyed by plot holes, be warned, you’ll sit there seething…How can something in the script appear Kafkaesque, or someone appear Quixotic before the birth of…well, you get my drift. Likewise, references to Bruce Forsyth, Joan Collins and the rest make this more of a panto than a contender for musical of the year.
And how can Steve possibly end up with a hook-up in Brighton before Adam and Eve had spawned? It’s all as risible as the biblical source material it came from, but I don’t think that’s the point.
It’s a flesh-on-show camp-fest with some laugh-out-loud one-liners, some genuinely touching moments, earnest and likeable performances, often from relative youngsters making their London debut’s, and all anchored by the gravitas and class of Michael Christopher and Stephen McGlynn playing God and Beelzebub respectively.
Have a glass of wine, and go with the flow. You’ll enjoy the ride.