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''Children of Eden'' is a two-act musical play with music and lyrics by Stephen Schwartz and a book by John Caird. The musical is 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. Though it had a short run on London's West End in the Prince Edward Theatre and has never played Broadway, the show is popular in community theatres worldwide. While many productions of the show have used the same principals in both acts, with the actors each taking on a different character for the story of Noah, the original West End production did not utilize doubling of principals. ==Production history== ''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 performed 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 original cast production of ''Children of Eden'' was developed as a Royal Shakespeare Company (RSC) workshop,〔 directed by John Caird, and starring Ken Page as Father, Richard Lloyd-King as Snake, Martin Smith as Adam, Shezwae Powell as Eve, Adrian Beaumont as Cain, Kevin Colson as Noah, Earlene Bentley as Mama Noah, Frances Ruffelle as Yonah, Anthony Barclay as Japeth, Craig Pinder as Shem, Ray Shell as Ham, Hiromi Itoh as Aysha and Ruthie Henshall as Aphra. After the RSC's budget was cut, it opened at the Prince Edward Theatre in London's West End on January 8, 1991. The show closed on April 6, 1991 to poor reviews and after the Persian Gulf War put a damper on tourism worldwide.〔 The show's poor reviews and quick closing meant that any hope of a Broadway transfer was abandoned. The original London cast album was released on LP and CD, but quickly went out of print. The CD release was marred by manufacturing defects that caused most of the discs to "bronze", becoming unplayable. Consequently, a playable copy of the disc is highly prized by musical theatre collectors. Schwartz believes the show has not played on Broadway because of the expense required to produce it in an Actor's Equity house, due to the cast of characters.〔(【引用サイトリンク】title=FAQ: On the Right Track )〕 There is an extremely rare concept recording of the show that exists. The recording features Stephen Schwartz himself playing the piano. The recording was made before the Papermill Playhouse production in an effort to review the rewrites and revisions. The recording was made available only for a limited time on Stephen Schwartz's website via RealAudio streaming. The recording is considered to be the rarest version of the show that exists. Only a handful of people possess CD or digital copies of it, including Stephen Schwartz himself and Michael Kohl. Throughout the 1990s, the show received numerous productions at both the amateur and professional levels; it 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 New York City premiere of the piece was as the inaugural World AIDS Day Concert presented by Jamie McGonnigal and Kate Shindle for The York Theatre Company. The concert featured Julia Murney, Norm Lewis, Darius de Haas, and Jai Rodriguez and raised funds for The National AIDS Fund. The show's publisher, Music Theater International, reports that ''Children of Eden'' is one of its 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 others; and its religious material, which make it a favorite for churches, synagogues, and post-secondary schools. The most recent production of Children of Eden was played at NIDA (St. Andrews), Sydney, Australia, on the second and third weekends of March, 2011. A world premiere of the symphonic version ran in Kansas City from July 15 to 24, 2011, accompanied by a 55-piece orchestra. A Gala charity concert adaptation ran for one night only at the Prince of Wales theatre in London on 29 January 2012. The concert was produced to support Crohn's and Colitis UK and featured performers from London's West End theatre community and from UK television.〔()〕 In 2013 ''Children of Eden'' was presented in Melbourne, Australia by award-winning production company Magnormos, as the finale of their Stephen Schwartz Celebration Triptych. The triptych also featured Godspell and Pippin and enjoyed the company of composer Stephen Schwartz in attendance. A one-night only concert was presented at the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts in Washington, DC on May 19, 2014. The concert featured Ron Bohmer, Ashley Brown, Charl Brown, Rebecca Naomi Jones, and Jeremy Jordan. The production was accompanied by the Kennedy Center Opera House Orchestra and the National Broadway Chorus, and was attended by composer Stephen Schwartz.〔()〕 In June of 2014, regional outdoor theatre company, (The Aracoma Story ), produced a two week long showing of "Children of Eden" in Logan, West Virginia. The showing was overall successful. On August 1, 2 and 3, 2014 the Trumbull Youth Association (Connecticut) put on "Children of Eden" at Trumbull High School. The show was unique for a youth group in that award-winning musical theater composer, lyricist and librettist Brett Boles, who appeared in the production 12 years earlier as a performer, directed the cast. Boles is also known for co-conceiving and helping to produce, with Broadway producer Van Dean, "From Broadway With Love: A Benefit Concert for Sandy Hook" in the wake of the infamous school shootings in December of 2012. Both Stephen Schwartz and original cast member Kelli Rabke attended rehearsals for the musical in July and held a question and answer session for cast and crew. The orchestra Boles recruited for the performances were also from Broadway. The musical concludes its run in Trumbull August 8, 9 and 10. In 2015, the show was adapted into a junior version by Lindsay Maron. The World Premiere of this adaptation was presented at the Summit Playhouse in Summit, NJ from July 24-August 2 (with preview performances July 17-19). The production was directed and choreographed by Maron with musical direction and musical arrangements by Alex Ratner. The cast included 37 performers from all over the tristate area. Stephen Schwartz and executives from MTI attended the production and the show is moving forward on track to be licensed in the near future. The production and the adaptation process were featured on Playbill.com. () 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Children of Eden」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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