‘Children of Eden’ rich in music, song

“Madam, I’m Adam,” Adam introduces himself to Eve.

Comic, isn’t it? And ordinary, like any guy coming on for the first time to a girl who looks good to him?

But so starts Civic Light Opera’s “Children of Eden,” a gorgeous re-telling of, as Milton wrote in “Paradise Lost”: “… Man’s first disobedience, and the fruit/Of that forbidden tree whose mortal taste/Brought death into the world, and all our woe/With loss of Eden.”

The Book of Genesis from creation to the Flood unfolds in a rich mix of dialogue, song and dance in this offering for the holidays but without sermonizing or patronizing. The stories are the same stories that Christians, Muslims and Jews grow up with. But as told here, they focus on the humanity we share and the pickle we put ourselves in. This is a celebration and lamentation of free will, personal choice and individual responsibility.

So who can blame Eve (Kat Ramsburg) for biting into the apple? Who can appreciate the wonders of paradise when they don’t have anything else to go by?

Or Adam (Aaron Freed) for going along with her? What wife doesn’t talk her husband into doing things when he’s happy doing nothing?

Okay, Cain (Vince Wingerter) goes overboard. His brother doesn’t care if the grass is greener on the side. He could leave him at home. But killing him? That’s a definite no-no. It makes Cain a marked man. As for the implication that Cain’s descendants bear the mark of Cain, it gives me the shivers.

On the other hand, Japheth (Ryan McCabe) has a point. Why shouldn’t he marry the girl of his dreams? Yonah (Julia Beers) is a realer looker.

Noah (Matt Shimkus), however, is another case altogether. The guy does everything Father (Laird M. Thornton) tells him to do; and still, it rains, and rains, and rains.

Costume designs by Doris Black make a circus spectacle of the parade onto Noah’s Ark of giraffes, turtles, peacocks and other creatures that creep, crawl, strut and stalk, two by two.

Hymns, gospel, torch and love songs texture the gorgeous score performed under the musical direction of Paul Linnes.

Directing and choreographing by Kelly Willis balance scope and sensitivity to sacred text with human values. Managing that is by no means a simple matter. Well done, Willis.

The music and lyrics by Stephen Schwartz and book by John Caird conceive on a Biblical scale but with an emotional honesty that gives you pause for thought.

All together, this production makes an inspired case for all of us being more alike than different. Like the good Book implies, we are all “Children of Eden.”