Review: The Journals of Adam and Eve, a Lackluster Tell-All of the First Couple

The premise of The Journals of Adam and Eve, now at the Sheen Center, is enticing: the “true story” of Adam and Eve that you won’t find in the Bible. In fact, writer Ed. Weinberger, famous for his scripting on famous sitcoms like Taxi, credits Mark Twain for originally coming up with the idea. The actors are promising too: Hal Linden and Marilu Henner as the OG celebrity couple, both with decades of comedic acting experience. Though the two leads are engaging, the production doesn’t live up to the possibilities of updating this classic story. The plot adheres too closely to the material in the Bible and doesn’t bring new perspectives or texture that would make this old tale new again.

The first half gets off to a strong start as Adam and Eve first appear in the garden of Eden. It’s the section that also takes the most creative liberties with the story. Adam is a bit of a pothead whose weed habit earns him an “assistant” who is going to take over the naming of the animals. This is Eve, a spitfire who will not do what Adam tells her to do, even when he says God has ordained he command “every living thing that moveth upon the Earth.” She fires back at him, saying, “Maybe you and this God ought to have another little talk about who is whoest and what is whateth.”

Linden and Henner shine during this section, as their initial annoyance with each other grows into playfulness and then attraction. Henner brings a youthful exuberance to her role, helping the audience see a new world through her eyes. Adam is a bit of a curmudgeon even as a young man, but Linden finds beats of arrogance and excitement that make him believable as a 20-something navigating relationships for the first time.

Once the famous couple are kicked out of Eden, however, the humor wanes and the proceedings begin to feel like checking off plot points. Cain and Abel are born and quickly dispatched when Cain murders Abel and takes off (though both parents insist it was an accident). Both actors bring a lot of emotion to the scenes when they discover what “death” truly means by recovering the body of their son, particularly Henner, who projects a mother’s deep love and despair in just a few lines of material.

But it’s hard to get very invested when Abel is killed mere minutes after he is introduced, and the death doesn’t influence any of the action following it.  Now alone again, the couple bickers so often that they decide to separate for 200 years. At some point, they get back together. These events are only loosely tied together without a sense of cause and effect, so both the plot and the emotions of the characters get muddled.

The chosen format of the show, which is mostly dueling monologues with a few scenes of interaction between the characters, also isn’t utilized to its full dramatic potential. The actors read from scripts at two separate podiums, a choice that seems like it will play out in some significant way. Are Adam and Eve undergoing a divorce proceeding and explaining to the judge what happened over the course of the relationship? Unfortunately, we never find out who Adam and Eve are addressing and why.

Other design choices are even more confusing. The projected scenery changes throughout the section in Eden, reflecting the time of day. At some point, the scenery changes drop off – I’m assuming to reflect that Adam and Eve aren’t in the garden anymore – and because the backdrop is not starkly different from the scenes in Eden, it reads as an oversight instead of an intentional artistic choice.

Fans of Linden and Henner will likely enjoy this production, though for the rest of us it won’t make a big impact. It’s a lighthearted night of theater that doesn’t fully live up to the potential of updating the world’s first love story.