Plot Synopsis and Music Links 
Music is fully orchestrated with voice parts.

Synopsis

The Garden is a 2.5-hour epic rock opera of the Biblical meta-narrative. Act I opens with humanity reflecting on its state of alienation and brokenness and then moves into the main action in which Lucifer, God's most brilliant angel, leaves heaven, vowing to make war on the children God is about to create. God, as three characters (Father, Jesus, and L'Esprit), creates Earth and places Adam and Eve in a paradisaical garden, warning them that death will come if they eat of the fruit of one of the trees. Lucifer convinces Eve that she will be a goddess if she eats from the tree, and so she and Adam do--bringing into the world suffering and death. They must leave the garden, but God promises that he will help them find their way back. Violence immediately begins to overtake humanity, and tyrants enslave and oppress them under Lucifer's tutelage. The people cry out for help and God delivers them, making a covenant with them in hopes that this will improve the state of affairs on earth. But Lucifer sways them away and they end up killing God’s messengers. God decides it is time to fulfill his promise to bring his children home by sending Jesus to earth. Lucifer reproaches God for his idiocy, warns Jesus that he will hunt him down and kill him, and declares to humanity that they have no hope.

Act II opens with humanity reflecting on the frenetic nature of life. The main action resumes with Mary agreeing to be Jesus' mother on earth. As Lucifer hovers about, Jesus is born, grows to be a man, and leaves home to begin his work. Lucifer follows him out into the desert to test him. When Jesus withstands his temptations, Lucifer realizes he is the one God promised to send and declares that it is now only a matter of time before he kills him. Jesus goes to humanity to tell them about a new way of living that is marked with peace and love and freedom. Lucifer hosts a party to attract those who have started to follow Jesus and convinces the authorities who hate Jesus to kill him. Jesus shares a last meal with his followers and then goes off to pray, where he is tormented by Lucifer before being handed over to the cohort. He is crucified and dies while Lucifer exults in his apparent triumph. When he is buried, Mary and Eve sing of what Jesus has done for humanity, and Adam and others sing of their doubt and regret. At dawn, Jesus comes out from his grave, opening the garden gate and declaring to Lucifer that his reign of death is over.  Jesus invites everyone to walk the path of love that leads to the garden. He returns through the opened gate to paradise. The dead rejoice and follow him. The show closes with humanity inviting everyone who is broken or alienated to join them on the path that leads back to the garden.

Artistic Notes
Influences include Pink Floyd (most notably The Wall as a slightly over-the-top concept album with amazing guitar), Les Miserables for its dark redemptive beauty, and Moulin Rouge for its stunning (and, again, over the top) visuals and directing. Of course, Jesus Christ Superstar must be mentioned. The conceit of the show rises from the rich soil of those first and fascinating primordial chapters of Genesis and unfolds into a narrative of the Biblical story of salvation, which is compelling in its own dark, redemptive beauty. The Garden would share a book shelf with not only the Bible, but medieval mystery plays and Milton's Paradise Lost. Lucifer is some mixture of the Snow Miser and Smallville's Lex Luthor (with great hair). Jesus is an existential rock tenor who might be in a grunge band. The show is culturally sensitive; playful, yet serious.