If movies can be inspired by theme park rides, why not a Broadway play based on a Twitter feed? An Act of God, David Javerbaum's new comedy, emerged from a Twitter persona he created — @TheTweetOfGod, also available in book form — which ostensibly documents the musings of the Judeo-Christian deity (and boasts nearly 2 million followers). The theatrical adaption, now playing at Studio 54, incarnates God in the guise of TV sitcom star Jim Parsons, who, attended by Christopher Fitzgerald and Tim Kazurinsky as the angels Michael and Gabriel, holds forth on everything from monotheism to masturbation.
tablets — swiped, we're told, from a courthouse lawn in Oklahoma — duly displays these new edicts as they're announced.
people, with equally familiar answers).
By the end, when God abandons his brand-new commandments and teams up with a heavenly Steve Jobs to launch a Universe 2.0 do-over, the plot pretty much peters out. The relationships between God and his angels don't acquire enough meaning to matter, and the new cosmos, murky as its details are, is neither truly frightening nor funny. We're not in the territory of pure stand-up, where jokes don't need clear connections, nor in the realm of plausible story line.
theatrical cues from Twitter. Though the site has inspired a number of dramatic experiments, from the New York Neo-Futurists' single-tweet plays to long-form online sagas, it helps when the story fits the format. In this case God might be more amusing 140 characters at a time.