JOB: The Hip-Hop Musical

When a play credits Old Navy as its costume designer and warns parents of its "biblical content," you know you're in for a wild and wacky show. And that's exactly what you get from Jerome Saibil and Eli Batalion, two Jewish rappers from Montreal who have put their own spin on the tale of an innocent man whose faith is tested by God.

In "Job: The Hip-Hop Musical," the title character is transported from the Old Testament into present-day New York. He is a successful employee at a record company, Hoover Records, and a dedicated husband to his professor wife. However, when the devilish V.P. of Finance, Lou Saphire (read: Lucifer), casts suspicion in the mind of C.E.O. J. Hoover (read: Jehovah), the latter takes away Job's benefits and other incentives to see if the subordinate will still be faithful. Job goes from golden boy to whipping boy with no explanation at all, and must hold it together or risk losing it all.

Saibil and Batalion bill themselves as "MC Cain" and "MC Abel," and work together as creative brothers to tell this quick and quirky tale. They are responsible for all the lyrics for the clever musical numbers, and collaborated on the music with Paul Bercovitch. The pair also directed themselves, which is particularly impressive given all the verbal and physical feats they perform. Especially inventive is the fact that they play multiple characters, switching off at any given moment without any hesitation or confusion.

In fact, the only drawback to the show is its unintelligible opening -- the beatbox duo set up their story at a breakneck speed, but it's difficult to hear much of what they're saying. After the first song, the problem goes away, so if they could just slow down the synopsis and spit out those initial syllables, this show would truly be divine.

— Elias Stimac