November, 2000

The big, live-theater news in Metro Boston during the first week of October was about plans for a new performing arts center in South Boston. But in nearby suburban Woburn, a new theater company was already celebrating its opening night in a brand new venue.

And this is one that will never be hosting "Hair" or "Oh, Calcutta."

The Millennium Music Center, just off the intersection of Routes 128 and 93, is a family operated theater company in a renovated office building that, in the words of playwright and composer Mona Johnian, is "aimed at making statements that need to be made to this generation."

The first of the season's series of musicals is called "The Great Debate," which frames the creation vs. evolution conflict over the origins of man. Next, running Dec. 1-16 is "The Christmas Legacy." For the Easter season, "The Passion for Messiah" will run April 6-14. "The Fifth Season," a musical story of betrayal and forgiveness in a marriage, runs April 27-28.

If there appears to be a religious theme running through the company's season, it is no accident. Mrs. Johnian acknowledges that "to the world, they (her plays) are religious. But they're not written to be religious. They simply come from a Christian world view."

Mrs. Johnian writes the script and composes the songs, her husband, Paul, a concert violinist, transcribes and arranges the music, one of their sons oversees all the lighting, another son is an actor, a son-in-law is an accountant who handles the financial affairs of the company and a daughter-in-law is an administrator.

In "The Great Debate," completed about three years ago, "I took Adam and Eve, started in the Garden of Eden and then brought them into the 20th Century during the 1930s," she says, "where they meet people like Charles Darwin, Clarence Darrow and Albert Einstein, and they argue this issue."

The musical has already been performed Off-Broadway, where Mrs. Johnian says it had a successful six-week run and was reviewed by major newspapers. "Some of them thought I was too religious," she says, "but the Wall Street Journal invited me to write an article about it."

While she has no formal musical training - she studied nursing while in college in Tennessee - Mrs. Johnian says she has "always been creative and artistic." She started writing as a child, sold poetry in early adulthood, and has since then written more than 40 "inspirational books" and more than 1,000 songs. 

Her goal, she says, is to bring quality productions to the stage with "outstanding music" that a family with children can enjoy. "I want it to have substance, and be about real people," she says, "but you don't have to have nudity and swearing. Hollywood and the stage became great without those things."

"The Fifth Season," which deals with infidelity, is proof of that, Mrs. Johnian says. "It is beautiful, humorous, touching, with good acting and presentation," she says, "and I think the audience will be enriched and entertained without being insulted morally. The characters are real,  they aren't saints, but all the productions will include the fact of God."

If "The Great Debate" is typical of the season's offerings, however, it may take the Millennium some time to build an audience. The show is a bit uneven, both in substance and execution.

Not that the origin of man is an easy topic for a musical, a form that lends itself more to frothy dance numbers than serious discussion. When a musical does successfully address a social or religious issue, however, it is usually because it is done with subtlety, like class distinctions in "My Fair Lady," or what societies are really civilized as in "The King and I." 

And there is very little that is subtle about "The Great Debate." Mrs. Johnian says the goal of her productions is to declare truth without being preachy. Unfortunately, there are times when preachy is exactly what comes to mind. The musical numbers, while catchy, are less than memorable, and too frequently accompanied by choreography that is both aimless and irrelevant.

Still, there are some powerful scenes. To tell of the suffering of Job, instead of jumping back to Old Testament times, Mrs. Johnian keeps things in the 1930s, and portrays him as a Jewish rabbi whose family is taken by the Nazis. 

The venue itself, a converted office building at 73 Pine St., Woburn, has been nicely renovated into a theater-in-the-round, although it is literally a rectangle. It would be nice, at some point, to have a "stadium" effect for the rows of seats, so those in the back rows are not at the same level as those in the front.

But the lighting and the sound system are excellent, and there is plenty of free parking. Mrs. Johnian says she knows it will take time to establish the theater. "We've been advertising on radio and in newspapers, joined organizations for tourism, visited and called churches and other organizations and we have a mailing list of 10,000 from previous contacts. But we're not looking for the moon to start. We're spending a lot of time and money to get the word out." She says she believes there is a market for "declaring reality and truth to this generation. And to us, that begins with God."

For tickets call 1-800-829-2631 or visit their website at www.thegreatdebate.org.