What if Adam had been able to resist temptation and remain in Eden, while the less virtuous Eve had been exiled to the wilderness? That’s the tantalizing premise of FALLING FOR EVE, a bright and breezy new musical that goes down as easily as a gin and tonic on a sweltering summer day in New York City.

Jose Llana, Sasha Sloan and Krystal Joy Brown as Adam, God She and Eve. Photo by Carol Rosegg.

FALLING FOR EVE explores the relationship between innocence versus experience when it comes to love. Sure, Eden is paradise, but it’s still a cloister. The characters in the musical discover that it’s impossible to love deeply until they experience all that the world has to offer: pain and suffering as well as joy and passion. To borrow a lyric from the similarly-themed The Fantasticks, “without a hurt the heart is hollow.”

The show is funny, too, with lots of laughs and chuckles sprinkled throughout its 90-minute duration. Bookwriter Joe DiPietro (two-time Tony winner for Memphis) returns to his Off-Broadway roots – he penned the mega-long-running relationship-oriented revue I Love You, You’re Perfect, Now Change. In FALLING FOR EVE, DiPietro tackles the story of the world’s first couple with a well-calibrated, quip-filled libretto based on David Howard’s play “Adam Alone.” Howard provides a witty set of lyrics for his first musical theatre effort, and composer Bret Simmons’ wide-ranging score veers melodically from gospel to sensitive ballads to traditional musical theatre and all points in-between.

The talented, good-looking six-member cast would not be out of place in a Benetton ad. As Adam, Jose Llana is all wide-eyed naïveté while displaying a gorgeous singing voice (and a surprising amount of skin), and Krystal Joy Brown gives a sensitive, lovely performance as the more worldly wise Eve. (For the final week of the run, Eve will be spelled by Stephanie Umoh, who recently garnered critical acclaim in the recent Broadway revival of Ragtime.)

The role of God is split into a yin-and-yang arrangement with Sasha Sloan playing the more feminine, soulful side, while Adam Kantor is a hoot as the more masculine egotistical face of the Creator, especially in his opening number “God, It’s Good to Be Me.”  Jennifer Blood and Nehal Joshi narrate the story and provide supple comic support in their roles as God’s top angels who find that they, too, are inseparable.

Please visit www.yorktheatre.org for complete performance schedule. Tickets are $67.50 and are available online at www.yorktheatre.org, by calling (212) 935-5820, or in person at the York‘s box office (Enter on 54th Street, just East of Lexington).