Call it a discussion about religion and science, an exploration into faith in a world that relies on reason, peppered with conflict and doubt set to music and a love story that pulls it all together.
"This is a musical that deals with God and what God means to different people," says Martin Casella, who wrote the book for "Saint Heaven," a musical opening tonight at the Rich Forum in Stamford, featuring Chuck Cooper and Deborah Gibson with Cheryl Alexander, Montego Glover, Darren Ritchie and Patrick Ryan Sullivan.
"But what makes this different is it's honest and quiet, with very little yelling and a lot of questions about what faith can be."
Casella asks rhetorically: "What is a miracle? Is love a miracle? What does a gift from God really mean? Where does faith fit in?"
These are the questions asked, among others, says Casella, when a young doctor, Thom Rivers, returns to his childhood home of Saint Heaven, in 1950s rural Kentucky, for his father's funeral.
"Everyone assumes he's going to stay and take his father's place (in the practice) but that is the last thing on his mind," says Casella.
The relationship between Thom, a white man in his 30s, and his father had always been strained and distant, especially after the death of Thom's mother, when he was a child.
"He believed he had grown up with a father that was emotionally withdrawn and took care of everyone else but his own son," says Casella.
But his plans to put the past behind him, settle his father's affairs and head home are changed by a chance meeting with a young black woman, Eshie Willington, a young preacher and apprentice to the town's minister, Joe Bertram, under whom Thom had once studied before he decided to pursue medicine.
"Thom had wanted to be a preacher," says Casella. "Pastor Joe was a surrogate father and the young woman was now the acolyte."
When Thom sees her, she goes into a trance. Her subsequent mumblings are believed by the congregation to be prophecies. Thom thinks something is medically wrong, that what Eshie experiences is a seizure, and not the miracle everyone thinks it is.
But to treat her would mean the possible eradication of what she, Pastor Joe and many of their followers believe is a divine gift.
The chain of events that follow, says Chuck Cooper, who plays Joe Bertram, a man who believes in Eshie's gift, explore how love, faith and redemption evolve and come together.
"This is a man who made an incredible journey, who has a deep and abiding faith," he says. "The arch of his journey in the show is when he comes to understand faith in a deeper way."
Though it appears that Pastor Joe is capitalizing on Eshie's medical disability, Casella wonders if the good that results from such action redeems him, if only in part.
"He brings money in to help people," he says. "He's doing good deeds with the money."
Plus, says Cooper, "Eshie opens his eyes and gives him a broader view of God and faith."
This realization begins to come to him after Eshie is diagnosed with a medical condition, and she and Thom begin to fall in love.
"This story is not quite what you expect," says Deborah Gibson, who plays Maggie Hartford, a local waitress who has never left Saint Heaven and Thom's girlfriend before he left to become a doctor.
"It's more about true love than typical love stories that end with a happily-ever-after. It's more selfless. Everybody ends up where they need to be even if they don't understand why at first."
