Jason Slavick on "Heaven & Hell"

Director Jason Slavick is well-known to Boston theatre audiences for his recent Boston Theatre Works productions of Othello, The Tempest, Antony & Cleopatra and Macbeth. He has just adapted Joe Jackson's 1997 album, Heaven and Hell, into a live stage production called Heaven and Hell - The Fantastical Temptation of the 7 Deadly Sins.

Jackson's album, which chronicles the Seven Deadly Sins of Greed, Lust, Gluttony, Sloth, Envy Anger and Pride, is being brought to the stage for the firs time in Slavick's adaptation. Its world premiere plays at the Boston Conservatory from March 7 -- 11.

Edge recently talked with him about this upcoming production:

Edge: First of all, what's the difference between avarice and greed?

Jason Slavick: You know really there isn't. I've been playing with the two words and just decided to switch from avarice to greed. I also switched it from wrath to anger - but there's more difference between those two. I want to connect directly with my audience and not get too caught up in fancy words. Most people will feel more of a direct connection with greed.

Edge: Can you briefly describe what people will be seeing in Heaven and Hell? Is it a musical? Will there be dialogue?

Jason Slavick: Primarily I'm transforming it from one medium into another. I'm taking the songs from Joe Jackson's Heaven and Hell album which don't have any type of narrative and transforming them into a story. I'm taking each song into a place with specific characters, taking loose association and putting it into a coherent narrative.

Edge: How do you do that?

Jason Slavick: It's been a constant process of working and cycling through the same material and getting more and more specific. In the beginning I'd sit around on my porch or in a cafe with my iPod listening to the same song over and over. I'd let it speak to me and see what images came to mind. Who did it sound like to me? Who was singing the song, and why? I ended up with a jumble of notes in my notebook and then began to knit each song into a coherent scene.

I would hear a particular melody and then realize it was a church bell or some other element, whether that's what Joe Jackson actually intended or not.

Edge: Have you added dialogue and narrative to the piece or is it exclusively made up of the songs on the CD?

Jason Slavick: The piece is somewhat longer than the album, and we've added a few transitions. The new songs are not composed from whole cloth, but rather my fantastic musical collaborator Peter Mansfield has knit together music from Jackson's original score, stretching parts out or repeating sections to give us time to make things happen.

We haven't added a word to what Joe Jackson wrote. One of the rules I made for myself at the start was not to add any words to the piece. Everything is acted out through action and movement.

Edge: How long will it be?

Jason Slavick: It's going to run about an hour and 15 minutes. Actually, the play starts as soon as you enter the theatre. We're going to bring you into the world of the play the moment you put yourself in our hands. So in that case, I guess how long it is depends on what time you get to your seat.

Edge: Is it all cast with students at the Conservatory?

Jason Slavick: Yes, it's entirely cast with students. The vast majority are from the acting program but there are a handful of students from the dance program as well. The orchestra is a mix of Conservatory students and professionals.

Edge: When did the process begin for this project?

Jason Slavick: The first time I heard the album was pretty much an accident. One night as I was leaving a friend's apartment, he told me I should listen to it and started playing it. I was blown away and was compelled to listen to it. I bought it that week and listened to it over and over. It came to life visually in front of me.

The same thing had happened to me when I was growing up and listened to the Jesus Christ Superstar soundtrack for the first time. I hadn't seen the musical but could picture it while listening to it. I could see characters singing and locations and things happening. The exact same thing happened with Heaven and Hell. It was just so beautifully powerful and compelling. It was just begging to be turned into a play.

Edge: How does one go about getting rights for something like this?

Jason Slavick: It took a long time to get a hold of Joe and get permission from him and his people. The Conservatory was very helpful - particularly Neil Donohoe, who's the head of the theatre department there. He jumped right on board and thought it was great idea. From the beginning he saw the potential the piece had and gave me the opportunity to develop a full-scale musical from scratch. I went in with an idea and no script but Neil put the Conservatory and its resources behind it.

Edge: Have you done other projects as daunting as this?

Jason Slavick: This is the largest, most complex thing I've ever done in my life. It's huge. There are so many elements, even just from a visual perspective. It's not simply a Guys & Dolls kind of thing where the guys dress like they would have in 1940s New York.

The costume director, music director, technical director and choreographer are all being pushed to the limits to pump up the volume of the theatricality of the piece. I really have a fantastic team and couldn't be happier. They've really risen to the challenge.

Edge: When did you first approach Joe Jackson about the project?

Jason Slavick: I think it must have been about two years ago. We almost got the ball rolling to do it last year but it took another year. One of the toughest things was getting Joe's attention, because he has moved on to other projects by now.

Edge: Any plans for him to attend the production?

Jason Slavick: I hope he'll come to see it, but nothing is confirmed right now. I'm a huge admirer of his and have listened to a lot of his music. He's constantly stretching the boundaries of whatever he does.

Edge: How long will it run?

Jason Slavick: The show will run for six days in March. From there it's a matter of Joe Jackson's willingness to take it forward. This is phase one of a long process, going from a student workshop to a regional theatre to a large scale commercial production which could be a three or four year time frame. Right now I'm working to attract the attention regional theatre producers.

Edge: What's your favorite deadly sin?

Jason Slavick: I hate to admit it, but it has to be lust.

I've had a really interesting experience with the play. There are some sins that I don't relate to at all, and they were the toughest. Envy and greed don't talk to me at all as they're not a big part of my life, whereas lust was easy. Anger also was easy. I don't try to have it as a part of my life, but it's there. Gluttony was also fairly easy to understand from a purely visceral perspective.

Edge: What other projects are you currently working on? Any plans to bring Debbie Gibson's Electric Youth album to the stage?

Jason Slavick: Well, I'm also working with Joyce Carol Oates, on a theatrical adaptation of a novel she wrote, The Tattooed Girl. I'm shopping that around to various regional theatres and hope it has a life. I'm a free-lance director so I'm always looking for productions in the Boston area, but I'm totally focused on Heaven and Hell right now though.

Lately I'm really interested in musicals. I acted in them through college but haven't been back to them since. I'd like to start exploring that art form more. I've spent the last six years on Shakespeare, but I'm recently reminded how magical musicals can be. The way they act on an audience. They reach into an audience's psyche in a primal, not entirely rational way. There's a button inside our heads that unleashes some kind of joy and musicals just hit it.

Edge: Kind of like the musical hits some kind of G-spot?

Jason Slavick: (Laughs) Yeah exactly!

Edge: What can you tell us about your personal life? Single, dating, married? Gay or straight? Boyishly handsome, devilishly handsome, maturely handsome?

Jason Slavick: Hmm, well, given those limited choices, I guess I'd have to say devilishly handsome, single and straight and live in Cambridge. The glasses wearing-intellectual type. I like high art and long hot walks on the beach - looking for conversation or more.... (Laughs)

Actually, it's probably worth noting that the play for a while was overly heterosexist. I'm a straight man, but at the first run-through I said "Let's get some gay sex in there." Half the cast are these gorgeous gay boys but they were reluctant at first, but over time they became more enthusiastic about incorporating gay aspects into the show.

Edge: So is it safe to say the show has more nudity than Cats?

Jason Slavick: Yes! It's got waaay more nudity than Cats! (Laughs) We do want to warn people that this is a play for mature audiences and not appropriate for young kids or grandma. You've been warned!