Music and Lyrics by Jonathan Levi Shanes
Book by Pauline Dessler
“Revelation” opens on Election Night, 2024 as the human race is threatened with a pandemic of unknown origin. When the new President takes her place in office in early 2025, she must grapple with worldwide panic over the mysterious and deadly illness—and her own unraveling marriage. And when scientists discover that the pathogen is a primordial bacteria released into the world’s water supply by a melting glacier and that the human race has no immunological defense to fight it, Deborah must send her biologist husband into what remains of the equatorial rainforest to search for a botanical cure.
The concept of this piece centers around the incorporation of a variety of musical genres and ethnicities, and a cautionary tale of climate change—both of which reflect the speculative nature of any story set in the future—while reinforcing the tenet that, while humankind might evolve, both human nature and needs are constant.