The Living Word from the Gospel of John

Highlights from Jesus' public life accompanied by pleasant Christian music are enacted against a spoken gospel text that uses the time-honored language of the King James version. The first 24 minutes are devoted to the Baptism of Jesus and the Sabbath-day healing of the blind man, with music sequences offered in pantomime. The pace accelerates in the second half as the program moves through a series of shorter segments (on Nicodemus, the woman at the well, and the woman taken in adultery). The production has the sweetly amateurish quality of community theater and a gauzy, greeting-card appearance bordering on the sentimental. Too bland for the younger set and even your church-going grandma will probably prefer the good book, unplugged. Not recommended. (J. Reed)