It was praised by the New York Times, the New Yorker and Variety, among other A-List media outlets. But on a Friday night early in December, “This Beautiful City” faced even tougher critics: The town that inspired the play about the schism between the evangelical community and well, the rest of Colorado Springs.

“I have no idea how they’ll react,” said Steve Cosson, artistic director of the New York-based theater company, the Civilians, which assembled the play in 2006 after 10 weeks of research and interviews.

The original work was commissioned by Colorado College and developed with students in 2007. “City” was then honed by the group, eventually playing houses in Louisville, Washington, D.C., Los Angeles and last year, New York.
“It’s a very subjective show,” he said of the play, which mixes song with dialogue taken from the interviews. “One person will say ‘How can you do a play that’s so soft on evangelical Christians? Some others say, ‘There’s not a single good thing about Christians in it.’”

As this play-cum-musical unfurled its first half in the Edith Kinney Gaylord Cornerstone Arts Center, its focus quickly became clear: The collision between an evangelical triumph (Amendment 43’s ban of the same sex marriage) and its shame (the peccadillos of New Life Church founder Ted Haggard and Emmanuel Baptist Church pastor Ben Reynolds,).

Still, the critical portrayals weren’t restricted to the evangelicals. Atheists and liberals were enthusiastically hoisted on the petard. And in smart, funny songs like “Whatever,” which talks about the difficulty of being a non-believer in a town of XXL faith, “City” explored the lure of absolute certainty and the subtleties of belief.

The audience laughed, sometimes uncomfortably, at the frequent and reverent mentions of Haggard and of a liberal’s hellfire rant on the ruin of his city.

“The Hate State,” he spat. “Jesus Springs.”

Jim Millman left at intermission. He wasn’t offended, he said. He just got the point.

“I thought the people were very talented and it was interesting,” Millman said. “But we kind of live it here. It’s like seeing a movie of our life.”
Millman wasn’t alone in feeling that he’d met the men and women portrayed on that stage before. But most grimaced and shook their heads at the suggestion of being quoted about their impressions.

Bill Tilbert called it “powerful, perplexing and painful”. Yes, the pastor of Covenant Presbyterian Church added, it was largely even-handed.

“It doesn’t mean I felt comfortable,” he said. “I could hear echoes of things I said or do. … I think the issues that it points out, in terms of people of faith, is that, on one hand, there’s the desire to be loving, accepting and affirming and on the other, there are issues of morality and behavior. That always makes me uncomfortable.

“I think a lot of things aren’t black and white.”

Sarah Linn, who described herself as Christian, called the play brilliant, especially in its powerful use of theater to convey the folly in not hearing those who don’t agree with you.