It's not surprising for hip-hop CDs to come with a label about potentially offensive lyrics. But if "J.O.B. The Hip-Hopera" had a label it might read, "Warning: This musical contains overt references to biblical characters and situations."

Canadians Jerome Sable and Eli Batalion didn't plan to write a show that would click with an auditorium of 12-year-old Catholic school students at one performance and with hundreds of 65-and-older theater subscribers the next. But that's exactly what happened when they modernized the Bible's story of Job.

The 60-minute, 10-song show has toured 20 cities, including New York and Edinburgh, Scotland, where it was part of the International Fringe Festival.

Despite its success, Sable and Batalion felt the show could be more than it was. So for the show's Los Angeles run, they recruited director Stefan Novinski, choreographer Hassan Christopher and DJ Creativity, who spins weekends on Ventura radio station Q104.7 FM.

The revised, remixed "J.O.B. The Hip-Hopera," which includes a more detailed story, as well as dancers and new music, runs through Nov. 27 at the Stella Adler Theatre in Los Angeles.

"J.O.B." combines the stories of Job and of Cain and Abel. In this version Job is the head of A&R (Artists and Repertoire) at Hoover Records, a hip-hop label.
The company's president, J. Hoover (read Jehovah), lavishes riches on Job. But Louis Saphire -- whose name sounds suspiciously like Lucifer -- convinces Hoover to test Job's loyalty by taking away the good things he has.

The story's narrators are MC Abel and MC Cain, who write jingles for the company but who are aspiring rappers.

"We first came up with the idea when we were working on a play about Wall Street executives," said Sable, who has collaborated with Batalion on plays and videos for the past 12 years. "The play wasn't going anywhere. At the same time we had a hip-hop group. And then it just hit us to combine the two."

The choice to use Bible stories stemmed, in part, from watching the films of Baz Luhrmann, whose credits include "Romeo + Juliet" and "Moulin Rouge."

"He takes older tales and repositions them," Sable said. "So with Job, we didn't have to change much in the story. Instead, we changed the retelling of it."

The creators chose Novinski for the project after seeing a new translation of "Medea," with music and text, which Novinski directed.

"I have always seen the potential for using hip-hop to tell a story," Novinski said. "There usually is a story in the lyrics. It's just a matter of how best to convey it."

Next, dance was added to the mix through Christopher, the founding artistic director of the troupe Company of Strangers.  His choreography pulls the dancers out of the background and pushes them up front and center.

"The five dancers are part of the storytelling," Novinski said. "Like when Saphire is typing a letter to Job, the dancers become the carriage of the typewriter, freezing in these poses that suggest Saphire is mocking Job."

Though it is theater, "J.O.B." is also part hip-hop show. So a DJ was required.

"We needed someone who understood that we were interested in using scratching and other DJ elements in new ways," Sable said.

"We needed someone who understood the theatrical process. We brought DJ Creativity to a rehearsal, and he got what we were doing right away."

DJ Creativity came to Ventura after spinning for several years in Las Vegas.
"This seemed like something new," he said. "It's different being in a theater. I do what they need me to do for the show. But I also get some freedom to do some of what I want."

The original incarnation of "J.O.B." attracted a diverse religious audience, an interesting twist because Sable and Batalion are atheists.

"We respect all viewpoints, and we think it's great that priests and rabbis are really into it," Sable said. "It's the same with the music. We've had people say they hate hip-hop, but they love the show. I think it's because everyone can connect to this story in some way."