He believes the musical only makes sense dramaturgically with the "Prologue" included. "Since the show is about the formation of a community, the 'Prologue' is the audience's only chance to see how the disciples-to-be function (or dysfunction, if you will) BEFORE they start to become a community—the obdurate clinging to dogmatic philosophies, the inability to cooperate or admit other points of view, the descent into violence, the loneliness and despair, etc. (If this sounds rather like contemporary America, it's not coincidental.) Without the 'Prologue,' what is their problem to be solved?"
