Asner bringing 'Monkey Trial' to Utah

Was the world created in seven days?

Or did we evolve from some other creature … fish or ape?

Although the question can make headlines today, it was also the subject that stopped a small Tennessee town in its tracks the sweltering summer of 1925.

John Thomas Scopes, a high school biology teacher, was charged with illegally teaching the theory of evolution. Tennessee had just passed an Anti-Evolution Statute, saying that teaching evolution would undermine traditional values.

With some political wrangling, two of the nation's legal heavy-hitters, Clarence Darrow and William Jennings Bryan, traveled to Dayton, Tenn., to battle the question of science and religion, freedom of speech and separation of church and state.

The entire country tuned in as the Scopes trial was broadcast live on the radio — the first time in American history.

Multiple Emmy and Golden Globe winner Ed Asner ("Mary Tyler Moore Show") and actor John Heard ("Home Alone," "The Pelican Brief") will step into the shoes of Bryan and Darrow in L.A. Theatre Works' production of "The Great Tennessee Monkey Trial," adapted from the original transcripts by Peter Goodchild, coming to Utah for two nights only.

In a live, radio-theater style performance, Asner and the cast will be in costumes, seated at microphones, and the audience will be able to not only travel back to America 1925 but also experience the days of old-fashioned radio.

"I love doing the role, it's just wonderful material," said Asner, with his trademark gravelly voice in a phone interview from Los Angeles. "It deals with a subject that is so important, and it talks about two giants in American history."

Aside from playing the boss to the fictional WJM-TV newsroom, Asner has almost made a second career for himself with political activism — an outspokenness that many, including Asner, believe cost him his 1977 television spin-off, "Lou Grant."

His liberal political views have not only become controversial but have also won him many humanitarian awards and an interesting perspective on touring with "The Monkey Trial."

"It sparks a great deal of debate, and the sad thing is, many times we're not preaching to the choir."