"Thou shalt not" -- in this case, the primary sin is murder. But there are other commandments infringed in this musical adaptation of Zola's grim novel, "Therese Raquin," especially the ones about adultery and coveting thy neighbor's wife.

Conceived by Susan Stroman, with a book by David Thompson and score by Harry Connick Jr., "Thou Shalt Not" had a brief Broadway run in 2001. "Jazz, lust, the backwater South, passion, swing, murder and retribution," ran the Post-Gazette review. "If Tennessee Williams had written a musical, this could have been it."

Then, "Thou Shalt Not" more or less disappeared. Now it's back in a Point Park student production at the Pittsburgh Playhouse, staged by a favorite Pittsburgher-turned-New Yorker, Tome (toe-may) Cousin.

"Why do we want to watch these people do bad things?" Cousin asks rhetorically -- "it's the same appeal as reality TV!" As always, his face bubbles with enthusiasm, the words tumbling out. He's hoping to recreate the magic of the Stroman "dancical," "Contact," he staged at Point Park two years ago. And because he loves to teach, who better?

If "Therese Raquin" rings a bell, you may recollect that Quantum Theatre staged a nonmusical version last fall in the swimming pool in the Braddock Carnegie Library. Adapted by Nicholas Wright and directed by Rodger Henderson, it had a thrilling grimness as it spiraled relentlessly into tragedy.

Think of "Thou Shalt Not" as the advanced course, a musical that transposes the story to post-World War II New Orleans.

As Cousin tells it, first it was a dance workshop whipped up by Stroman with the assistance of librettist David Thompson, downstairs at Lincoln Center just when Cousin was performing upstairs in "Contact," so he gained some early knowledge of it that has come in handy these past weeks.

		More on Tome Cousin • On directing 'Contact' at Point Park, 2006 • 'Contact' performer honored at Point Park, 2001

Like "Contact," "Therese Raquin" had been suggested to Stroman by her late husband, British director Mike Ockrent. Thompson suggested New Orleans and Mardi Gras, specifically in 1946 because that year the festival was restored with vigor after being suspended during the war.

As they worked on it, Cousin says, Stroman and Thompson found it "so passionate, they felt the characters wanted to sing." The New Orleans setting suggested Connick, but when approached, he resisted -- Broadway wasn't his thing, not until he saw "Contact" and was won over.

But "Thou Shalt Not" had the misfortune to open on Broadway in the immediate aftermath of 9/11, when audiences weren't looking for a dark meditation on passion and guilt. The best reviews went to Connick's score and Norbert Leo Butz's role as the murdered Camille, but it ran just three months.

Flash forward. After the success of his "Contact" at Point Park, Cousin agreed to return this year. He was going to stage "Radiant Baby," a new show about Pennsylvania pop artist Keith Haring, who died at 31. But it became apparent that couldn't be created in time. And after the excitement of launching "Contact" on its post-Broadway life (Cousin has inherited Stroman's mantle and will go directly from here to the North Shore Music Theatre near Boston to stage it for the fourth time), he didn't want to substitute any old revival.

It was in a panel discussion of Broadway choreography involving Stroman that "Thou Shalt Not" came up. Stroman said she hated to see all that collaborative artistry tossed aside. Point Park leaped at the idea.

But how to make it real? Cousin discovered there was no script or score, just a great big box, including pages and pages of music with penciled notes like, "on a good night I played it this way," or, "Harry liked this."

Then Stroman's assistant came up with "the bible" -- all the choreographic notes. To re-create the big ballet in Act 2, Cousin worked with two Pittsburghers, Rachelle Rak and Pam Bradley, who had been in the original production. That was seven years ago, but they watched the videotape at the performing arts library at Lincoln Center and it came back to them.

As we talked, Rak had just been at Point Park to teach the ensemble the ballet, and Bradley was coming in to add some polish. The student playing Madame Raquin has even been in touch with Debra Monk, who played the role on Broadway. But while waiting for Connick to sort out the score, page by page, Cousin and musical director Melissa Yanchak had the cast learn it from the cast album.

Only when it was all assembled did Cousin see how Connick's jazzy, difficult score ("very challenging for musicians and students") fits the story. And he loves that the story, which draws on Cajun/Creole culture, supports a multi-racial cast. He's also excited to be working with set designer Tony Ferrieri for the first time since his Physical Theatre Project, many years ago at Hartwood Acres, before he went off to New York.

Cousin has plenty going on there, too. He's conceiving a "new media" theatrical work about Harlem Renaissance photographer James VanDerZee, even while completing his thesis on "The Total Theater Artist" for the M.F.A. program in New Media Art and Performance at Long Island University. He still teaches at Jacques d'Amboise's National Dance Institute, and there are projected "Contact" productions to stage in Germany and Hungary.

Six years ago, Cousin told the Post-Gazette, "absolutely know what your niche is, what you do best. Own that and don't be afraid. They'll like you if you're confident in your mistakes, if you go and take the risk."

He's willing.