| ONCE ON THIS ISLAND was enough (spoilers, I guess) | |
| Posted by: NewtonUK 09:58 am EST 01/13/18 | |
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| I remember seeing the 1990 production and finding it amiable. I pondered then on the fact that the first song or so had 'an island' beat - but that after that we were hearing ordinary Broadway pop with an occasional 'island beat' stuck on the top. Seeing the revival, I had a lot of other thoughts. Norm Lewis, a Broadway stalwart, has joined the company. In this show, norm looks a lot like your friendly G.P. who has bought a Broadway Fantasy Camp prize an has been stuck in a show for a night. He looks very out of place and uncomfy in his 'Island Garb'. But the show. Its never been a very distinguished score, but I had memories of a gentle fable. Wrong. In order to comfort a young girl who has heard a thunder clap - this is obviously the first storm that has ever been on the unidentified island - they tell her a story of a young woman whose life is saved by the island gods (mumbo jumbo). This girl sees a wealthy light skinned stud once, for about ten seconds, and is in love. She helps him survive a car accident. She throws herself at him, she will save him, by among other things jumping into his bed. What a surprise. He responds. Attractive young woman in his bed. Then at a big dance amongst the wealthy, after the 'natives' do their 'native dance' to great applause, we find that the young light skinned wealthy stud who she fell in love with in ten seconds, never having spoken to him that I recall, is actually engaged. He would never marry a peasant like her. Oh my, her heart is broken by being rejected by this dick - which everyone arond her had warned her of at great legnth. So she hangs out in heat and cold and rain and whatever outside the gates of the 5 Star Hotel where light sklnned boy is staying (living? why is he still there?) - he comes out with his bride to be and tosses coins at the peasants. Ti Moun (pronounces Tee Moon) promptly dies. We are then told that Ti Moun's death proves that Love Conquers Death!!! Woo Hoo!!! Happy Ending!!! - But wait a minute - Ti Moun is dead. Her 'love' has married someone else and never gave a flying you know what about her. How could love have conquered Death? Oh, I get it. The gods have turned her into a tree. That makes everything OK. What a great story to tell a scared little girl. At the end of the day, is a bunch of white people writing a not very compelling story about 'island people' code for black people, and letting them dance happily for us as island people always do. Even though a wicked light (not white) boy breaks her heart. Its interesting that a show that Frank Rich loved in 1990 with a cast of 11, now has a cast of 18, plus a chicken and a goat. I get that its a fairy tale, and that its based on a novel by a Trinidadian/American. The plot of the novel seems to me to show the problems (for me) with the musical. In the novel, the light skinned boy is destined to be King of the Island - for real. The novel is an actual fairy tale, with all the accoutrements of a fairy tale. Guy's 1985 novel, My Love, My Love: Or, The Peasant Girl, has been described as a Caribbean re-telling of Hans Christian Andersen's "The Little Mermaid"[8] "with a dash of Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet."[9] In the tale, Desiree is a beautiful peasant who falls in love with a handsome upperclass boy whom she saved in an accident. Regrettably, his family does not approve of Desiree, for she is too black and too poor for their son who will be king. Concepts of sacrifice and pure love reign throughout the novel. We hear always of the great crush of shows trying to get Broadway Theatres. This season 1984, Parisian Woman, Once on This Island, M Butterfly have all gotten theatres for mysterious reasons. The sad one would be that there wasn't anything better out there. I know many of you have loved this production, and good on you. I want to love every show I see. Above are my reactions, my opinions. Take them as that. |
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