Saturday, 24 March 2007 02:55 pm
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deckardcanineMy old junior high school had its second night of Once on This Island last night. I'm glad I wasn't on a synthesizer like in last year's Oliver!, because there is instrumentation almost all the way thru OoTI, with few breaks even long enough for water. That headache was left to my mom and sister. Mercifully, with the cuts in this production, it ran for just over an hour. Of course, the audience, with the exception of one crying baby, wouldn't have minded more.
The musical was introduced by the same company that gave us Honk!, an adaptation of "The Ugly Duckling." While the story in OoTI is decidedly Andersenian, I'd never have guessed it was based loosely on "The Little Mermaid," even knowing that Disney had taken liberties in their take. OoTI features a narrated tale of a peasant girl in the French Antilles whose life is shaped by the four local gods of earth, sea, love, and death. The last two have a power contest in which the girl has a crush on a boy from the island's upper-class sector, which proves problematic. The director was afraid that the ending might be too sad, but I found it pleasantly bittersweet. You can guess which god wins and thus what moral the story iterates.
As usual, despite the school's mostly Black student body, more than half the major roles were filled by White kids. You'd think that a play like this would turn that around. Oh well.
Edit: My impression of the student body was outdated. It's more like equal percentages Black and White now.
Having heard recordings at my folks' house, I knew to expect great calypso-type music. What I did not expect was the mostly good miking -- 18 kids were equipped. (If only I could see consistently, but I won't hold my breath for stadium seating.) No weak links in the singing, despite everyone having to sing. The aristocratic boy, who had fewer lines than you'd think, was the only weak link in the acting. The other main actors earned huge cheers, especially Death, who was rather smaller than the writer envisioned but had the sly charisma to make up for it. (I think it would be fun to play any of the gods if gender didn't matter, but my first choice would be Death, in part because of his laugh.)
Hope my mom and sister enjoyed the cast party.
The musical was introduced by the same company that gave us Honk!, an adaptation of "The Ugly Duckling." While the story in OoTI is decidedly Andersenian, I'd never have guessed it was based loosely on "The Little Mermaid," even knowing that Disney had taken liberties in their take. OoTI features a narrated tale of a peasant girl in the French Antilles whose life is shaped by the four local gods of earth, sea, love, and death. The last two have a power contest in which the girl has a crush on a boy from the island's upper-class sector, which proves problematic. The director was afraid that the ending might be too sad, but I found it pleasantly bittersweet. You can guess which god wins and thus what moral the story iterates.
As usual, despite the school's mostly Black student body, more than half the major roles were filled by White kids. You'd think that a play like this would turn that around. Oh well.
Edit: My impression of the student body was outdated. It's more like equal percentages Black and White now.
Having heard recordings at my folks' house, I knew to expect great calypso-type music. What I did not expect was the mostly good miking -- 18 kids were equipped. (If only I could see consistently, but I won't hold my breath for stadium seating.) No weak links in the singing, despite everyone having to sing. The aristocratic boy, who had fewer lines than you'd think, was the only weak link in the acting. The other main actors earned huge cheers, especially Death, who was rather smaller than the writer envisioned but had the sly charisma to make up for it. (I think it would be fun to play any of the gods if gender didn't matter, but my first choice would be Death, in part because of his laugh.)
Hope my mom and sister enjoyed the cast party.