ONCE ON THIS ISLAND Returning to Broadway — Page 3

Esther said: "EricMontreal22 said: "This is a great show but it closed at a loss originally when it moved from off to on Broadway where critics felt it got lost in the larger theatre and it never caught on with audiences. Similarly it failed in the West End despite them building a mini village for the theatre. I suppose with a big name attached it could build an audience (but Davenport doesn't really use big names does he?).

I could see it playing really well in a round, and intimate staging at Circle in the Square if that were available, but out of Broadway houses that's about it (the Booth)?



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The Booth is where it played in 1991. I didn't see it at Playwrights' Horizons, but I did see from the mid-to-rear mezzanine at it at the Booth & thought it was utterly charming.



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Yeah, I shoulda checked--someone PMed me that correction too (much more rudely than you did). Still, I have often heard that as a reason it flopped--that it shoulda stayed on as an open-ended off-Broadway production.

Ken Davenport is a modern day Barnum. There's a sucker born every minute.

As a potential investor, I've had several conversations with him over the years. Each one full of ego and outright lies. I try to educate myself as much as possible regarding industry returns and conservative predictions for shows - unfortunately (though fortunately for Davenport) his investors are not as savvy.p

i think Once On This Island is a delightful way to introduce children to the theater - but recoupment potential is as bleak as can be.

Ugh. I would give anything for a decent revival of this, one of my favorite shows. Maybe it'll happen and be Davenport's first genuine hit? Maybe? No? Probably not?

It should be noted that the version licensed to amateurs provides alternate lyrics to open up the casting pool to all races if necessary. So people unaware that Daniel is half black might just be unfamiliar with the original version.

@newintown - Upon looking it up, it seems the reason they do this with ONCE ON THIS ISLAND and not other race-oriented stories you mentioned is because the writers consider ISLAND'S main conflict to be more about class than race. By not having the racial divide in ISLAND it just makes it so that the ONLY divide is between the peasants and the upper-class, without also having the racial element of the original story/actual history in that the upper-class are those with French colonizer ancestry/mixed-race while the peasants are the dark-skinned natives.

Though again, they could keep it as a racial divide by just making all the upper-class characters full white/French. Though this then turns the story into a more pressing "black vs. white" story instead of "upper vs. lower class", as opposed to the original where everyone is non-white, but the upper class are just lighter-skinned.

Obviously ideally Daniel is half black, but this is a Ken Davenport/Michael Arden hypothetical production so my expectations are the lowest of low here. And I was just going by the fact that Daniel is not listed on the breakdown.

This should be aiming for the 2017-18 season. In a small theater & a limited run. And considering it's a Davenport/Arden production, I don't want Cynthia Erivo near this. Odds are she'll likely head back to the UK once she's done with THE COLOR PURPLE.

Kad said: "I've heard that Erivo wants to pursue work opportunities in America, but I can't imagine her being interested in this."

I agree but it's a shame because she would slay the score. I'd love for her to be written original roles but we know how that turned out for her other wonderfully talented singer-actresses the last few decades like Kristin Chenoweth, Laura Benanti, Audra McDonald and Patti LuPone.

Cynthia Erivo tweeted that she would be down to do the reading for this.. I wonder how serious she's being?



https://twitter.com/cynthiaerivo/status/770657865111572486

Personally, I would say they created the revisions in order to make as much money off the piece as possible.

I agree completely. It's certainly not an alternative I prefer. I was just pointing out that it's out there.

Because as an educated consumer you are willfully supporting such practices, which are highly questionable and potentially unethical.

It might be apt to do a bit of a recap on Davenport's career thus far.

He has been lead producer on only three Broadway shows (that is, controlling the project), all flops; more often, he has been nothing more than a junior fundraiser. The flops for which he was responsible are:

Godspell (ridiculous, American Idol-esque 2011 revival, closed after 264 performances)
Macbeth (ridiculous Alan "Look How Much I Can Do" Cumming, three-actor 2013 revival, closed after 73 performances)
Spring Awakening (respected but unattended Deaf West revival, brought in as a fully developed transfer [i.e., not fully "produced" by Davenport], closed after 135 performances)

Note that each of these shows had already had full productions elsewhere before Davenport picked them up - the Godspell was leveraged off of the director's 2006 Paper Mill production; and of course, Cumming's Macbeth played both Scotland and Off Broadway before Davenport transferred it. So, you see, he has no experience yet leading the full development of a new Broadway production.

And then there's his little Off-Broadway house, not named after himself (he says), but after his mother's father. If he were to name it after himself, it might have been called The Hasija (his real name).

Updated On: 9/1/16 at 08:36 AM