Once On This Island - Was 1991 A Slow Year? — Page 2

You may have the London cast recording which is pretty awful. The original Broadway cast, however, is pretty divine.

I still think it's one of the best endings of a show ever. The last 12 minutes or so are just heartbreaking.

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My wife and I saw the original cast on Broadway. We had avoided seeing it, weren't very intrigued by it. But we had seen everything else on Broadway and Off-...so what the heck, we went.

That evening was the single most amazing theatregoing experience I have had in a 40+ year lifetime of theatregoing. My wife and I were completely speechless at the end, we were so moved and blown away. We just sat there in our seats, looking at each other stupidly, tears still streaming down our faces.

Graciela Daniele's staging was absolutely remarkable, using the simplest of devices for maximum effect. And that cast! Incomparable.

The show was an absolute, uncompromised, perfect work of art sitting there as if by accident in a commercial Broadway house.

The show has such gorgeous songs..."Some Girls", "Ti Moune" and "Forever Yours". Then it has the upbeat and catchy "Pray", "Rain" and "Why We Tell the Story". I honestly love this show, the score is great and while I do find the book odd, its still a very moving show.

I think the only song that has cheesy lyrics is "The Sad Tale of the Beauxhommes". I've always hated that song, but it continually grows on me.

This thread caused me to dig up Frank Rich's review...here's how it concludes:

'Once on This Island' has the integrity of genuine fairy tales, in that it doesn't lead to a saccharine ending but to a catharsis, a transcendent acceptance of the dust-to-dust continuity of life and death. 'Why We Tell the Story' is the concluding song for the evening's storytellers, and one of those reasons is that 'our lives become the stories that we weave.' As the story and its tellers at last come full circle in 'Once on This Island,' the audience feels the otherworldly thrill of discovering the fabric of its own lives in an enchanted tapestry from a distant shore.

I love this show. It was the first pit score I ever played. And my high school had the correct ethnicity, and ours was a wonderful production. Our Mama Euralie was essentially a Gospel singer, and our Papa Ge had a better voice than the dude on the CD.

I adore the score (perhaps a tad biasly). It has a nice Caribbean flavor in the sound and integrates motifs well. The island motif, the one small girl motif, some girls motif, etc. Waiting for Life is a great song, as is Rain (and the orchestrations provide an amazing atmosphere--it's certainly a highlight of the show (if you have a good Agwe). Pray, too has wonderful orchestrations and a sound to the music, and really creates tension. The island motif appropriately goes minor here. Forever Yours is just a gorgeous song, and its change in tone...gah.

Ti Moune has absolutely gorgeous orchestrations, with the clarinet answering the singers and though it's a simple message, it's an important kind of song whose theme I don't think is explored enough--the child leaving the parents, proving her independence, her parent's unwillingness to let her go, but then let her go out of love...it's so beautiful.."you know where we'll be"

Mama Will Provide is just exciting, and a great chorus really adds to it. The Human Heart is also beautiful, and it's awesome that the show has two different yet both wonderful love ballads. Some Girls has a lot it has to do...express and convince the audience of Daniel's love for Ti Moune, introduce Andrea and the fact that Daniel must and will marry her, etc. The exciting lift in the music when he starts to sing "You are not small talk..." I love that part.

Forever Yours reprise when performed well can be menacing.

The whole tree thing--yes if you describe the plot to someone in a couple of sentences, ending it that way seems pretty silly. But as others have said, the whole idea of storytelling, and myths often have a kind of...this person is connected to this aspect of the world or nature, whether it be the cause of seasons or fire, etc. So in that context it makes sense that she becomes a tree..."touched their heart and set them free to love." And Why We Tell The Story, great upstanding beat. The fact that Ti Moune's last line is "and forgive." You'd think she'd sing about loving or something like that, but she now introduces the new idea of forgiveness so late in the show. And the last lines (in song) really express the theme of the show "Our lives become the stories that we weave"

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It really depends on the production. The first time I saw it, I saw a high school production where every islander was a white kid covered in bronzer and dressed like Survivor rejects, except for Ti Moune, who looked and dressed vaguely Polynesian. I was bored out of my mind and thought it was patently ridiculous.
My college mounted it in February, and at first I was very leery, but ultimately I think we did a good job. The cast was much more diverse and I loved our ensemble. This is one of those shows that rests on its ensemble. After watching the first run-through I thought "Oh, so this is what all the fuss is about."

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If students of the "correct ethnicity" don't audition, what are you supposed to do, draft them?

If the students of the "correct ethnicity" don't audition, then they shouldn't do that show in the first place. It's not like Once on this Island is the only musical that exists!

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There is an alternate version of the show with minor changes to lyrics and lines if a theatre doesn't have the resources to do the show with the 10 black and 2 mulato actors. It makes it about class rather than race, which isn't as powerful but it allows the show to be done which is great.

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I love this show. I saw it originally for the first time at Hoboken High School in NJ. I was blown away. At the time, the Papermill Playhouse (side note: Save It), was doing a program honoring all the NJ high schools in a Tony-like ceremony, and this production won best musical.
It's a beautiful show, so moving. And remember, IT'S A FAIRYTALE!!! When Jack goes up the beanstalk, is that cheesy?

Also, it's interesting to see Lilias White on the Tony telecast, since she was not in the original cast. Asaka was originally played by Kecia Lewis-Evans (The Drowsy Chaperone).

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I am in agreement with all the positive posts about this lovely show ... the score is magical, and Graciela Daniele's staging was simple yet always evocative. There was more love and genuine emotion in this 90 minute production than in bloated spectacles like "Miss Saigon."

Sometimes (well, actually almost all the time) simpler is better.

I believe 88-89 was still the lead standard for bad musical seasons. STARMITES, anyone??

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I believe 1985 was also the same year RAGS bombed big-time.

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Yeah, poor Rags. Les Miz was a juggernaut from the get-go, while Starlight Express did big business at the start, and Me and My Girl was an absolute delight. At least Judy Kuhn got to perform twice at the Tonys that year.