Ahh, the first show I ever played in, special place in my heart. From what I gathered, watching the '91 tonys, and just things I heard, it was kind of a more sleeper out of nowhere show then anything. I mean kind of like spelling bee but obviously not to the success it had. It was small off-broadway and found a home on broadway and lots of people went and enjoyed it, I would only consider something a flop if it did much worse than expected, I'm pretty sure that's not the case here.
To further explain the "peasant" novel and Little Mermaid connection...
Yes, OOTI was based on the novel which was based on the Little Mermaid. Keep in mind we're talking about Hans Christian Anderson's Little mermaid, not the disney version(my fav movie!!...not too relevant but anyway...). The book and the musical focused on the class differences as a previous poster said, but the difference in class between the rich and the poor, the peasants and the Beauxhomme...the source of this is the classes of humans and sea creatures. Here's some similarities:
LM: Ariel pretty much first encounters Eric by saving his life in the shipwreck and then falls in love with him.
OOTI: Ti Moune pretty much first meets Daniel by saving his life and then falls in love with him.
LM: Ariel for a time leaves her world to live in the other--becomes human and lives in the human world.
OOTI: Ti Moune for a time leaves her world to live in the other--she takes a journey to go "cure" and be with Daniel and interacts and live with the Beauxhomme
And, never having read it, I know the original LM story doesn't end happily ever after, and I think the two endings are also pretty much in sync.
"If there was a Mount Rushmore for Broadway scores, "West Side Story" would be front and center. It snaps, it crackles it pops! It surges with a roar, its energy and sheer life undiminished by the years" - NYPost reviewer Elisabeth Vincentelli
