Question about Once on This Island -- Who sings this?

[Ariel03]

Posted: 10/6/03 at 10:46am

The song "Come Down from the Tree" was cut from Once on This Island, but which character sings it and when would it happen in the show?

[Unknown User]

Posted: 10/6/03 at 11:39am

It was sung by Ti-Moune.
And it was to be sung on her journey to the BIG city to see Daniel.
(So Probably after Mama Will Provide)

[Zola LaPlaya]

Posted: 10/6/03 at 4:08pm

May I pose a related question?

I adored that young woman, La Chance, but have not heard anything of her since then. Is she still working or has she moved on to greener pastures?

z

[Unknown User]

Posted: 10/6/03 at 4:11pm

"Come Down the From the Tree" was NOT sung by Ti Moune BoxOfficeJon. Ohhhhhh I caught you! "4:10 pm. Nic corrects omniscient Jon". LOL! It was actually sung by Mama Euralie before or after "One Small Girl". She sings to Ti Moune to come down from her tree. Guess I'm just too quick for you Jonny.

Great Show. I played da pimp, Armand but I really wanted to be Agwe. I guess we all can't be gods.

[DivaMommy]

Posted: 10/6/03 at 5:53pm

"Come Down From the Tree" is a beautiful song. However, I can see why they cut it - the show flows so well now.

The only thing I can offer about La Chanze is that she is one of the Muses in Disney's hercules (along with Lilias White and Roz Ryan and 2 others)

I'm currently playing Andrea here in Vegas. The show is a BLAST! Definetly one of my favorites.

[Unknown User]

Posted: 10/6/03 at 8:12pm

You coffee-skinned bitch...

[Gothampc]

Posted: 10/6/03 at 8:28pm

La Chanze lost her husband in the World Trade Center attack. She most recently played Lucille Ball's maid in the tv movie "Lucy"

[DivaMommy]

Posted: 10/7/03 at 4:10am

"You coffee-skinned bitch..."

Are you talking to me?

You're half right - but it would be more like

"you pasty-skinned ... whatever...."

(It's a multi-ethnic production)

[Zola LaPlaya]

Posted: 10/7/03 at 11:23am

Oh my! I did not know that La Chanze lost her husband during the attack. How dreadful! No wonder she has been laying low since her triumph in Once on This Island. I thought she was magnificent, then -- poof! -- she disappeared.

I hope she returns to the stage in a more prominent role.

z

[TheBalladeer]

Posted: 10/7/03 at 11:26am

She was also Marta in the 1995 Off-Broadway production of Company. She has also done a lot of concerts for charity, replaced Audra McDonald as Sarah in Ragtime, and done some TV stuff.

Cheers,
The Balladeer

[robbiej]

Posted: 10/7/03 at 11:26am

Actually, the terrifically talented La Chanze followed Audra in Ragtime. She is a now a single mother of two and girl is making her money. She has been working the new Aherns & Flaherty show, the details of which escape me now. I believe she plays a slave and Donna Murphy was a part of it as well.

[TheBalladeer]

Posted: 10/7/03 at 11:30am

Didn't I just post that, Robbie? Geez. Help a brutha out.

Cheers,
The Balladeer

[robbiej]

Posted: 10/7/03 at 11:31am

girl

we just posted around the same time.

now you help a brutha out and tell me the name of that new show she's working on.

PS I don't really love her version of ANOTHER HUNDRED PEOPLE. But her WAITING FOR LIFE is possibly one of my all time favorites.

[Zola LaPlaya]

Posted: 10/7/03 at 11:39am

Is she on CD?

z

[TheBalladeer]

Posted: 10/7/03 at 11:40am

I don't remember off hand, buddy....didn't she turn that down to do the Lucy movie? Or I could be wrong. I'll look it up on Playbill.com. As for her rendition of Another Hundred People, I agree with you. I don't know if it the fact that is sounds almost like a Calypso rendition of it, or that her diction and pronunciation of some of the lyrics are a little weird....but something doesn't sit with me on her interpretation.

B

[robbiej]

Posted: 10/7/03 at 11:47am

Her diction is very strange on that. I mean, yes...it's important to enunciate, but MY GOD! She took that concept just a bit too far.

The show she turned down for the Lucy movie was LITTLE FISH.

[Unknown User]

Posted: 10/7/03 at 11:48am

Last5Years....
Now I am not telling you -- you are wrong but I have read the book My Love, My Love about three times and I am reading it aghin just to make sure I am correct but in the LOST IN BOSTON cd it says, and I quote "My Love, My Love" the Rosa Guy novel upon which ONCE ON THIS ISLAND is based, contains a passage when Ti Moune finds a little abandoned girl hiding in a tree in the forest. The authors musicalized this episode, but by the time the show went into production the scene had been cut-- taking this stunning ballad about "leaving the nest" with it. Composer Stephen Flaherty (at the piano) chose Lillias White, who played Asaka for much of the Broadway run, to indroduce it here

If I recall right in the book, she comes across another girl on her journey to the big city and then sings this. I am reading it now and will let you know.

[Zola LaPlaya]

Posted: 10/7/03 at 11:51am

Here is playbill.com on the new project:

"A&F's next project is based on the novel, "Dessa Rose," about a slave who is helped to freedom by a woman who, in the process, achieves a kind of freedom herself. A 2002 reading was held with La Chanze and Donna Murphy as the leads. A 2003 workshop by Lincoln Center is planned."

z

[TheBalladeer]

Posted: 10/7/03 at 12:00pm

Sounds interesting! I want to see it. I am a big LaChaze fan.

Balladeer

[DivaMommy]

Posted: 10/7/03 at 4:18pm

BoxOfficeJon-

Thank you for that info. I haven't read the book yet - although I'm dying too. I remember listening to the song thinking that Ti Moune had to be singing it - she kept refering to her journey or something. Your context makes sense.

[Gothampc]

Posted: 10/7/03 at 6:30pm

BoxOffice, the musical and the book to differ in places, especially in the ending.

[Unknown User]

Posted: 10/7/03 at 6:45pm

You could be right Jon. I downloaded the song (sung by Audra McDonald) from an OOTI fansite, and it was noted next to it that was the song Mama Euralie sang to get Ti Moune out of the tree. Oh well

[Unknown User]

Posted: 10/7/03 at 10:47pm

I am in no way saying I am right. And I am reading the book again as I said I love it. I read it about once every two years. But I do honestly believe that it is Ti Moune singing it to another girl. Like... this is what I went thru and yuo can do it to..... come down from tree and you will find what you need to find.

And the book differs but the ending is the same....

++++++SPOILER ALERT++++++++
She dies in both books and she becomes a tree....

[Gothampc]

Posted: 10/7/03 at 11:55pm

*****Spoiler alert******

I thought the book ended with her dying and her body was just thrown in a ditch (no tree). Am I wrong?

[Gothampc]

Posted: 10/7/03 at 11:55pm

Updated On: 10/7/03 at 11:55 PM