The Tony-winning team of Lynn Ahrens and Stephen Flaherty have produced more than 20 musicals, including “Ragtime,” “Seussical” and “Anastasia.” But one of their collaborations that rarely makes it to the stage is “Once on This Island.”
The last production of “Once on This Island” in San Diego County was in 2021 at Vista’s Moonlight Amphitheatre, but I can’t find any record of another local professional staging in the decades before that.
Despite its ear-pleasing score, high-energy dance scenes and endearing characters, the Caribbean fairy tale is an unusual hybrid. The story is part childlike folk tale inspired by Hans Christian Andersen’s “The Little Mermaid,” and part grown-up story with jealous gods, sex, segregation, racism and a bittersweet ending.
In the wrong director’s hands, the show could seem too grown up for kids and too corny for adults. Fortunately, director Kevin “Blax” Burroughs has figured out that delicate balance in his engaging new Oceanside Theatre Company staging that opened Saturday.
Rather than try to make this fantasy story feel “real” for the audience, Burroughs has embraced the art of theatrical storytelling. When the audience enters the Brooks Theater auditorium before the show, they see the actors as themselves, warming up and chatting onstage. Then the cast steps forward and speaks to the audience about what they will experience. Scenic designer Michael Wogulis has also extended some elements of his scenery into the auditorium, encouraging audience to suspend disbelief and come along for the ride.
“Once on This Island” is the story of Ti Moune, an orphaned girl raised by peasants on an island divided between the poor descendants of slaves and the wealthy mulatto descendants of French planters. Ti Moune dreams of life on the other side, and when she grows up, the island gods grant her wish by helping her rescue the wealthy mulatto Daniel from a car crash and nurse him back to health. She follows Daniel home and becomes his mistress but soon learns that love doesn’t always conquer hate.
Timyra-Joi leads the cast as the grown-up Ti Moune. She’s charismatic, a great dancer and has a beautiful, dusky voice, though I sometimes had a hard time understanding her song lyrics.
Also excellent are Eboni Muse and Kingsley Jackson as Mama Euralie and Tonton Julian, the peasants who raised Ti Moune after her family was washed out to sea in a hurricane. Other cast standouts are Xavier J. Bush as Daniel and Jasmine January as Daniel’s fiancée, Andrea.
The show’s Caribbean/African choreography by Alyssa “Ajay” Junious is thrilling and exceptional, and the cast are all good dancers. Music director is Lyndon Pugeda, Zoë Trautmann designed costumes and Nate Cargill designed lighting. The 90-minute show is performed to a recorded score.
‘Once On This Island’
When: 8 p.m. Fridays; 3 and 8 p.m. Saturdays; 3 p.m. Sundays. Through April 13
Where: Oceanside Theatre Company at the Brooks Theater, 217 North Coast Highway, Oceanside
Tickets: $40
Online: oceansidetheatre.org
