A moving Caribbean-flavored musical explores a bond that transcends class differences.
By BARBARA L. FREDRICKSEN, Times Staff Writer
Published July 22, 2005
The hauntingly beautiful Caribbean folk tale, Once on This Island, with its rousing songs and dances, will be performed by the students of John Leggio's "Broadway Theater Experience" at 6 p.m. Saturday at Bishop McLaughlin Catholic High School.
"This is the junior version, but it has the full story and all but one or two of the songs in the original Broadway show," said Leggio, owner of John Leggio's School of the Performing Arts, where the two-week seminar took place. "It's really a moving story."
The show is being done by a cast of more than 50 in full costume. The sets and lights were designed by Show Palace Dinner Theatre designer Tom Hansen, but many of the sets were painted by the students themselves as part of the workshop experience.
Musical director is the Show Palace's Katie Kerwin (Velma in Chicago).
Set in the French Antilles, Once on This Island Jr. is the story of the peasant girl Ti Moune (Lucy Werner, Baby June in Gypsy at the Show Palace and featured singer in A Show Palace Christmas) and the aristocratic plantation owner's son, Daniel (Anthony Maffatone).
During a terrible rainstorm, Ti Moune sees the wild and reckless Daniel drive too fast and crash his car. She rescues him, nurses him back to health and falls deeply in love with him. As soon as he is better, Daniel returns to his doting parents, apparently forgetting his rescuer. Ti Moune is crestfallen.
At that point, the gods who rule the island challenge her to defy the class differences to be with her love. She is opposed by Papa Ge (Casey Walter), the Demon of Death. She is encouraged by Erzulie (Ashley Shoendorf), the Goddess of Love. The story is told by village storytellers.
"There is dialogue, but the story is mostly sung," Leggio said.
Most of the music has a rhythmic, high-spirited Caribbean flavor, with calypso and free-form dancing.
"The students did some of the choreography," Leggio said. They also helped design their own costumes.
"We bought these big, colorful lengths of cloth, lined them up on a table and let (the students) choose the ones they wanted," Leggio said. The pieces became sarongs, skirts, scarves, ties and head coverings.
About two-thirds of the students are from Leggio's studio; the rest are from other dance studios in Pasco and Hernando counties.
The Broadway version of Once on This Island was about class and racial differences, but creators Lynn Ahrens and Stephen Flaherty wrote an alternate version that emphasizes class differences for theater groups that might have limited access to multiracial casting. This is the version the "Broadway Theater Experience" troupe will perform.
The original Broadway show was about 90 minutes long. The junior version is 55 minutes, with no intermission.
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WHAT: Once on This Island Jr.
WHERE: Eleanor Dempsey Performing Arts Center at Bishop McLaughlin Catholic High School, 13652 Hays Road, Hudson (off State Road 52 a mile west of the Suncoast Parkway exit)
WHEN: 6 p.m. Saturday
TICKETS: $10, open seating. Tickets available at John Leggio's Center for the Performing Arts, 10451 County Line Road (a quarter-mile east of Mariner Boulevard), Spring Hill; at the door; or call (352) 683-8395.
