Despite Some Obstacles, 'Once on This Island' Proves a Pleasant Visit -- Chicago Theater Review

Theater Review

Once on This Island

Cadillac Palace, Chicago 

Thru February 2

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It's an inexact delineation--and perhaps an ill-explained one--but my ratings (on a @@@@@ scale) and even full reviews inherently reflect my experience and enjoyment in seeing a certain show, along with providing an assessment of the work's artistic merits.

So while the @@@@ I'm giving Once on This Island suggests that, on my first encounter, I liked the one-act musical but didn't quite love it--which is an apt connotation--the truth is the performance I saw on Tuesday night had a lot working against it.

And by this, I don't even mean that this was the National Tour's first night in Chicago, especially as the performers were all quite good.

While I love Chicago's grand downtown theaters and have happily been a "Balcony Club" subscriber to Broadway in Chicago for 20 years, the Cadillac Palace's capacity is nearly three times that of Circle in the Square, the Tony-winning revival's home on Broadway from November 2017 through early 2019.

And that theater's single-level purview would seem much more conducive for this show than my upper balcony seat, given the somewhat confusing regaling of legends local to an island the French Antilles, with the cast employing Caribbean accents that--while fully appropriate and well-rendered--were frankly a bit hard for me to understand. (While I attend much theater with gracious Press Night invites and often excellent seats, this is not typically the case with Broadway in Chicago shows.)

It also didn't help that the woman sitting in front of me obscured my ability to see the stage, and in her drinking with, chatting with and occasionally hugging her adjoining pals, my ability to focus was also quite challenged.

Though the Palace stage is quite large, the sizable cast and onstage musicians were accompanied by several audience members seated on bleachers on the back left of the stage.

Nifty concept, but there just seemed to be a whole lot competing for my attention--in addition to the women in the next row.

Fortunately, to an extent, I had listened to the Broadway Cast Recording and perused the plot synopsis on Wikipedia before attending.

So I wasn't completely clueless as to what was going on.

Only partially. (I had to return to Wikipedia afterwards for a good bit of clarity.)

So there was a whole lot good about Once on This Island--including the music & lyrics by Stephen Flaherty & Lynn Ahrens, who first brought this show to Broadway in 1990 before going on to create Ragtime, Seussical, Anastasia and many other musicals--for me to like it as much as I did.

Although I didn't quite catch onto the show's island folklore as it pertained to various gods setting things in motion, in a (coco)nutshell some of the island's proud and exuberant peasant natives--the opening number is "We Dance"--share a myth about a fabled young woman named Ti Moune (a delightful Courtnee Carter).

As a young girl, Ti Moune miraculously survives a horrible storm by clinging to a tree, and is adopted by  Mama Euralie (Danielle Lee Greaves) and Tonton Julian (Phillip Boykin).

Almost instantly--did I mention that this is a 90-minute one-act--she becomes considerably older, and in seeking to learn more about the island meets a boy from the upper class, Daniel (Tyler Hardwick, who demonstrates a terrific singing voice on "Some Girls").

Certainly, there is an element of Romeo & Juliet, but in different ways--storyline, musical stylings, accents, etc.--I was reminded of The Lion King, The Book of Mormon and Moana, even though Once on This Island preceded all of them.

Carter does some uniquely delightful dancing, Greaves & Boykin beautifully belt out a song called "Ti Moune" and Tamyra Gray--once of American Idol and whom I saw in Rent on Broadway--does a fine job as the most prominent of the gods, Papa Ge.

So there is clearly superlative talent in this touring cast, some carried over from the Broadway revival.

And even without quite "getting" everything, there are many delightful elements, including some other fine songs, performances and underlying themes.

Hence, while @@@@ is an honest appraisal of my initial take, I wouldn't mind seeing the show again--ideally in a more intimate but likewise wonderfully-sung production--a few years hence.

For while Once on This Island was good, twice might well be even better.