Woodstock, GA
Woodstock, GA
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Once on This Island on Tour
The Tony Award–winning revival of Once on This Island reimagines Romeo and Juliet as star-crossed lovers from different classes cohabiting on a lush tropical isle. After premiering on Broadway in 1990, where it was nominated for eight Tony Awards, this one-act musical — with book and lyrics by Lynn Ahrens and music by Stephen Flaherty — was reborn at the Circle in the Square Theatre in 2017 under the direction of Michael Arden and with choreography by Camille A. Brown. It won the Tony Award for Best Revival of a Musical the following year. The revival's immersive staging was preserved when the production went on tour in 2019. An overturned boat juts up from a sandbagged pool of water, and ensemble members go about their lives amid audience members seated onstage. The feeling of a real community damaged by a natural disaster adds a contemporary air to this lovingly crafted evening.
Once on This Island Background
A young French Antillean's love for the rich boy from the other side of her island sets cosmic forces in motion in this musical adaptation of Rosa Guy's 1985 novel, My Love, My Love: or The Peasant Girl. The village's working-class population slowly acquires the colorful regalia and noble bearing of Afro-Caribbean gods, reflecting the enamored couple's all-consuming passion. Stephen Flaherty's music offers a rich pastiche of calypso, beguine and African tribal dance. In their gender and racial fluidity, Once on This Island's characters offer lessons in both tolerance and magnificence.
In the national touring version, Courtnee Carter continues in the lead role of Ti Moune, which she performed on Broadway. Tyler Hardwick, likewise held over from the Broadway revival, plays Daniel Beauxhomme, the light-skinned rich boy who steals her heart. "It would be hard to imagine a cast more appealing, more ideal for Once on This Island than the ensemble brought together under [Michael] Arden's focused direction," raved Broadway World of this magical touring production.