Ahem......*blows note on harmonica*

Juuuuuust sit right back and you'll hear a tale,
A tale of a girl - Ti Moune.
It's playing now at GCP,
You best go see it soon.
The show was a little-known musical,
The islanders tell the story
Of how they found a little girl
And love that led to glory.
The weather started getting rough,
The tiny girl was tossed......
If not for the courage of her island parents....
um........
The invitations would be embossed?

Okay, enough of that.  The bottom line is that Once On This Island is 
now playing at GCP, and it's definitely worth the 10 bucks.

The story is basically a play-within-a-play, wherein a group of 
islanders in the French Antilles tell the story of a girl, and how 
the gods of the island used her for their own personal amusement.
It's a boy-and-girl-fall-in-love-but-can't-be-together-because-of-
the-constraints-of-society plot, which is really a rather interesting 
idea that's only been done approximately 6.02 x 10^23 times before.

The girl, Ti Moune, was destined to die in a storm; but alas, 
Agwe-the god in charge of drowning children-wasn't paying too much 
attention, so the girl manages to survive.  Then he and the other 
gods-Asaka, goddess of earth; Erzulic, goddess of love; and Papa Ge, 
god of death- get together and make some sort of a deal that I never 
fully understood, but that pretty much guarantees suffering for 
everyone involved.

So, instead of dying in a storm, Ti Moune ends up in a tree, where 
she is saved by island peasants, who take her in as their own, 
unaware that the island's yellow sun is the source of her super 
powers, and......no wait....they take her in and teach her to dance, 
but that's it.  One dark and stormy night, a car wrecks, and to make 
a long story short, Ti Moune rescues the driver--Daniel--and instantly 
falls in love with him as she nurses him back to health, earning her 
the title Ms. Co-Dependent Queen of the Island.  I mean really, 
people, at least meet the guy when he's awake before you decide he's 
the love of your life.  The last nursing-back-to-health love story we 
had was Stephen King's "Misery", and that was not exactly a healthy 
relationship either.

But anyway, Ti Moune falls for Captain Comatose, who promptly gets 
taken back to his estate in the suburbs of the island.  So, of 
course, Ti Moune sets out on a journey to find him and nurse him back 
to even more health.  Her personal mission is to "bring him back to 
health even it if kills him..."  And so she sets out, and along the 
way the audience finds out that Daniel was the illegitimate son of a 
French nobleman, who came to French Antilles during the time of 
Napolean because he wanted some of his own native people to 
subjugate.  Ultimately, Daniel would lead a rebellion and drive his 
evil father off the island (which was really not that hard, since 
Armand was French and thus had a tendency to surrender at the drop of 
a hat).

And so Ti Moune finds Daniel and nurses him from "critical" to 
"guarded" condition, and he ultimately makes it all the way to 
"stable".  It's understandable, really.....I'd heal faster too if a 
beautiful island girl was there to give me sweet loving.  And so, the 
two frolic and play and laugh and love and dance and, oh by the way,
did I mention Daniel was engaged to somebody else the whole time?
This is played out in the tender scene that follows:

Daniel:  "I love you, Ti Moune, but I have been promised to another 
since I was a child.  It was arranged by my father."

Ti Moune:  "Didn't you drive your father off this island because you 
didn't believe in his way of living?"

Daniel:  "Um.....yeah.....well, see.......um..........BEHIND YOU!  
TIDAL WAVE!!!!"

Ti Moune:  (turns around):  What??????

Daniel:  (runs away)


Ti Moune is heartbroken, but sets out to deal with her grief with a 
dedicated regimen of denial.  She sits outside Daniel's gate for 2 
solid weeks, knowing that he will eventually come to his senses.
Unfortunately, she doesn't use that time to read up on some helpful 
literature, such as "Co-Dependent No More"  and "Women Are From 
Venus, Men Are Just F*cking Jerks"

The play ends shortly after that.  I won't spoil the ending 
for you, except to say that it wouldn't matter if I did 
because you wouldn't believe me anyway.....



Overall, this a very good production.  The ensemble cast does some 
great dancing and singing.  The play is a short one, coming in at 
just under 2 hours with the intermission, and that makes for 
some problems in character development.  For example, the 
relationship between Ti Moune and Daniel isn't given enough time to 
develop to make me really believe it.  She falls in love with him 
while he's asleep; he falls in love with her the instant he wakes 
up.  I know it's supposed to be a fairy tale, but most fairy tales 
say "It was love at first sight" and leave it at that.  If you're 
going to play it out, you've got to make it believable.

That, however, is a problem with the script and not the cast, which 
is first-rate.  The music is very primal, and the cast has a huge 
amount of energy to go along with it.  There aren't a whole lot of 
major individual parts, but those are filled wonderfully, and at the 
absolute top of the list has got to be:

Ada Montalvo as Ti Moune.  Whether or not you believe me, I always 
knew this girl had this kind of performance in her, and this role 
fits her perfectly.  When she looks out at the audience and smiles, 
adjectives fail me.....the best I can come up with is "radiant".  Ada 
doesn't have a really refined singing voice, and that, I think, is one of 
her biggest assests.........a lot of highly trained singers sing from 
their diaphragm or their lungs or wherever.  Ada Montalvo sings from 
her heart, and that is what the world needs more of.....

Frank Edmondson as Agwe does his usual terrific job.  My favorite 
moment was when the gods were deciding how much to bet on their 
little game, and Agwe chimes in, "I need about tree-fitty...."

Sebrenah Phillips as Asaka is another outstanding performer.  She 
really has the whole island thing working.   I have no idea what that 
means, but it's just how I feel.

Other notables were Kurt Krynski as Papa Ge, Madelyn Vallery-Jones as 
Mama Euralie, Bradley Small as Daniel, and Shannon Wright as Andrea.
Also, Ed MacKay asked me to mention his lovely wife Sarah and wants 
to let everybody know he just sold her to a horticulturist.


Besides the fact that the underlying story contained more corn than 
Iowa, there were a few things I didn't like, though none of them 
significantly detracted from the show......

-The set design is relatively simple, which is fine; and the painted 
parts look good, including the trees and the platforms.  But the 
green fabric leaves that serve as treetops are not appealing at all.  
I think it would've looked much nicer if the treetops had been 
painted on by whoever did such a fine job painting the trees 
themselves.

-The costuning was good, except for one.  Papa Ge (Kurt Krynski) wore 
what looked to be a pair of black sweats and a black tank-top.  I can 
understand the whole black color scheme, but sweats and a tank-top?
He looked like he had come to the island straight from a Bohemian New 
York Art Show.


So, in conclusion,  if you're in the mood for some catchy tunes, upbeat 
dancing, and a wonderful treat in the form of Ada Montalvo, go see this 
show.  The theatre was only about 2/3 full on opening night, and that's 
just a damn shame.  Go see the show, and I guarantee you won't be 
disappointed.....

-john