Composer: Stephen Flaherty; Librettist: Lynn Ahrens. At: Porchlight Music Theatre at Theatre Building Chicago, 1225 W. Belmont.Phone: 773-327-5252; $30-$37. Runs through: June 28. Photo courtesy of Porchlight Music Theatre
Here's a game you can play before Porchlight Music Theatre's new production of Once on This Island: Count the number of people entering the theater who do a double take when they first glance the show's set.
Most musical theater fanatics know that Lynn Ahrens and Stephen Flaherty's much-beloved 1990 musical is set on a Caribbean island. Yet, the set for Porchlight's Once on This Island looks like a corner store smack dab in the middle of New York City.
You may ask yourself, "Just how is Porchlight going to pull this off?" Especially since there appears to be a huge disparity between this Caribbean-flavored musical's Little Mermaid-inspired script and Ian Zywica's graffiti-tagged urban set.
Well, I'm happy to report that Porchlight has triumphed yet again with an unconventionally savvy staging of a musical you might have thought you already knew.
Director Mark E. Lococo pays off on his risk of having New Yorkers ( no doubt many who are Caribbean immigrants ) telling the story of TiMoune, a black peasant girl who falls in love with a young mulatto man from a wealthy family.
Taking in all the information is the Little Girl ( Austin Moore ) , who imagines the people in her neighborhood embodying the tale's many characters of gods, peasants and upper crust islanders. For example, the sassy corner store owner ( an amazing Bethany Thomas ) comes to embody the earth goddess Asaka, while a Latino gang-banger ( an equally impressive Luis Herrera ) takes on the character of Papa Ge, the god of death.
Literalists might not like Lococo's Once on This Island approach, which takes a page from both Sesame Street and the recent Tony Award-winning hit In the Heights. But it ultimately works, since Lococo's modern staging serves as a reminder that we bear a responsibility to make sure that fairytales and native legends get passed down through the generations, no matter how far away you may have traveled from your country of origin.
Assuring that the show works so well is yet another enormously talented Porchlight cast that energetically swirls through Brenda Didier's calypso-inspired choreography and Gary C. Echelmeyer's colorful lighting design ( once again, the orchestra was top notch under Eugene Dizon's direction ) .
Melanie Brezill's overly earnest TiMoune was heartbreaking, while the rest of the cast fleshed out their multiple roles with dramatic and vocal assuredness ( only Sean Walton seemed to be having some pitch issues during Daniel's solo "Some Girls" on opening night ) .
So even if the Island of the show's title appears to be Manhattan, this Porchlight staging of Once on This Island proves itself by daringly upending expectations while delivering the emotional and storytelling goods. Don't miss it.