Once On This Island.........anyone??

[Minnie_me]

My DD's middle school is doing this musical, and I've never heard of it - even though I'm a musical fanatic!

Any info? (and not links to wikipedia -- I can do that! I want PERSONAL info!)

THANKS!

 

[Tinker'n'Fun]

My nieces school did this one year. It has a few main leads and the choir which is a large part of the play. Yes it is a musical. Set on an island. Young girl is upset with a storm, the "Gods" (storytellers) tell a story of an island girl who falls in love with the rich boy.

It's not too bad, tough for HS to pull off, defintely not good for a Middle school.

 

[Jillpie]

My son is a senior in high school, and he is in the "pit band" of every one of the plays all 4 years. They did this play two years ago, and it is in the top two plays that he LOVED the most. His most favorite has been Suessical. And he's doing Beauty and the Beast this weekend! But I digress... the music in this play is fantastic. However, if you don't have a really, really good director and musical direction, I can't see it being awesome. So if you do have that, the kids will love it!! I loved it. Really fun to watch.

 

[Minnie_me]

Interesting.............I'm hoping it won't tank - LOL!

 

[java]

My DD did this last year. It's a kind of Romeo and Juliet story. (A strange one I thought for a middle school) I preferred when they did Cats the year before.

But it was a nice show LOTS of parts in it so many kids can have a speaking part. And I think some of the music sounds like Enchanted music.

Here's We Dance the big "number" in the show.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-cztSYfGqXw&feature=related

Oh and I was like you when they said they were going to do. I had never heard of it.

 

[Rosered]

My younger sister did this in High School. She played the young girl at the start of the play, (someone else played the girl when she is older). I had never heard of the play before so wasn't sure what to expect but we all loved it. The kids did a wonderful job and it was really entertaining for us even though my sister's part was just at the very beginning.

 

[MsLeFever]

Beautiful show with great music. I know that Music Theatre International has just released a "junior" version and that is probably what your middle school is producing. My preteens are going to be in a production this spring too!

It is really the Little Mermaid (the original story - not Disney's). A young girl (who in the play is a dark skinned woman but the junior version takes out all race issues) falls in love with a light skinned boy. When he is injured, she rescues him.....

Like the original story it kinda has a sad ending because even though she proves that love is stronger than death, she dies.

Get a CD or download the music - it is fun and very singable.

 

[GEM]

I love the show. It's so much fun and has such amazing music.... and so much color and life and energy. I've never been in it or directed it, but I've seen it several times. I would bet (although I could be wrong) that at the middle school level they will probably do the "junior" version of the show, which is shortened and much simplified from the original...in terms of themes, content, and difficulty of music. Music Theatre International has licensed these "junior" versions of quite a few of their musicals in the hopes of making them more accessible to younger performers.

 

[punkin]

It is a fabulous musical-very Caribbean music. It is a retelling of the Little Mermaid story with racial overtones. My daughter played Erzuli (goddess of love) in a camp production. We love the songs!


ETA: they did not do a "junior" version so I am not sure what that would be like. The cast members were all teens so no middle school appropriateness issues. I wonder though, how they can make it race neutral when that is a central theme of the play.