[For the remainder of the year, my San Jose and Peninsula reviews will be posted on Talkin’ Broadway with only introductions to those reviews on this site]

Please continue to https://talkinbroadway.com/page/regional/sanjose/sj259.html for full review.

Lynn Ahrens (book and lyrics) and Stephen Flaherty (music) set the award-winning Broadway musical Once on this Island on a fictitious former French colony in the Caribbean.  The island’s population splits, with the prosperous grands hommes lighter-skinned mulattos who were spawned from inter-mating with French settlers on one side and the “black as night” peasants on the other.  Hence, we have another dimension of bigotry within a population, the color of skin.

With a nod to The Little Mermaid, peasant girl Ti Moune (played by Shaneen Black) finds a dying young grand homme Daniel (Edie Flores) who has been in an accident.  Her father, Tonton Julian (JM Appleby) represents a viewpoint about life and death in which he suggests that she let the young man die.   In her effort to slowly nurse Daniel back to health, she enters a bargain with the Demon of Death, Papa Ge (John Ramirez), that she offers her life in return for saving his.  Daniel survives, and though he and Ti Moune fall in love, Daniel returns to his previous life, whereupon conflicts emerge.

This 90-minute drama offers many pleasures.  The story itself engages, with some touching moments.  Much of it is told in charming songs, with all of the ensemble taking the lead at one time or another.  The songs range from the hopeful and loving “Forever Yours” to the recognition of the two different worlds the communities live in (“We Dance”) to the cynical “Some Girls,” which notes the asymmetry in sexual relations, as males often take advantage of females for whom they have no serious intentions.  This is yet another of several moral issues which underpin the narrative.

*****

Once on this Island runs through October 13, 2024 at Pear Theatre, 1110 La Avenida, Mountain View, CA.  For tickets and information, please visit www.thepear.org.