It may be inspired by a tale by Hans Christian Andersen and populated by characters with otherworldly qualities, but there is way more to “Once on This Island” to be thought of merely as a “fairy tale.”
“This is a story that deals with all the things that can separate us and how love and hope are the only things that overcome those divisions,” said Obum Ukabam, who is directing Theatre Tulsa’s upcoming production of this Tony Award-winning musical by Stephen Flaherty and Lynn Ahrens.
“And while that may sound a bit like a cliche, you can’t deny that it’s a timely message,” he said. “There are so many things that separate us as a society — maybe it’s class or color, being rich or being poor — that maybe shouldn’t divide us. It’s about understanding where we all come from, all the things that we have in common, that we share and how the only thing that can overcome those divisions is love.”
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“Once on This Island” is adapted from a novel by Rosa Guy, one of the leading figures of the Harlem Renaissance, titled “My Love, My Love, or The Peasant Girl,” which Guy said was inspired by Andersen’s story “The Little Mermaid.”
At the center of the story is a young woman named Ti Moune (Nicole Billups), a native of a small island in the Caribbean Sea that for years has been divided between the peasants, whose lives are confined to one side of the island, and the grands hommes, the descendents of European settlers who live in relative luxury on the island’s other side.
When Ti Moune’s prays to learn what the purpose of her life is, her entreaties come to the attention of a quartet of deities: Asaka, Mother of the Earth (Kolbi Jordan), Agwe, the Goddess of Water (Patricia Pineda), Erzulie, the Goddess of Love (Anna Joie), and Papa Ge, the Demon of Death (Jennifer Obené).
The quartet devises a test to see if love truly is stronger than death — a test involving a sudden, violent storm that causes Daniel Beauxhomme (Knox Blakely) to lose control of his car and crash.
Ti Moune rescues the badly injured Daniel from the wreck and works to restore him to health, ultimately falling in love with this scion of the grands hommes. Her devotion to him is so complete that when Papa Ge comes to take Daniel’s life, Ti Moune offers to die in his place.
That is only the beginning of a story about star-crossed love, prejudice and racism, self-sacrifice and redemption.
Ukabam said he was able to meet with some of the members of the show’s original Broadway production, including LaChanze, who originated the role of Ti Moune on Broadway, and Tamyra Gray, the “American Idol” finalist who played Papa Ge in the touring production of the show’s 2017 revival, as he prepared for this show.
“The 2017 revival was a real inspiration,” Ubakam said. “One of the things I liked was that they reversed the casting for the gods, so that the characters who were played by men in the original production were played by women in the revival. We just took that a step farther and cast all the gods as women.”
Theatre Tulsa made the decision a few years ago to offer more opportunities for performers of color, through such productions as “Dreamgirls” in 2021 and “Little Shop of Horrors” in 2022.
“Once on This Island” is the latest show in this effort, although Ubakam said this production is something of a celebration of diversity — and a more authentic presentation of the environment in which the story is set.
“The Caribbean is truly a melting pot, with African, European and Hispanic cultures mixing in with those of the Indigenous peoples,” he said. “Tulsa is the same way, which is why our cast has performers who are Black, white, Native, Hispanic and Filipino. We also have people from all walks of life, some who have been appearing in local theater for years, some of whom are new to the scene.
“But the one thing that is consistent is the level of talent we have in this town,” Ubakam said. “I think everyone is going to be blown away by this cast.”