“Once on This Island,” Village Theatre’s season-opening musical, is a joyous antidote to the dreary weather.
The company’s production of the 1990 Broadway show explodes with music and dance, set to a Calypso beat and shimmering in the Caribbean sun.
Director David Bennett and choreographer Chris Daigre and their cast of 12 tell this musical’s story-a narrative of love and sacrifice, fate and forgiveness-in 21 numbers that flow seamlessly, with little dialog, over one 90-minute act.
Village Theatre’s opening production lacks the familiarity of the rest of the season, dominated by such familiar fare as “Cats,” “Hello, Dolly!” and “On Golden Pond.”
But Lisa Estridge, the vocal dynamo who stars in the show, predicts that will change once audiences have seen “Once on This Island.”
People hear about the show and don’t have a clue what it’s about, she said. “But when they do come, oh my goodness, they are going to be blown away.”
“Once on This Island,” set on a Caribbean isle in the French Antilles, is based on the novel “My Love, My Love” by Rosa Guy, itself a variation on Hans Christian Andersen’s “The Little Mermaid” (the Disney movie version of the story is something else). Stephen Flaherty wrote the music and Lynn Ahrens the lyrics.
On one side of the island live the peasants, whose lives are ruled by powerful gods. One of those peasants is Ti Moune (played by Estridge), a timid orphan girl who is chosen by the gods for a greater destiny.
In the midst of a mighty flood, her life is saved. She is found in a tree, and adopted by loving parents to grow into a strong young woman who ponders just what her fate is to be.
On the other side of the island live upper-class aristocrats. One of them is the handsome Daniel, and when Ti saves him from a horrific car accident the lives of the people on the island converge.
Ti makes a deal with the god of death that she will exchange her life and soul if Daniel is saved. For this bargain, she will pay a heavy price.
The story is woven through the production in a tapestry of music and dance, and Village Theatre has assembled an expert cast of singers and dancers to tell it.
Lisa Estridge, 39, is one of Seattle’s busiest actors, playing a range of parts that have included Peter Pan and the gravelly voiced Lina Lamont in “Singin’ in the Rain” in a career that has spanned three decades.
She brings to the role of Ti Moune her big singing voice (she sings a lot of gospel and rhythm and blues) and a passion for the part.
Estridge played Ti once before in a production mounted by the Tacoma Actor’s Guild. The difference in those two performances is like night and day, she said. And she credits her own life experience with giving her maturity and perspective.
“When you go though life and experience stuff — divorce, death — your performance is so different. You use what you have experienced,” she said.
Among those life experience was the birth of her daughter, Alexandria Gray, and now mother and daughter are sharing the stage. Alexandria, who is 6, plays the role of Ti Moune as a little girl (alternating with Madison Willis, whose father Ty Willis is also in the show).
Her mother says that Alexandria has been steeped in a life of theater from birth.
“Two days after I had her I went into rehearsals for another show. She’s always been around. If you are hiring Lisa, you are going to see her kid,” Estridge said.
“She likes the applause and the limelight. I was the same way when I was her age,” Estridge said.
“The difference is that I am a little crowd shy.”
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