Copious Notes

Ti Moune (Tai-Kristin Smedley) is oblvious to plans being made for her by Erzulie (Alicia Helm McCorvey), Papa Ge (Jason Thompson) and Asaka (Tamera Izlar). Photo by Rich Copley | LexGo.com.

After several summers of giving us musicals with songs we know by heart, SummerFest delivers a show with a story that will stay in our hearts.

And some of the tunes may stay with us too.

Like Hair (SummerFest 2008) and Jesus Christ Superstar (2004), writer Lynn Ahrens and composer Stephen Flaherty’s Once on This Island is a distinctly contemporary musical, and it scored a 1991 Tony Award nomination for best musical (Will Rogers Follies won). A lot of people who have seen the show love it, which means it should gain some new adherents this weekend as it closes out SummerFest at the Arboretum.

In some ways, Island seems ideally suited to the Arboretum venue. It is set on a Caribbean island and its story is intertwined with nature. The gods of earth (Tamera Izlar) and the ocean (Luther Lewis III) are co-conspirators in the story of Ti Moune (Tarynn Grundy as a girl and Tai-Kristin Smedley as an adult), a peasant girl orphaned in a flood whose love and innocence eventually conquers the cruelty and vapidity of racism.

Ti Moune is convinced she was saved in the flood for a purpose, and later comes to believe that is to save Daniel (Adam Fister), a rich boy injured in a car crash during another harrowing storm. Ti Moune’s love for Daniel is at the center of a bet between Papa Ge (Jason Thompson), the demon of death, and Erzulie (Alicia Helm McCorvey), the goddess of love, as to which one is stronger.

Death, “can stop a heart from beating, but not from loving,” Erzulie tells Papa Ge in a line you should pay attention to.

The strength in Margo Buchanan’s production is several of the performances and her often telling staging.

One of the best moments is when Daniel sings Some Girls to Ti Moune. All the while, on a platform above and behind them, Andrea (Taylor Eldred), the rich girl Daniel’s been promised to since childhood, is getting ready for the dance they will all attend. It’s visually as telling as the lyric, “Some girls you marry, and some girls you love.” Pay attention to that one, too.

Fister you’ll remember as Claude in Hair. Smedley is the first performer in the show who truly fills the Arboretum when she enters singing Waiting for Life. She provides the show with a sweet star to root for. Thompson as her nemisis, Papa Ge, is also a commanding presence in a his voice, laugh and lithe movement.

As Ti Moune’s adoptive mother, Julie-Ann Aguhob builds on her head turning performance at Grand Night for Singing in June, though she was one of several performers plagued by microphone problems Thursday night.

Despite the appropriateness of the outdoor setting, the show sometimes has trouble filling the Arboretum, in some cases due to the lightness of Flaherty’s touch. Some airy, transitional moments have trouble competing with the surroundings, such as the Arboretum’s location near two hosptials (with emergency rooms).

What does work really well in that atmosphere is Island’s format with storytellers relaying the tale in its immediacy and history of class conflict and island legend. Even if, at the back of the amphitheater, you miss some subtle moments between characters, you get the broad themes of nature and love overcoming the unnatural barriers people put between themselves.

No, not everything works in Once on This Island. But a lot does, and who doesn’t want a little island get away on a summer night?

SummerFest closes out its 2009 season with the musical Once on This Island by writer Lynn Ahrens and composer Stephen Flaherty. The musical tells the story of Ti Moune, a peasant girl in Haiti who believes the gods spared her life so she could save a rich boy, Daniel, and fall in love with him. The production is directed by Margo Buchanan. Performances are July 22-26 at the Arboretum on Alumni Drive. Photos by Rich Copley | staff.

Feature: UK Opera students spend summer exploring musical theater in Once on This Island.

Adam Fister as Claude burns his "draft card" in SummerFest's 2008 production of "Hair." He will play Daniel in "Once on This Island" this summer. Photo by Rich Copley | LexGo.com.

So, who are we going to see onstage at the Abrboretum when SummerFest kicks off July 8? Which usual suspects will be on stage, and who are some of the new talents we can look forward to getting to know?

Answers to those questions are somewhat epitomized at the top of the bill of the first play, Joe Ferrell’s production of Henry IV, Part 1. The title character will be played by Eric Johnson, who was Antony in last summer’s production of Antony and Cleopatra and has been a leading man in the Arboretum several times, while Prince Hal will be played by Trent Fucci, who’s played supporting roles in the past and is stepping into the spotlight. Personally, as a colleague, I can’t help thinking Walter Tunis was probably born to play Falstaff.

Once on This Island will be led by Adam Fister, whose performance in Hair last summer was a star-establishing turn, and Jackie Chance, who will be a new face to a lot of viewers.

Here’s the lineup for the shows, which will run July 8-26.

Henry IV, Part 1 by William Shakespeare, directed by Joe Ferrell

King Henry the Fourth — Eric Johnson
Prince Henry of Wales (Hal, son of King Henry) — Trent Fucci
Lord John of Lancaster (son of King Henry)– Zach Moseley
Earl of Westmorland (loyal to the King)– Mike van Zant
Sir Walter Blount (loyal to the King) — Joe Gatton
Thomas Percy, Earl of Worcester (rebelling against King Henry) — Tim Hull
Henry Percy, Earl of Northumberland (Thomas’ older brother, also rebel) — Mark Smith
Hotspur, Henry Percy, (Northumberland’s son, rebel) — Jack McIntyre
Lady Percy (Kate, Hotspur’s wife) — Brooke M. Haney
Lord Edmund Mortimer (Kate’s brother, rebel) — Michael Grice
Lady Mortimer (his wife) — Haley Manion Smith
Owen Glendower (Lady Mortimer’s father, rebel) — Terry Withers
Earl of Douglas (rebel) — Nick Vannoy
Sir Richard Vernon (rebel) — Nick Schwartz
Sir John Falstaff — Walter Tunis
Edward (Ned) Poins — Jesse Hungerford
Bardolf — Jeff Sherr
Peto — Sean Harkless
Mistress Quickly (Hostess) — Bianca Spriggs-Floyd
Chamberlain/Sheriff — Zach Moseley
Messenger — Evan Chethik

Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde by Jeffrey Hatcher, directed by Patti Heying

Dr. Jekyll — Bob Singleton
Elizabeth – Kim Dixon
Lanyon – Adam Luckey
Utterson, etc. – Jacob Karnes
Carew, Inspector, etc. – Matt Seckman
Poole, Maid, etc. – Susan Wigglesworth
Dark Angel, etc. – Pinelopi Williams
Dark Angel, etc. – Jim Trujillo

(note: in this version, Hyde is played by four actors)

Once on This Island by Lynn Ahrens and Lynn Flaherty, directed by Margo Buchanan

Julie-Ann Aguhob — Mama Eurali
Katie Berger — Beaux Homme
Tamia Bowden — little girl
Manuel Castillo — Armand
Jackie Chance — Ti Moune
Clark Davis — Storyteller
Taylor Eldred — Andrea
Adam Fister — Daniel
Tarynn Grundy — little Ti Moune
Alicia Helm McCorvey — Erzulie
Tamera Izlar — Asaka
Tyshaun Lang — Tonton
Luther Lewis — Agwe
Justin Norris — Storyteller
Pam Perlman — Beaux Homme
Peggy Stamps — Storyteller
Jason Thompson — Papa Ge
Juonita Thurman — Storyteller
Manny Thurman — Storyteller
Joseph Waterbury-Tieman — Storyteller
Emanuel Wright — Storyteller