We dance to the music of the gods

Once On This Island at the Carlos P. Romulo Theater

What is the Musical all about?
Once On This Island is based on the novel My Love, My Love by Rosa Guy, the show is a twist on the traditional “Little Mermaid” tale, and tells the story of Ti Moune (Vega), a poor peasant girl who falls in love with Daniel (Magdangal), an upper class boy whose life she saves after a car crash. Central to the story are four gods that the peasants believe rule their lives. The gods of Love, Erzulie (Yulo), Earth, Asaka (Escalante), Water, Agwe (Williams) , and Death, Papa Ge (Pangan) cause the lives of the young lovers to intersect, and send Ti Moune on the fateful journey that tests the strength of her love. From In Rhythm and Rhyme.

ticket stub

The Show
I LOVED Once On This Island! I cannot believe that this is the first time I’ve seen it. It’s a good thing they brought back the show this year because we missed it when it was first shown summer (I think?) of last year.

As always, I didn’t think I’d like it very much (like Footloose). When I watch musicals, I make sure that I have a background on the music and storyline so that I know if I’ll like it. I’ve heard of this musical way before, but never bothered to look it up.

It was a fantastic surprise. The story (according to the program) is a twist of “The Little Mermaid”, with the bittersweet ending of girl not getting the guy (But the reincarnated characters get to be together! Haha) The songs and the music were like funky songs of the Caribbean, since it takes place in a, well, island. The highlights of watching the musical are of course, the talented actors in the production.

Once on this Island is a work of a fab ensemble cast. Special mention goes to Bituin Escalante (Asaka) who gave such an astounding performance as the Goddess of Love. I think she received the loudest cheers during curtain call. Menchu Lauchengco-Yulo (Erzulie) is, as usual, a great performer with so much energy. And also, Jett Pangan (Papa Ge)!!! I didn’t know he can carry such powerful notes. Michael Williams (Agwe) is another special mention. He didn’t give a very powerful performance like Bituin, it’s just that I’ve seen him in quite a number of musicals over the years and he’s consistent in his acting and singing every single time. Flawless, if I might add!

And of course, the “romantic leads”, Raki Vega (from ABS-CBN’s Born Diva) as Ti Moune and Gian Magdangal as Daniel. Maybe it’s the actual story or the song that made me go awwwwwww whenever they’re both on stage. Raki Vega has a great voice, although at times I thought her voice was a bit too pop. But it worked well, she’s so adorable. And as for Gian Magdangal, what a great dancer. My sister’s and I have already seen him perform in Footloose last year and he’s really good. Not so much on the singing part, but he carried himself well so yeah, was a good choice for Daniel

Directed by Bart Guingona (Actors’ Actors Inc). Book by Lynn Ahrens and Music by Stephen Flaherty. The musical runs up to February 5 (3pm matinee and 8pm) at the Carlos P. Romulo Auditorium in RCBC Plaza. This is the fourth run of the musical.

August 8, 2007: I have to close the comments because this entry gets a lot of spam and I really don’t know why! My guestbook is open for general comments if you want to leave a message.

This entry was posted at KISLAPMATA on on Friday, February 3rd, 2006 at 11:26 pm and is filed under Reviews. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.