Once on this island was an interesting musical. It had a short run time of an hour and a half with most of that time taken up by singing. In fact pretty much the entire musical either has singing exposition or dialogue while music was playing. The music is pretty good though a bit generic, it doesn't really venture away from how most musicals sounds and I think that is actually a strength. The musical did not try to be anything really special but it also never got to the point of being too samey.
The musical has a big ensemble cast which were mainly there for dancing and singing wth the main cast. The problem with that though is whenever they weren't doing anything they would stand unmoving with their faces betraying a sense of boredom. It also didn't help that the lights never changed the focus away from them so that if you let your eyes wander from the main cast you were instantly drawn out by these expressionless and bored faces. Half of them had their mouth agape. Beyond that though the choreography was nothing too complex but kept the viewer engaged and for the most part was preformed very well.
The strongest scene with the ensemble is "pray". It was the one scene where I really felt that the ensemble was required and added to the scene. I'd really say that the entire song was the best moment in the musical. The tension and excitement was there and vocals, especially johns, were excellent.
Let's now talk about the acting. The strongest performance is a toss up between Julia and Gianna. I was thinking Ryan was a good contender till the scene where he nearly gets stabbed, Julia really carried the scene there compared to Ryan's lackluster performance in that part. Anyways, I find that Gianna was perfect for her role as death, and it really stood out for me. The scene between death and teamoon was the strongest dramatic scene in my opinion. Julia did well with teamoon but it felt awkward for me because she just looked weirdly at the audience for 2 minutes in one part. The other gods did not entirely stand out for me. They all had their individual songs but honestly the only one I really remember is Gianna.
All the side characters were fine. John stood out the most because his strong vocal presence in the song pray and his demeanor. Rachel Wallace looked her part and did good. I liked that within her ensemble role she still danced with grace but That's probably more to her being an awkward dancer then intentional. Sam weed did a good job as usual. The ensemble cast as I said before did a poor job when not in use but they did a good job with the dancing and Singing.
My favorite part of the musical was the puppet scene because it was pretty fun and interesting. It was one of few parts that is adventurous and cool. While at times it got dumb it never was not fun. It slowed down the musical considerably from the pace it was going which I felt was fine considering the length of the scene was short and the entire musical is pretty fast.
The costume design was alright, I especially liked the detail of the goddesses. The tattoos were pretty awesome. The set design was engaging and while it didn't really look all that great I liked it's simplicity and colorfulness. The costumes worked with the plays overall tone and the creature costumes worked well in the circumstances.
In conclusion the musical "once on this island" worked extremely well. It hit all the notes it was supposed to and did not over stay it's welcome. It had enough in it to keep me engaged and was inventive with some of its scenes. All pieces of this musical fit together to create an fun and entertaining experience even if it is not all that original. I give this musical a 7/10.
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