Theatre performs “Once on This Island”

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Olivia Hand, Reporter

This Spring Chelsea High School Theatre Department preformed the award winning broadway musical Once on This Island. A story is told of 4 gods who rule a tropical island and a peasant girl, Ti Moune, who falls in love with a wealthy man who seems as if he is from a different world.

The local performances were held on April 13th and 14th in the CHHS auditorium. While waiting eagerly for the show to start you could feel like arising anticipation in the air from the crowd in the seats and the actors in the backstage.

With beautiful music to sing most actors in the musical also participate in the Out of the Blue show choir, which is great for the upcoming experiences in musical theatre productions.

Jackie Dick, senior and Once on this Island’s very own Ti Moune claims, “Staring in this play was such a great experience for my senior year. I felt so excited to be apart of such a musical. I actually saw this musical performed live on broadway in New York over Spring Break”.

Inspiration from this musical came from how it was seen live. The production wanted to try their hardest to stick with how it was always meant to be performed. The actors of CHHS sought out personal inspiration in a couple different ways.

When asked about inspiration strategys, Patricia Noel claims, “Alex Newell was the first male to ever play Asaka and he is such a powerhouse vocalist so I just watched his broadway performances to prepare”. While James Berryhill, junior and Armand, claims “I have always loved music, so the musical was just another chance for me to be more involved. I had to practice singing for my audition”.

Fans of Romeo and Juliet would seem to like this musical for its similarity in the naive expectations of young love and fearful death.

The musical has elements of surprise and twisting turns that make the crowd question is love more valuable than death.  

Once on This Island was definitely a musical to remember, it will go down in Chelsea High School Theatre Department history.