Ahrens and Flaherty's 1990 musical is adapted from a novel by Rosa Guy, and Guy's novel in turn is a retelling of a Hans Christian Andersen tale. Andersen's metamorphosis story of a poor girl who falls in love with a well-to-do boy is reset on an island in the French Antilles, one whose people are divided into poor black peasants and rich mulatto descendants of French colonists.

Nominally, the fairy tale is told by the peasants in order to calm a frightened young girl, but this framing device is given short shrift in this production. From the get-go, we're in a musical number. If the score were a little less earnest and a bit more challenging, that would be a good thing. But Flaherty plays it safe, with music that's Caribbean by way of Broadway. The most rousing number is "Mama Will Provide," a travelling song for Asaka (well performed by Cicily Daniels), but it's almost immediately followed by the lyrically insipid "The Human Heart."

Montego Glover as the heroine Ti Moune has a good, energetic dance break towards the end of the show's 90 minutes. And David Emerson Toney, as the avuncular Tonton Julian, has a lovable mug that's perfect for the role.

posted: 7:46:08 PM  

Okay, I'm not sure why this item caught my eye. It's a popular treatment of Williams v. Walker-Thomas, a 1965 case that considered where we draw the line at defining "unconscionable" contract terms. Walker-Thomas Furniture was a D.C. business that specialized in selling furniture to poor people under tricky installment plans. Maybe the reason I'm interested is that Walker-Thomas's old building is now in a run-down neighborhood across the street from the new convention center, and just down the block from the Rupert Building and today's Warehouse Theatre, where I have performed.

posted: 12:08:25 PM