Lakewood Playhouse is currently staging the Caribbean-themed musical Once On This Island. The acting was solid but not overall stellar. The singing was good, with a few mulligans here and there. The set design was simple but effective. All that totaled up, and I loved it more than the sum of its components. It was a great show. I found myself swaying to the island beats and diving headlong into the story. By the time the lights flashed back on at the end of the show I was well into my island trance. If theater is an avenue for escape, I was well on my way to sitting on the beaches alongside the island workers.



My daughter felt the same way, we discussed it on the short drive home. We agreed that it wasn’t technically perfect, but the spirit of the actors and the overpowering vibe they had about putting on a show carried the day.



All the actors on the stage simply looked like they wouldn’t opt to be anywhere else. Even knowing how the show ends, I’d see it again tomorrow. And maybe one or two times after that. It was sort of like a tropical version of A Midsummer Night’s Dream meets South Pacific.



Written by Lynn Ahrens and Stephen Flaherty, who are the same folks who brought the world Seussical the Musical, this show is a simple tale of forbidden love on a tropical island. What turns the otherwise predictable storyline into something magical is the art of storytelling of this yarn that involves meddling voodoo gods, a rich plantation owner’s son, a farm worker’s adopted daughter and a sense of fate that brings them together.

The integrated musical is short of dialogue and long on some powerful beats and tricky island lyrical structures.



The cast includes Ashley Jackson, Adrian Robinson, Tena DuBerry, Jamelia Payne, Eddie James, Jeff Brown, Roxanne Jackson, Angelo Mills, Marisa Kellcy, Alex Domine, Jack House, Aya Hashiguchi, Kat Christensen, Celina Cordova, Jade Cooper and Ellyssa Payant.



As always, Brown owns his role. This time as Papa Ge, the voodoo god of death. Wow, this man knows how to bring it when a role needs to be brought. He serves up this role as the spooky deity of all things dark with power and style. Lakewood regulars might remember him in the role of Sam in the theater’s production of Holes last year, when he rocked that show as well. Other standouts include Payne as the goddess Asaka. She has a set of pipes that will take her places if she wants a career in music.



But pointing out these few stellar actors doesn’t distract from the depth of talent on the stage. There are no small actors on that stage. Christensen, Domine, DuBerry, House and the rest anchored this show. Even the simple but effective use of a garden watering pipe to denote the constant rain endured by the island residents was a small detail that was brilliantly executed. This show is perfect community theater, especially since the ethnic diversity found in the South Sound is so rarely mirrored on South Sound stages. I for one would like to see more shows like this. 



[Lakewood Playhouse, Once On This Island, through April 27, 8 p.m. Friday-Saturday, 2 p.m. Sunday, $13.50-$21.50, 5729 Lakewood Towne Center Blvd. S.W., Lakewood, 253.588.0042, www.lakewoodplayhouse.org]