‘Once on This Island’ makes for terrific evening

It often takes a while to respond to even a good show, but Signature Productions/Super Summer Theatre's "Once on This Island" is the kind of musical you're likely to fall in love with within minutes.

Composers Lynn Ahrens and Stephen Flaherty ("Ragtime) begin their adaptation of Rosa Guy's "My Love, My Love" with a group of Caribbean peasants explaining to the audience in song why "We Dance."

The plot has an irresistible "Little Mermaid" hook: a black underclass girl (played by Casondra Davis-Brett) falls in love with a mixed-race aristocratic boy (Keith Dotson) and never the twain shall meet. But the script is really about the magic of folklore. You can see immediately that director Steve Huntsman understands that.

The "We Dance" number is typical of the production's spirit: exuberant, effortless (in appearance, anyway) affectionate, creatively staged. Huntsman's set and costumes are so rich in visual surprise -- Kabuki flavors, screens breathtakingly lit (by Jay LeDane), Julie Taymor-worthy puppets -- that we never forget this is a story about the wonder of stories.

Choreographer Shannon Winkel has fun with the calypso-inspired score. She inspires a unity of spirit in her dancers.

The 12-member cast is so in sync that my guess is you'll have trouble picking out favorites. Like so many Signature musicals, the show-stopping performers always seem to be topping one another.

Huntsman loses his sureness of touch on the rare occasions when the music segues into dialogue. (I have a hunch he'd gain a lot by spending more time with dramas.)

While Davis-Brett and Dotson are exemplary singers, they aren't able to create much dramatic tension as lovers, so the story's heart is sometimes lost. Dotson in particular comes across more as an actor than a character.

And it's unfortunate that this "live" show features "dead" music. The (by necessity) highly amped sound combined with the taped tracks at times undermine the improvisatory feel of the score.

But these flaws stand out only because the production's quality is so consistently high and unexpected. This is a terrific evening of theater; the kind you're likely to show-off to your out-of-town friends.

Anthony Del Valle can be reached at DelValle@aol.com. You can write him c/o Las Vegas Review-Journal, P.O. Box 70, Las Vegas, NV 89125.