Our journey with Once on This Island, began back on November 24, 1992, when the national tour of the musical came to perform at our school’s theater, the Wharton Center for the Performing Arts on the campus of Michigan State University. Jesse was scheduled to work as a student usher that night. He had never heard of Once on This Island, but what he saw blew him away. As soon as the performance was done he ran to the box office to buy two tickets for the next night so he could bring me. We had no idea how much that one night would change our lives.
The Wharton Center is Michigan’s largest performing arts venue. It didn’t quite look like this back in 1992 when we were going to school, but even then it brought in all the big name musicals. In fact, it was the first U.S. university theater to host Les Miserables in 1989. On October 19,1992 the Wharton Center hosted the third Presidential Debate between President George H. W. Bush, Governor Bill Clinton, and H. Ross Perot-Jesse worked that event as well.
A an extra here is a video clip of the original Broadway cast of Once on This Island performing at the Tony Awards in 1991.
Chapter 2 Lyric Challenge!
This one is from “Dust and Ashes” in Dave Malloy’s Natasha, Pierre and the Great Comet of 1812