Lea Salonga Will Depart Broadway’s Once On This Island | Playbill

Broadway News Lea Salonga Will Depart Broadway’s Once On This Island Darlesia Cearcy will succeed the Tony Award winner as Erzulie in the Tony-nominated revival.
Lea Salonga Joan Marcus

Miss Saigon Tony Award winner Lea Salonga, who returned to Broadway this season in the Tony Award-nominated revival of Once On This Island, will play her final performance in the acclaimed Broadway revival June 24.

Salonga created the role of Erzulie, goddess of love, in the Michael Arden-helmed revival of the Lynn Ahrens and Stephen Flaherty musical that opened December 3, 2017, at Circle in the Square.

Current cast member and understudy Darlesia Cearcy will succeed Salonga in the role. Her previous credits include Shuffle Along, The Book of Mormon, The Color Purple, Ragtime, and The Goodbye Girl.

Once On This Islandwas nominated for nine Tony Awards, including Best Revival, Best Direction, and Best Actress (Kilgore).

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Darlesia Cearcy

The company also includes 2018 Tony nominee and Theatre World Award recipient Hailey Kilgore as Ti Moune, Quentin Earl Darrington as Agwe, Tamyra Gray as Papa Ge, Alex Newell as Asaka, Tony nominee Phillip Boykin as Tonton Julian, Kenita R. Miller as Mama Euralie, and Isaac Powell as Daniel.

Once on This Island’s score has been rebuilt by creating a new sonic palette built on multi-layered vocal orchestrations, along with instruments made out of found objects, including trash bins, flexible piping, and more. Starobin and composer Flaherty have retained segments of the score’s traditional Broadway musical pit instrumentation.

Arden’s collaborators on the revival are Once on This Island’s original orchestrator, Tony Award winner Michael Starobin, and vocal arranger AnnMarie Milazzo, a musical force behind Spring Awakening and If/Then. Milazzo and Starobin were Tony-nominated for their work on the score.

Once on This Island unfolds as a group of storytellers—caught in the midst of an unrelenting storm—recount the tale of Ti Moune, a Caribbean island country girl in love with an aristocrat. The musical is based on the novella My Love, My Love by Rosa Guy.

 
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