Treasure Island
Jamaica — it's a play! Hooray, play!
;)
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Any opportunity to hear a Harold Arlen/E.Y. Harburg score is cause for celebration. And when we can encounter that score as part of a staged revival — pretty much the first in 50 years — well, even better.
The Prince's production of Jamaica has this going for it and a little bit more, including a charismatic young leading lady, Barrett Doss, who, if not yet Lena Horne (the show's original star), looks like a future diva. Energy and goodwill abound in the ensemble.There's also been a sincere effort to rehabilitate Jamaica's mess of a book. Here's the featherweight plot in a nutshell: Unambitious island boy, a fisherman, loves ambitious island girl, a cook with bigger dreams. Along comes a rapacious hotel developer from the United States, who briefly hoodwinks both girl and island government by promising he'll build a huge resort that will reel in tourist dollars. Ultimately, a hurricane brings everyone to their senses.
Not very promising, I'll grant you. Apparently the original production all but ditched the book, electing instead to let the flavorful songs — love ballads, clever native character pieces, and a few of Harburg's signature satirical political put-downs — speak for themselves.
I'm guessing things were better off that way. The efforts here to create some kind of continuity and depth merely underscore the show's problems. Worse, the score — that is, the major thing Jamaica had going for it, aside from Lena Horne — sounds diminished in this new setting. Some of the problem is the new, smaller orchestrations, with songs generally reduced to a couple of verse-and-chorus repeats. It also doesn't help that a few powerhouse Arlen/Harburg numbers from other shows have been interpolated. These songs — including "Down with Love" and "It's Only a Paper Moon" — are more famous than anything in Jamaica. But each time we hear one of them, the action seems to stop while somebody does a cabaret act.
Mind you, it's still an Arlen/Harburg score, meaning even with all the flaws, there's a lot to enjoy. Ditto the production, which looks under-rehearsed, but there's still fun to be had. And when Ms. Doss and Darlene Young, the best voices on the stage, raise the roof with "Ain't It the Truth," you'll be happy you came.
Jamaica | Through June 22, Prince Music Theater, 1412 Chestnut St., 215-569-9700, princemusictheater.org
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