Once on This Island is a one-act musical with a book and lyrics by Lynn Ahrens

Lynn Ahrens

Lynn Ahrens is an American writer and lyricist for the musical theatre, television and film. She has collaborated with Stephen Flaherty for many years...

 and music by Stephen Flaherty

Stephen Flaherty

Stephen Flaherty is an American composer of musical theatre. He works most often in collaboration with the lyricist/bookwriter Lynn Ahrens...

. Based on the novel My Love, My Love by Rosa Guy

Rosa Guy

Rosa Cuthbert Guy is an American writer.-Biography:Rosa Guy was raised in Harlem from the age of seven and now lives in New York. She immigrated to Harlem, New York in 1932. Soon after her parents, Henry and Audrey Cuthbert, died, she and her sister went to many foster homes...

, set in the French Antilles

Antilles

The Antilles islands form the greater part of the West Indies in the Caribbean Sea. The Antilles are divided into two major groups: the "Greater Antilles" to the north and west, including the larger islands of Cuba, Jamaica, Hispaniola , and Puerto Rico; and the smaller "Lesser Antilles" on the...

 in the Caribbean Sea

Caribbean Sea

The Caribbean Sea is a sea of the Atlantic Ocean located in the tropics of the Western hemisphere. It is bounded by Mexico and Central America to the west and southwest, to the north by the Greater Antilles, and to the east by the Lesser Antilles....

. The show also includes elements of the Romeo and Juliet

Romeo and Juliet

Romeo and Juliet is a tragedy written early in the career of playwright William Shakespeare about two young star-crossed lovers whose deaths ultimately unite their feuding families. It was among Shakespeare's most popular archetypal stories of young, teenage lovers.Romeo and Juliet belongs to a...

story; as well as the fairytale of "The Little Mermaid

The Little Mermaid

"The Little Mermaid" is a popular fairy tale by the Danish poet and author Hans Christian Andersen about a young mermaid willing to give up her life in the sea and her identity as a mermaid to gain a human soul and the love of a human prince...

" .

Once on This Island is traditionally cast strictly along racial lines, with darker-skinned actors portraying the peasants, and lighter-skinned actors portraying the upper-class landowners.