The Island Princess (Broadway musical)

The Island Princess is a musical with music and lyrics by Arnie Roth, Megan Cavallari, Amy Powers and Rob Hudnut, and a book by Erin Cazad. Based on the 2007 film of the same name, the musical tells the story of Ro, a girl who grew up on an island, only inhabited by animals before being found by other humans and taken to civilization.

The show premiered on Broadway in January 2023 and was nominated for the Tony Award for Best Musical, among other award nominations.

Act One
After a storm, a 6-year-old girl is shipwrecked onto an island. Her only possessions left are a trunk with clothes and accessories, a flag with a white rose on it, and a broken nameplate only saying "Ro." She is found washed up on shore by a wise red panda named Sagi and a pompous but good-hearted peacock named Azul. The girl is raised by these two animals and called "Ro" since the broken nameplate is the only indication of her name. Ro learns how to talk to animals as she grows up, but she lost her memory since being shipwrecked.

The film skips to ten years later, when Tika, a baby elephant, has joined Ro's animal family. Ro goes exploring with her animal friends daily ("Here On My Island"), and at night she sings a lullaby to Tika, one she has always known but can't remember where she learned it ("Right Here In My Arms"). Their world changes when an adventurous prince named Antonio and his friend Frazer discover the island. Sagi, Azul and Tika are afraid of the newcomers, but Ro is curious as she has never seen another human before ("A Brand New Shore"). Antonio and Frazer slip while exploring and fall into a dark pond inhabited by three crocodiles. The crocodiles approach the men with the intent to eat them, but Ro appears, telling the crocodiles to leave the men alone, and they oblige.

Ro introduces herself to Antonio and tells him she doesn't remember anything about her life before the island. Antonio believes she may have been shipwrecked ("Only One Clue"). Ro then introduces her animal friends, and Antonio and Frazer finally tell her their names. Antonio asks Ro to come back to his kingdom, Apollonia. Ro is unsure, but decides to go, if per chance she could find her family. Ro and the animals leave on Antonio's ship, and during the voyage, Antonio and Ro develop a serious attraction ("I Need To Know").

Ro meets Antonio's family when they arrive in Apollonia: his parents, King Peter and Queen Danielle and his younger sisters, Rita, Gina, and Sofia. The sisters love Ro, Tika, Azul, and Sagi, but the King and Queen instantly disapprove ("Apollonia's Wonder"). They think that Ro is too uncivilised, but Ro does make quick friends with the queen's pet monkey, Tallulah.

King Peter and Queen Danielle want Antonio to marry someone with royalty and help rule the kingdom. A queen from a neighbouring kingdom, Queen Ariana, wants her daughter Princess Luciana to marry Antonio, even though Luciana doesn't love him ("Marriage of (In)Convenience"), and later becomes friends with Ro. However, Ariana is determined to keep Ro and Antonio, whose feelings for each other are growing, away from each other; in fact, she wants to kill Antonio's family and take over Apollonia. Her plan is revenge for her parents who were banished from the kingdom and made into pig farmers for attempting to murder the King and Queen years before ("Love Is For Peasants").

Ro tried to impress to impress the king and queen, but Ariana ruins everything. Ro feels that she no more belongs in Apollonia and that she should return to her island, but her love for Antonio and the mystery about her background and unknown family convinced her to stay ("Right Here In My Arms (Greenhouse Reprise)"). However, Antonio and Luciana are to have an engagement party. Even so, Tallulah, Tika, Sagi, and Azul make Ro a beautiful gown to wear, making her the belle of the ball ("At the Ball"). At the ball, Ro and Antonio dance together and he declares his love for her, but Ro leaves after reminding him about his pledged marriage to Luciana ("I Need To Know (Reprise)/Only One Clue (Reprise 1)").

Antonio writes a note to Ro that he wants to sail away with her, but Tika wants Ro to herself and hides the notes ("My Dear Ro"). Meanwhile, Ariana makes her three rats poison the animals in the kingdom with "sunset herb", a sleeping herb, so she can blame it all on Ro ("The Rat Song"). Ro is blamed and she and her animal friends are imprisoned. Azul accidentally eats some of the sunset herb while in prison and falls asleep. Furious, Antonio asks for Ro to be freed, but he'll only free Ro on one condition- if Antonio marries Luciana, to which he reluctantly agreed ("Act 1 Finale").

Act Two
Ro is freed, but gets banished from Apollonia as well. During the journey, Tika tells Ro about Antonio's romantic note which she hid, but Ro forgives her ("Always More"). However, the group are in trouble because Ariana paid one of the crew members to sabotage their boat. Ro nearly drowns and while Sagi calls her, she recalls a man calling her "Rosella" in a similar situation when she was little ("Only One Clue (Reprise 2)"). Tika nearly drowns too, but Ro calls for dolphins to help everyone. Back in Apollonia, the wedding has begun. Ariana puts more sunset herb in the wedding cake ("Marriage of (In)Convenience (Reprise)") with Tiny, the bird who she recovered after she hit a part of the ship she was in, witnessing it. On touchdown, Ro returns to the royal greenhouse so she can make the tonic. Sagi takes some of the tonic to Tallulah, who was poisoned, when the group are caught by guards and Tika interrupts the wedding. One of the guards starts taking Ro to the dungeons again, but Prince Antonio stops him.

Antonio is happy to see Ro again, but King Peter demands she be imprisoned again, only to be nullified by his son who reminded him of their agreed deal. Ro tries to explain, but Tallulah is the real evidence that her tonic will work, as she is awake again. Ro tells everyone about Ariana's plans, but Ariana denies the claims, until Ro tells her to eat some cake; she can't because she put sunset herb in it and Luciana confirms this by Ariana warning her earlier not to eat any food and that she poisoned it, causing Ariana's rats to faint. Ariana runs away, pushing both Antonio and Rosella, but is stopped by Ro and Tika; she falls into a pig pen, reflecting how her parents were made into pig farmers. Then she is banished, but Luciana is free to stay.

King Peter apologizes to Ro and Antonio and gives them his blessing to get married. Ro tells everyone her real name is Rosella and Queen Marissa from Paladia approaches her, telling her she had a daughter named Rosella. They sing together a lullaby from when Rosella was a little girl and they realize that Queen Marissa is Rosella's mother, and that Ro is a princess ("Right Here In My Arms (Reunion)". And now, Princess Rosella and Prince Antonio are married and Princess Luciana comes to their wedding, where she meets a Prince. When the newly-wed royal couple go for their honeymoon on Ro's Island, they take Sagi, Azul, Tika, and Tallulah with them ("When We Have Love/Finale").

Broadway
Ro - Dove Cameron

Prince Antonio - Derek Klena

Sagi -

Azul -

Tika - Alli Mauzey

Frazer - John Bolton

Queen Ariana - Jane Horracks

Princess Luciana - Kaley Ann Voorhees

Productions

 * 2022 5th Avenue Theater (Seattle Tryout)
 * 2023 Broadway Production (the original Broadway cast was filmed for PBS)
 * 2024 United States National Tour
 * 2025 West End Production
 * 2025 Madrid
 * 2025 Tokyo
 * 2025 Film Adaptation with Original Broadway Cast (except the roles of Sagi and Azul were taken over by Billy Connelly and Bill Hader)
 * 2025 Hong Kong
 * 2025 Paris
 * 2026 Stuttgart
 * 2026 UK Tour
 * 2027 Moscow
 * 2027 Utrecht
 * 2027 Copenhagen
 * 2028 São Paulo