the plot of the musical

There is a full score and book completed for THIS STRANGE PARADISE. The musical, when produced in its full version is sung in its entirety.  

THE SYNOPSIS

In the colorful yet shadowy environs of New Orleans’ French Quarter, a tragic young man, WINN, encounters a dynamic, vivacious streetwalker, BOURBON BETTY.  Soon thereafter, Betty is accosted and assaulted by the vicious pimp JACQUES and his right-hand woman, AUGUSTA. Winn intervenes, and with Betty, escapes into a nearby club, THE PARADISE. 

Jacques and his gang continue their pursuit of Betty and Winn into The Paradise, where the villains are confronted by Monsieur DUMAS, the enigmatic, wealthy, and influential owner of the club. Dumas’ Club is a sanctuary, and he demands that the pimp leave. When Jacques replies with threats, Dumas responds with force and is on the verge of wiping out Jacques and his henchmen when Dumas’ daughter EMILY appears. She is distraught at the horrific scene unfolding and pleads with her father to be merciful. Winn is immediately smitten with the beautiful, kind-hearted Emily. 

Against his better judgement, Dumas accedes to Emily’s pleas and releases Jacques and the others, with Jacques pledging to leave The Paradise alone. 

Love begins to blossom between Emily and Winn, and Betty is swept up by her admiration for Dumas and absorbed in the renewed opportunities her new home affords. Meanwhile, Jacques plots his revenge.

With the pretense of being a social justice activist and community organizer, Jacques, utilizing Augusta and the rest of his gang, assembles a violent mob that lays siege to The Paradise. Starting as a protest calling for the boycott of The Paradise, the demonstration devolves into mayhem as local politicians and riot police arrive.

Jacques is confident that his ability to blackmail and bribe have rendered him safe from local authorities and that he can act with impunity. That confidence is abruptly shattered when the police commander orders the riot police to disperse the mob and make arrests. After Jacques manages to escape, we learn in the aftermath that Dumas has exceptionally strong influence over New Orleans’ establishment.

Now that The Paradise is seemingly safe from Jacques, Winn and Emily declare their love for each other and secretly arrange to travel away together. However, Jacques’ efforts at revenge are still underway. We learn the cleaning lady at The Paradise, MABEL, has a history with Jacques and that she too had come to Dumas for protection from the pimp. But the sorrowful and bitter Mabel misses the glamour and wealth she enjoyed in the past, and Jacques exploits her longings to get her to betray Dumas. 

Mabel manipulates Emily into believing that Dumas is in immediate danger from Jacques, and that the younger Dumas is the only person who might be able to intervene to save her father. Mabel takes Emily to Jacques’ hideout to plead for a truce. Instead, Emily becomes the prisoner of the pimp and his gang. 

Jacques refuses to give Mabel the rewards he promised her for the betrayal until after she takes a message to Dumas. The message commands Dumas to come to Jacques alone if he wants Emily to remain alive. Mabel is terrified of what Dumas’ would do if he knew she participated in abducting his daughter, but believes no one at The Paradise knows of her involvement with Emily’s disappearance. While enroute back to The Paradise, Mabel is intercepted by Betty and Winn, who have been scouring the French Quarter for Emily. 

Though she hadn’t seen her face at the time, Betty recognizes Mabel from the red cloak she is wearing, and which concealed her face, as the person who led Emily away earlier. Ripping Jacques’ letter to Dumas from Mabel’s hand, Betty reads it and pieces together all that had transpired. 

A furious Betty takes Mabel away to extract all the information she needs and, now disguised in Mabel’s cloak, goes to Jacques’ hideout. The disguise works, and Betty gets into the room where Emily is confined. Betty then gives the cloak to Emily and sends her to escape in the disguise, as Betty remains, taking her place.

When Jacques sends one of his henchmen to retrieve Emily, it is Betty who appears in her stead, holding Augusta at knifepoint. Betty confronts Jacques, and upon releasing Augusta, takes out a pistol and fires it at the pimp. Instinctively, Augusta throws herself in the path of the bullet intended for Jacques, as the others disarm Betty.

Augusta dies and an enraged Jacques stabs Betty in the stomach, leaving her for dead as Dumas and his cohorts force their way into Jacques’ hideout. Consumed with righteous fury, Dumas proclaims his intent to mercilessly wipe out Jacques and his entire gang. In reply, Jacques energetically obfuscates until he produces the gun Betty had used to try to kill him, which he had pocketed after stabbing her. As Jacques is about to pull the trigger, he is stabbed in the back by one of his own henchmen, who had surreptitiously been in love with Augusta, and for whose death he held the pimp responsible.

With Jacques dead and his gang awaiting Dumas’ judgement, Betty, who was thought dead, regains consciousness. Fatally wounded, she makes two requests of Dumas.

Betty asks Dumas to give his blessing to Winn and Emily’s desire to go away and be together. She also asks Dumas to be merciful with Jacques’ gang, whom in desperation were led astray, but might be redeemed under Dumas’ guidance. 

Dumas, filled with gratitude to Betty for saving Emily, agrees and proclaims his everlasting indebtedness to Betty. Before succumbing to her wound, Betty responds that it is she who is grateful to Dumas for giving her, for the only time in her life, a time and place of peace and security. A brief moment of paradise.