Mulan and/or Once on this Island Junior

The ending is still maintained from the full version, and yes I completely agree it gets darker than you would expect from a junior show, but I found that it simply comes down to how you portray the finale. That moment of darkness can flow really well into the poignant and heartfelt ending the show has. Essentially, I look at the show as a fairytale. When you compare it against other fairytales (especially the Grimm stories), almost every single one has a truly dark, ominous moment before progressing into the ending and giving the morals, just like this show does. Ultimately, I think it comes down to how you handle the more intense moments of the show. If you don't feel comfortable with the material or you feel your kids are too young to be portraying it (I'm not sure what age range you're working with), then it's completely understandable that you would decide not to do the show. Personally, I'm a huge fan of it, but I'm the first to say that it's not the show for everyone. Once On This Island is one of the more difficult Jr shows given the amount of music and dance involved, and therefore it makes itself one of the few Jr shows that's more appealing to an older cast. For example, I worked with a cast of 13-18 year olds. Once On This Island has wonderful opportunities for boys and girls. It's a great ensemble cast show, lots of featured characters, and the chorus is really a driving force through the whole piece. There are also several male roles that can be cast with girls if it becomes necessary. In the past, I've worked on numerous Jr shows (Godspell Jr, Annie Jr, Guys and Dolls Jr, Beauty and the Beast, Seussical Jr, just to name a few) and I really have enjoyed them all. If you're still not sure about Mulan or Once On This Island and are looking for other options, they've recently released Finian's Rainbow Jr and My Son Pinocchio Jr, and they have quite a few other new releases scheduled for this year as well.