Dessa Rose (2005)

Earnestness is by no means an undesirable quality in a show, yet Dessapractically drowns in its own good intentions. This you-go-girl tale for the Civil War era gives us not one but two trailblazing heroines: the titular runaway slave (LaChanze) and a liberal white woman (Rachel York), either one of whom could merit her own musicalization. A fine ensemble keeps the production humming (Norm Lewis is particularly poignant as a slave who works his way into his mistress' heart), but Lynn Ahrens and Stephen Flaherty's score lacks the soul-stirring lift of another period piece, their 1997 masterwork Ragtime.