Set in a post-apocalyptic world where ash has obliterated the sun for centuries and where the new religious leaders have outlawed any form of mathematics and science, the new musical The Hidden Sky, now being presented by the Prospect Theater Company at the West End Theater, can often seem like a strange hybrid of Bertolt Brecht's The Life of Galileo and such classic musicals as Oklahoma! And though the piece -- from bookwriter Kate Chisholm and composer/lyricist Peter Foley (and based on a short story by Ursula K. Le Guin) -- consistently impresses in its ambition, it never proves to be truly satisfying.

The musical focuses on Ganil (a winning Victoria Huston-Elem), a young woman who is t[...]