Growing up in Half Moon Bay, Arielle Jacobs wanted to be a pop singer – the next Mariah or Whitney. She’s not there yet, but she did manage to snag a leading role in one of the hottest properties of the 21st century.

Keith Glover's "The Rose of Corazon: A Texas Songplay," in its world-premiere run at Shepherdstown, W.Va.'s Contemporary American Theater Festival, marks a refreshing change of pace for a tired genre. Violating the inflexible tenets of theatrical postmodernist dogma, it's an intelligent little musical propelled by understandable, metrical lyrics that embroider attractive, listenable tunes. What a concept.

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