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JACOBS-JENKINS When I wrote it, I was really interested in this writer named Dion Boucicault.

A satirical adaptation of Dion Boucicault’s “The Octoroon,” a 19th-century melodrama about the tragic love story between a European-educated white plantation owner and the play’s titular character, an enslaved woman, the play inspired critical raves and hot ticket sales.

One of the earliest headlines about him in The New York Times, in 1863, was the simple “Dion Boucicault in Trouble.”

For the most part, the show deftly balances dark and light even as it retains Boucicault’s social critique of the rich nonchalantly crushing the poor.

The 19th-century playwright Dion Boucicault cut an uncommonly colorful figure — prodigal, voracious, cavalier.