Search

Once - A Gentle Powerhouse of a Musical (You Just May Lose Your Heart)

It opened on Broadway in March of 2012 to stellar reviews and went on to scoop up the Best Musical Tony three months later, effectively defying odds that traditionally favor mega-musicals. Now, nearly two years later, Once still catches theatregoers slightly off-guard with its earthy pub ambience that serves up spirited, foot-stomping music before the show officially begins. And the message rings out to everybody taking their seats in the Bernard B. Jacobs Theatre: For the next two hours and 15 minutes, the lot of you are Irish and proud of it!

Arthur Darvill and Joanna Christie in Once
Arthur Darvill and Joanna Christie. Photo: Joan Marcus

Except if you’re Czech and living in Ireland—then you’re the leading lady (Girl) and her small circle of friends and family members. The leading man (Guy) is Irish, and—when he’s not playing a beat-up acoustic guitar and singing his beautifully evocative compositions in the streets of Dublin—repairs vacuum cleaners in his father’s shop. (Fortunately, the Girl has the perfect two-pronged opening gambit: an appreciation of the Guy’s music and a broken Hoover.)

If you’re familiar with the film on which the musical is based—which picked up the 2007 Oscar for Best Original Song, “Falling Slowly”—you have some idea going in of what to expect: a unique and fleeting love story built around a young pianist’s impetuous mission to help a struggling busker capitalize on his talents—within a week. As the Girl puts it: “These songs ... need to be sung for you, for me, for anyone who has lost a love.”

Arthur Darvill and Joanna Christie in Once
Photo: Joan Marcus

A lot of the show’s quirky charm comes from the artlessness of the Girl, played with determined pragmatism by Joanna Christie. And her Czech accent, tinged ever so slightly with Irish brogue, is the perfect counterpart for the Guy (Arthur Darvill), especially when she unleashes her bossy-pants self, which is often.

Please note: As of December 17, 2013, the role of Guy will be played by Paul Nolan. Click here to read more. Darvill's last performance is December 15.

“So we are going to make a ‘demonstration’ tape of these songs...with good musicians, and we send this tape around the world and a fat man with a fat cigar will pick you up for his record company and you will go to New York and you make something of yourself, okay?!” Like the Guy has a choice. Plus, she’s adorable and plays a mean Mendelssohn.

And then there’s the erratic chemistry between these two exceptional individuals that drives every aspect of this 13-person production, from its heartbreaking ballads to its smart comedic banter and zany character twists, penned by Irish playwright/screenwriter Enda Walsh, who took home a Tony for Best Book of a Musical.

The intimacy of the show—which includes the actors doubling as musicians (or vice versa; it’s a multi-talented troupe, to be sure)—sets Once apart from other Broadway shows. Scenes and props move in and out of a spacious Irish pub backdrop courtesy of the performers: a music shop, an upright piano, a banker’s desk, a CD player, a drum set, and so on. Movement is congenial and tongue-in-cheek, as are the supertitles that appear above the bar at appropriate moments.

The cast of Once
Photo: Joan Marcus

“I dig the theatricality of people beginning to sing; and music happening on stage, it’s such a sweet thing,” Walsh said in a Wall Street Journal online interview last year. He also knew immediately that he would need to think outside the box to translate the film to the stage.

His focus on a “communal sense” of involvement is evident in the variety of instruments—guitars, fiddles, mandolins, cello, accordion, ukulele, piano, etc.—as well as the easy back-and-forth interaction between company members and the audience, who are invited to sing along during the lively pre-show jam session and belly up to the onstage cash bar during intermission.

To fully understand the specialness of Once, you really need to see it. You can log onto the website to read the reviews, and watch a performance snippet. You can even get the original cast album and lose yourself to the chords and emotions of songs like “Gold,” “If You Want Me,” and “Falling Slowly.” You can even rent the film. But having seen the show twice, I can assure you, nothing compares to being a part of the audience.

When and if you do surrender to the full experience, be sure to look around at your fellow theatregoers, because they will be mesmerized—or, as the Irish would say, gobsmacked—until the curtain call and the joyous, effusive standing ovation. Sweet.


Once is playing at Broadway’s Bernard B. Jacobs Theatre, 242 W. 45th St. For tickets, call 212-239-6200 or click here. [Tip: Best chance for tickets are Tues. & Wed. evenings.]

About the Author

City Guide Theatre Editor Griffin Miller moved to New York to pursue an acting/writing career in the 1980s after graduating magna cum laude from Case Western Reserve University in Cleveland, Ohio. Since then, she has written for The New York Times, For the Bride, Hotels, and a number of other publications, mostly in the areas of travel and performance arts. An active member of The New York Travel Writers Association, she is also a playwright and award-winning collage artist. In addition, she sits on the board of The Lewis Carroll Society of North America. Griffin is married to Richard Sandomir, a reporter for The New York Times.

Bringing a group to NYC? Free planning services

Let us know what you are looking for and we will try to connect you directly and get discounts.

Enter the code: 3972

More Articles