SEEING ONCE ONCE IS NOT ENOUGH
Ironically, the real-life love affair between collaborators Glen Hansard, an Irish singer-songwriter, and Markéta Irglová, a Czech songwriter, fizzled after John Carney’s 2007 film became a success (well, it’s not called Once for nothing). But the Tony-triumphant 2011 stage musical, now offered in Rubicon Theatre‘s enchanting and bittersweet yet uplifting production, opens its heart to the point that you feel like you’re falling (slowly) in love with a best friend.
SHAWN WILLIAM SMITH (Guy) and MADDIE EATON (Girl)
Given Enda Walsh’s solid, funny, surprising book (one of my favorites in decades), this adaptation is an example of the latter improving on life. With an impeccable cast of a dozen multi-talented performers who act, sing and play multiple instruments (and some of whom are songwriters themselves), the fluid staging by director Michael Michetti and choreographer Kitty McNamee, seeing this Once just once may not be enough.
MAX BARTOS, JULIA HOFFMANN, ANDREW HUBER, CYNTHIA MARTY,
HARPER ROISINHAM, MADDIE EATON and SHAWN WILLIAM SMITH
Once depicts an unlikely partnership where music sets the measures. Here the generically named “Guy” (the vulnerably hot Shawn W. Smith), a self-denigrating dreamer who’s in lopsided and unrequited love with a colleen who escaped to New York, is about to give up on music as well as love; he’ll settle for repairing vacuum cleaners at the North Strand shop owned by his Da (Matt Foye). It’s time, the busking Guy sings, to “Leave.”
SHAWN WILLIAM SMITH (Guy) and MADDIE EATON (Girl)
Suddenly and sweetly, a kind of earthly Muse intervenes in the person of a young Czech woman named “Girl” (a beguiling, truly lovely Maddie Eaton). This Mendelssohn-loving pianist refuses to let him put his guitar, and his genius, away. Unstoppably honest (“I’m Czech; we’re honest”), Girl dares him to fulfill his destiny — a fate that may or may not bring them passion as well as fame. In any case, their first song, the enthralling “Falling Slowly,” is a promissory note that must be redeemed: If he repairs her vacuum cleaner, she’ll play for him (read: fix his life).
JULIA HOFFMAN (Reza) and ADAM HUEL POTTER (Billy)
SHAWN WILLIAM SMITH (Guy) and MADDIE EATON (Girl)
But it’s complicated: Guy already lost his heart to an expat lover, and Girl is married with her husband back in Czechoslovakia, and their child (Harper Roisin Ham) and Girl’s mother (Cynthia Marty as Baruška) living with Girl in Dublin. Still, the urge to make songs creates a beautiful bond. The collaborators get a loan from an anti-capitalist banker — who’s also a frustrated rocker (Brian Maillard) — so that Guy, now known as “The Hoover Man,” can record a demo album five days after meeting Girl, while discovering she is just as much a reason to compose as the one who got away.
HARPER ROISIN HAM (Ivonka) and MADDIE EATON (Girl)
ANDREW HUBER, MAX BARTOS, MADDIE EATON, JULIA HOFFMANN
Yet the inspiration they provide doesn’t necessarily equal or trigger love: “Falling Slowly” takes on a sad new meaning. Impressively, this story is honest enough not to succumb to an audience’s wishful thinking. You can’t write yourself into a relationship, no matter how persuasive the album you create. (That’s just what happened to Hansard and Irglová, although the duo remain besties and still perform together.)
JULIA HOFFMANN, LINDA BARD, LEOTA RHODES,
MADDIE EATON, and SHAWN WILLIAM SMITH
Michetti’s Story Theater-like direction has the actors inventing locations on set designer Matthew Herman‘s pub setting (this production does not have patrons drinking from the onstage bar at intermission). Nathan Scheuer‘s lighting acts like a fourteenth character to help highlight emotional moments, and Music Director Julia Hoffmann brings out the best from this best. While I can’t say this is the most electrifying revival of Once I’ve seen, it is nonetheless poignant and sensitive enough to make this a two-hanky affair.
MAX BARTOS, CYNTHIA MARTY, SHAWN WILLIAM SMITH, JULIA HOFFMANN
And thanks to Danny Fiandaca‘s sound (and to dialect coach Matthew Floyd Miller for keeping dialects not too thick), we can hear all the dialogue and lyrics, making the show even more intimate and emotional than usual.
SHAWN WILLIAM SMITH, HARPER ROISIN HAM, and MADDIE EATON
With equal intensity, Smith and Eaton generate erotic and artistic excitement. Buoyantly backed up by a crazy coterie of Irish eccentrics and Czech confidants, this is one of the most generous, loving, and earthy ensembles you’ll find on any stage. The 15 Grammy-winning songs by Hansard and Irglová that chronicle this cross-cultural courtship are soulful, wistful, and raucous. This is a guaranteed charmer.
SHAWN WILLIAM SMITH (Guy) and MADDIE EATON (Girl)
photos by Jenny Graham
LINDA BARD, MADDIE EATON, JULIA HOFFMANN, MAX BARTOS,
SHAWN WILLIAM SMITH, BRIAN MAILLARD, ANDREW HUBER, MATT FOYER,
LEOTA RHODES, SAM SAINT OURS, ADAM HUEL POTTER, CYNTHIA MARTY
Once
Rubicon Theatre Company
1006 E. Main Street in Ventura
Wed at 2 & 7; Thurs-Sat at 7; Sat and Sun at 2; Sun at 7 (Oct. 6)
ends on to October 6, 2024
for tickets, call 805.667.2900 or visit Rubicon
