EddieZee

Once: A New Musical Review

“Let’s make a whole f♫cking album!”

             As I entered Jacob’s Theater on Saturday night, I was immediately taken back. Rather than confronting a curtained stage, this one was full of people. Some were playing music and singing while others were enjoying a beer or a glass of wine. It was, as I imagined, what it would be like at a small pub in Dublin. The stage itself has even decorated to look like a pub interior, complete with a bar and walls lined with mirrors.  It gradually became clear that the men and woman playing instruments were cast members and those drinking were theater goers invited up on stage for a pre-show drink. I wish I had gotten there earlier to participate in this jolly activity. Gradually, the stage began to clear, the cast members making their way to the fringes of the stage. A man dressed in jeans, a white button down shirt with a black vest, simply credited as Guy, accompanied with a guitar that had seen better days, worked his way to just off center stage. As he sang a heartfelt song about lost love, the house lights dimmed; the show had begun.

            Towards the end of the opening number, a woman, credited as Girl, entered the stage opposite of him wearing a simple plaid dress and an overcoat.  She is immediately entranced by the beauty of his words and confronts him as he puts his guitar down. He explains to her, he had written the songs for his ex-girlfriend who has left him for a life in New York City. He ultimately discloses he is quitting music since it has given him nothing but sorrow and plans to just work in his father’s vacuum repair shop. Coincidently, the woman needs to have her Hoover fixed (which then appears on stage, brought to her by another cast member) but she has no money to pay. However, being the pushy and convincing Czech woman that she is, he takes her offer of payment through music.

            True to her word, she takes him to a small music shop whose owner, Billy, allows her play the piano. As it turns out, her father was a concert musician who taught her to play extremely well before his death. Impressed by her playing, he agrees to hold up his end of the bargain and they leave for his family’s shop. Yet before they are able to make it out the door, a song he has written falls from his pocket. The girl picks it up and convinces him to play it as duet before they leave. It turned out to be the song “Falling Slowly,” which won an academy award for the film on which this show is based. As the song ends, the two share a brief moment, but quickly recover and head to his father’s shop.

            After he fixes her Hoover, he convinces her to stay for a little and listen to some of the songs he has recorded. As they sit across three chairs placed in the lower left of the stage, she puts on a pair of retro headphones and takes in what he has written. Forever impressed, she asks him to burn her a CD of his music before leaving for the night. Yet, she cannot seem to leave until after the guy makes a humorously unsuccessful pass at her.

            The next day, the two meet so that the guy can hand off the album to her and she brings him back to her place to meet her roommate. While there, it turns out she has a daughter whose father has left them and relies on the help of her mother and roommates to raise the young girl. An interesting thing that happens in the scene is anytime the characters are supposedly speaking in Czech, Czech subtitles are projected onto the set behind them.

            Once she has listened to his album, she falls even more in love with his music and confronts him about cutting a demo. She argues that he must still love the woman for whom he wrote the songs and he must make a CD to bring to New York so he can get a big record deal and win her back. Eventually he caves and agrees to go into the studio with a rag-tag band consisting of her roommates, the shop owner Billy, and even the bank manager the guy sings for in order to get a loan.

            In the second act, which was much shorter than the first, they spend most of it working in the studio on the demo. Furthermore the second act (which only takes place over the course of 24 hours) explores the developing relationship between the protagonists. Unfortunately, they are only able to admit their love for each other after it is too late. When the guy finally mans up and confronts her about moving with her family to NYC with him, she entertains the notion for a moment before admitting that her husband is returning to try and work things out. When the album is completed, the man leaves to see his old girlfriend before the pair can even give it a shot at love.

            Overall, I was completely astounded with this play. I could not get over how much energy radiated from the stage. On top of that, the caliber of singing was out of this world. That coupled with how the actors really expressed the emotion each song required impressed me greatly. It would not have been enjoyable if the audience members could not hear the soulfulness of the music.

            What was also interesting is that all the music was played live on stage by either the protagonists or the supporting ensemble. The director could have easily used prerecorded tracks or a band, however they decided to have the cast play all the instruments themselves which added a powerful sense of reality to the performance overall.

What helped promote the shows simplicity was the simplicity of the set design. The set never changed from the simple Irish pub façade, except for once when the stage was lit with little tiny lights to represent the characters standing outside over looking Dublin at night. Furthermore, the actors looked as though they were wearing their street clothes, which put the show in modern year, however did not date it in any way. The only thing that may eventually date the show for future performances is that the family owns a vacuum shop.

When it comes to an analysis of the script I was impressed with how witty it was at times. The girl’s character often speaks in fast, humorous sentences that show excellent writing skills. However, if it had not been for the excellent delivery of these lines by the actor, the humor would have been lost in a sea of jumbled words. Also the characters accents in general were extremely impressive. I felt that Steve Kazee’s Irish accent was spot on and Cristin Milioti certainly sounded Eastern European. In fact, after leaving the theater I had to look up their nationalities out of curiosity.

The show actually had a strong message about how sometimes it only takes one chance encounter to change your life entirely. If the guy had not met the girl, he never would have had the courage to cut a demo and track down his ex. Additionally, the show also promotes the message that even if you love somebody, sometimes you have to let them go in order to pursue their own desires; to follow what they think is best for themselves, even if it means never seeing them again. In the end, the powerful soundtrack, the excellent portrayal of these pre-established characters, the show’s minimalism, and the overall message made for an excellent performance that is definitely on my list of shows to see again.