This review was broadcast on A Celtic Sojourn on March 16, 2019, and is transcribed below.
Remember the movie The Commitments?
Once, once, once, upon a time, in an old and economically depressed but artistically alive city called Dublin, in an Old Ireland that has since all but disappeared, there was a gifted musician, named Glen. A British wizard called Alan Parker came to visit and decided to make a movie, and promised that Glen and his fellow struggling musicians would be famous if only they recited his lines with the accent of this old Dublin, but only on condition that they used the "f-word" 673 times in the 90 minute long film. And guess what, once, once, once upon a time, it worked.
Glen Hansard starred as Outspan Foster one of the group that took its title from Alan Parker’s 1991 rock n’ roll romp, The Commitments. Have you seen it? After gaining some fame from the movie, he settled back into a fairly high quality rock band called The Frames that made a living by constantly recording and touring at a mid level until… well…
Once, Once, Once upon a time Glen Hansard met a fairy princess called Markéta who was from the Czech republic but emigrated to Dublin in search of work. She became Hansard's muse and inspiration, and they made a movie together that was for all intents and purposes, a fairy story. Once, Once, Once upon a time.
The movie Once was warm and charming, and had some wonderful songs and scenes and moments that had you going awww abounded. It was a story that gave us hope that magic happens, and dreams can come true, and all the Irish can sing, and Dublin is full of happy drunks, and everyone writes songs, and all the Czechs are serious but lovable in that old world way, and that, darn it, there could be a happy ever after.
It is the stage adaptation of Once, that director Paul Melone has mounted at the Speakeasy Stage Co., and I went to see it last week. I love what Speakeasy does. It mixes the accessible with the highly challenging. Once falls into the highly accessible category for me. I loved the movie, and also saw the Broadway production in New York. I think Speakeasy’s take is just as good.
As with the movie, from the beginning, I suspended any expectation that the story would plumb any dark depths of the human heart, and that was a good decision. Like the more sanitized versions of Grimm’s Fairy Tales it deals with the pretty, and the linear. It is just lovely. It’s a fairy story after all, and yes— spoiler alert —it does have a happy ending. That’s all you need to know. Believe me, that’s all you need to know.
What a difficult casting job this must have been for Melone and Speakeasy, acting chops only the start of the challenge. Each of the characters on stage must also be musicians and singers, and this is pulled off well. The stand out for me was one of the leads, the Czech girl, known simply as in the play, Girl. Mackenzie Lesser-Roy is a Boston Conservatory graduate. She is outstanding in the role, and is also pitch-perfect in her singing, and plays terrific, though fairly straightforward accompaniment —as called for —on piano. All the support is there on stage too – multi-instrumentalists most of them, but two veteran actors, Billy Maleady as the despondent busker’s Dad, and Kathy St. George as the old word Czech mother, give the play some gravitas.
Go early before the official start. There is a bit of a daft “session” on stage (see picture) with all of the musicians playing Irish, American, Folk, Klezmer – that’s what it all sounded like to me as you enter the intimate theater at the Boston Center for the Arts; that you were entering a pub, or a party, and people were having a good time on stage. Look, its March. You want something Irish but don’t want the cacophony of the shamrock festooned pubs. Go see Once. And once, once, once, settle into the fairy story. Its just lovely, and plays through March 30th.
(Note: Since this review was published, Once has been extended thru April 7th.)
ONCE
Music and Lyrics by Glen Hansard and Markéta Irglová.
Directed by Paul Melone
Music direction by Steven Ladd Jones
Choreography by Ilyse Robbins
Presented by SpeakEasy Stage Co. at Roberts Studio Theatre, Calderwood Pavilion, Boston Center for the Arts, through April 7th, 2019.
Tickets: $25
617-933-8600
SpeakEasyStage.com
