So many stage musicals have been adapted from movies these days that it’s rare to find one that actually brings something new to the table. “Once” — adapted by edgy Irish playwright Enda Walsh from screenwriter/director John Carney’s 2007 film romance, and retaining most of the Glen Hansard/Marketa Irglova songs from the soundtrack — sets itself some audacious theatrical challenges. It turns some perceived limitations into advantages. It creates a tight onstage community to offset the central story of awkwardness and isolation. It develops a wondrous new form of musical theater naturalism. In fact, “Once — The Musical,” playing through Sunday, May 31 at the Bushnell, is so comfortable in its own skin that you forget it was a movie in the first place.
That’s because the show has found a simple, quintessentially musical-theater premise on which to build a charming night of love, laughter and gutsy Irish musicmaking. It demonstrates, through tenderly spoken scenes, emotionally wrought vocalizing and spirited playing, that there are two distinct types of relationships to desire: romantic ones and creative ones. It’s a miracle if a single couple can achieve both. Can this one?
“Once,” the movie, was not so much a musical as it was a movie about musical people. The songs emerged from watching the main characters — a downcast, disillusioned songwriter/vaccuum cleaner repairman and a spirited young Czechoslavakian woman — emote and musicalize together, sharing their struggles and dreams. The drama was enhanced by showing the wet cold streets of Dublin in the early morning.
“Once — The Musical” can’t evoke artistry and Irishness in the same ways the film did, and doesn’t try to. In the show, all the music, dancing and drama erupt from a bunch of attractive, energetic people hanging out in a bar. The Irish pub setting is so much a part of the show’s character that the audience is invited onstage into it before the show and during intermission, and the band performs a lengthy pre-show set of traditional Irish tunes as if it was a Saturday night houseband.
The actors double as the musical ensemble. The playing is zippy, a whirl of percussion, fiddling and keyboards with such adorable augmentations as accordion, mandolin, cello and ukulele. The dancing is loose and free-spirited, with unexpected sharp turns and leaps and kicks. The dialogue is fraught yet matter-of-fact; a grumbled “Yeah” can speak volumes.
“Once—The Musical” works hard to maintain its magical aura of normalcy and intimacy, both in its depiction of two good-natured people slowly falling for each other and in its musical acoustic-listening-room live soundtrack. It is beautifully calibrated to be low-key.
When the first national tour of this Off Broadway and Broadway hit, which won the Tony Award for Best Musical in 2012, played New Haven over a year ago, such a human-scaled, non-spectacular ambience was not a problem since the Shubert theater there is on the small size for “Best of Broadway”-type presentations. So the big question, now that “Once — The Musical” has come to Connecticut once more, is how this up-close-and-personal love story feels in the Bushnell’s 2800-seat Mortensen Hall, which is nearly twice the size of the Shubert.
Not to worry. You can sense every drop of sweat, every furrowed brow, every winsome smile. The musical, based on the 2007 film, was gently nurtured in the regional theater system (with a workshop at the ART in Cambridge, Mass.) and Off Broadway before achieving success on Broadway and later on London’s West End. Throughout its development, it’s kept its cool.
The lead characters, Guy and Girl are played by Stuart Ward and Dani de Waal, who inhabited the same roles at the Shubert back in February 2014. With his dour, roguish disposition and her sunny smile and blonde hair, they have an easy chemistry and bond believably. Theirs is a beautifully slow-building dance of affection and inspiration, both in the halting dialogue and some harmonious sung duets.
Just a couple of members the show’s supporting cast has changed since it was last in Connecticut. Evan Harrington is a show-stealer as the garrulous music-shop owner Billy. But everyone in the ensemble get their moments of pathos, comic relief and rousing instrumental solos.
A fine and subtle meshing of song, story and suspense, “Once—The Musical” will be a sensation once the performance rights trickle down to college and community theaters.
“Once” will endure, in many forms, but this manifestation is particularly impressive and worth catching. It’s deceptively high-tech and professional.
“Once” is about dreams and journeys, but to its immense credit it doesn’t dream too big, and stays surefootedly on a clearly laid-out path of loving, learning and loud, emotionally wrenching pop singing.
“ONCE — THE MUSICAL” plays through Sunday, May 31, at The Bushnell, 166 Capitol Ave., Hartford. Running time is two hours and 15 minutes, including an intermission. Latecomers will not be seated until 23 minutes into the first act. Remaining performances are Wednesday, May 27 and Thursday, May 28 at 7:30 p.m., Friday, May 29 at 8 p.m., Saturda, May 30y at 2 & 8 p.m. and Sunday, May 31 at 1 & 6:30 p.m. For more information: 860-987-5900, bushnell.org.
