REVIEW SpeakEasy Stage’s ‘Once’ a celebration even within its quiet moments
Dancing fiddlers and a rollicking music celebration is only the beginning. Directed by Paul Melone and adapted from the 2007 romantic musical film of the same name, The SpeakEasy Stage Company presents the Tony Award-winning musical, Once extended through Sunday, April 7 at the Calderwood Pavilion in Boston, Massachusetts. Click here for more information and for tickets.
Welcoming early arrivals to the show is a lively, comical, pre-show band that is also part of the talented Once cast. Each cast member is also a musician and they all get their moment to shine. With naturally flowing choreography by Ilyse Robbins, stomping guitarists and dueling fiddlers joyfully romp in a freestyle dance with the drummer. The band has such personality and the performance is a wonderful preface to a quietly beautiful love story about a pair of lonely musicians who long for their place in the world.
Eric Levenson’s absorbing set design enhances the production’s soulful atmosphere, featuring instruments hanging around a brick arch while musicians pop up sporadically during the production. Though Once is set in Dublin, takes a lot at Czech and Irish traditions. Guy is a lonely, sensitive street performer from Northside Dublin. Portrayed with tight lipped earnestness by Nile Scott Hawver, Guy expresses his raw emotion through his songwriting, immediately leaving an impact with his first number, Leave.
Guy meets Girl, a talkative Czech pianist portrayed with quirky charm by Mackenzie Lesser-Roy. Their immediate, humorous chemistry and her heartening, compassionate demeanor toward him is a particular highlight only topped by their remarkable duets, heightened during the show’s signature song, Falling Slowly.
Hawver does an impressive job portraying Guy’s gradual vulnerability while showing off his comic chops, especially during the song Broken Hearted Hoover Fixer Sucker Guy, but it is Lesser-Roy who shines, her chiming voice delivering a stirring rendition of The Hill and If You Want Me. She carries a longing and loneliness she recognizes in Guy and her plucky, irrepressible optimism leaves a mark on everyone she meets.
Once also has its share of amusing moments. Billy Butler is hilarious as hot blooded, macho music shop owner, Billy. Jeff Song is a delight as Bank Manager in a wildly enthusiastic version of Abandoned in Bandon. Jacob Brandt and Kathy St. George are charming as perpetual dreamer Andrej and as candid, strong-willed Girl’s mother Baruska respectively.
The songs on Once’s acoustic, fiddle-laden soundtrack contain timeless, contemplative messages and the ensemble certainly contributes to its playful moments, but Once’s greatest strength is its subtle nuances and the impalpable stillness within this simple tale, most evident in the ensemble’s lovely, a capella version of Gold. Love can a simple, quiet declaration that lingers long after the show is over.
SpeakEasy Stage presents the Tony Award-winning musical, Once extended through Sunday, April 7 at the Calderwood Pavilion, 539 Tremont Street in Boston, Massachusetts. Click here for more information and for tickets. Click here for a closer look at the SpeakEasy Stage and its 2019 season.