By Eva Phillips
Overly melancholy Irish folk music really does something to me. Rousing, but also melancholy, Eastern European folk music REALLY does something to me. The two musical cosmoses intimately appeal to my fraught sensibilities and personality traits—Irish folk is flamboyantly impassioned, naggingly spiteful, and chaotically jaunty one moment and dirge-like the next. Eastern European folk is blindly exuberant, oddly self-conscious, and astutely (and often painfully) aware of its own history. Once, a folk musical, sorta-romance (depending on your perspective) that examines the whirlwind collision of an utterly dejected, but incredibly talented, Dubliner, and a brutally honest, awkward-yet-empathetic Czech woman, who articulate best through the impassioned folk music of their homes, is really the ideal musical situation for me.
Once, which enlivens the Benedum stage for The Pittsburgh CLO summer season, appropriately began as an elaboration of the music created and performed by Glen Hansard and Markéta Irglova as the folk duo Swell Season. In 2007, the pair built a story around their music, one that centered on a down-on-his-luck musician/vacuum repairman who fatefully becomes entangled with an unflappably pertinacious Czech woman (who happens to be a gifted musician as well, of course) who pushes the man to record his music to get his big break and, critically, rekindle with the estranged love of his life. After stunning critical and commercial success (and an Oscar for Best Original Song for the heartbreaking “Falling Slowly”), the film begging to be on-stage was adapted by Edna Walsh for its premiere at the New York Theatre Workshop in 2011 before launching an unstoppable Broadway run in 2012.
The cast of Once gracing the stage at the Benedum is every bit as boisterous and blithe as one could ever hope for. The supporting cast, who are crucial not only for their portrayals of the various characters in the lives of the man and the girl (who are never given names in either the film or musical), but for acting as musical connective tissue from scene to scene, are outstanding performers and a thrill to watch. Among the lively, talented ensemble, folk musician and performer Cassidy Stritz (as Réza and others) is captivating, effortlessly stitching together moments while delivering flawlessly stirring vocal and instrumental performances. Paul Whitty, who originated the character of Paul in the Broadway version of Once, reinvigorates what could easily become a caricatured character, adding perfectly-timed humor to the show, in addition to his instrumentalist acumen.
As the nameless leading pair, Stuart Ward and Esther Stilwell are absolutely divine. An accomplished stage actor and folk musician, Stuart Ward is perfectly blundering and achingly endearing as the man. Ward manages to make a modernized, heartbroken traveling bard trapped in an oppressively depressing life utterly charming and lovable. He not only performs his songs, he becomes each song, and his adeptness at transitioning from cheekily goofy (“Broken Hearted Hoover Fixer Sucker Guy”), to soulfully eviscerating (“When Your Mind’s Made Up;” “Leave”) without prodding at the artifice of the show is phenomenal to watch. Esther Stilwell’s performance is, start to finish, enthralling. It isn’t easy to make a character simultaneously un-ironically frank and blunt, and genuinely compassionate and vulnerable, but Stilwell does so with remarkable aplomb. She is hilarious and devastating, and if you’re not gloriously left in tatters after she performs “If You Want Me,” then I have nothing to say to you and your frigid, frigid heart.
With exceptional choreography by Camille Brown that keeps the pulse of Once vibrantly rhythmic and expertly complementary to James Cunningham’s musical direction, this production is a flawless bit of musical theatre that will rip your heart out (be careful to not stomp on it while dancing to the infectious music) in the most gorgeous way possible. Once runs through August 4th at the Benedum. For tickets and more information visit Pittsburgh CLO’s site.
Categories: Archived Reviews