Review: ONCE Was Enough at PPAC

ONCE, the award-winning stage musical based on the award-winning film of the same name, is an obvious addition to Broadway. Featuring songs written by Glen Hansard and Marketa Irglova, who also starred in the film, this production seems like it can't miss. Unfortunately, despite excellent music and vocal and musical performances from an obviously talented cast, this production's book, by Irish playwright Enda Walsh, seems to assume that the only people who would be interested in this show are those who have seen the movie. Therefore, there is next-to-no character development, and random scenes inserted that make no sense to anyone not intimately familiar with the source material. Since this is a show about music and musicians, one would think that story goes out the window then in favor of reworking this as almost a musical revue, rather than a traditional narrative. That would have worked, since the story is a sweetly simple one and doesn't require much, but the choice was made instead to shoehorn in extra scenes of dialogue, most of which take far longer and meander far more than necessary to advance the plot, and wind up creating something that is just dull and lazy.

Once is slightly unusual as a Broadway musical, because there is no dancing. There are occasional dance-like movements, but since the entire cast plays all the instruments, there need not be massive dance numbers. The stripped-down quality of the production serves the story very well since the main characters' primary focus is creating music. Leads Sam Cieri and Mackenzie Lesser-Roy as Girl and Guy, are fantastically talented musicians who play guitar and piano respectively, and sing beautifully, while still maintaining their accents. The rest of the cast remain on stage for almost the entire production, seated in chairs on either side. Occasionally, when the situation warrants it, they'll chime in with additional instruments. It's certainly an interesting setup, and there are a lot of fresh choices made with regard to staging that have the potential to make this a truly unique musical.

Act I includes the song everyone has been waiting for "Falling Slowly", which won the 2007 Academy Award for best song, and in the case of this performance, it's just as breathtaking and touching as in the film. Unfortunately, instead of saving it for the end, or writing new showstopping material, they've chosen to just reprise a less complex version of the same song again at the end. Similarly, Act I ends with the cast in the recording studio making the album that The Guy will then take to New York to try to market himself. Instead of taking the most obvious moment to feature a number of songs, the play chose instead to take an intermission, and begin Act II at the end of the recording session.

Act II is the meandering and tedious and is filled with long sections of dialogue and pregnant pauses that could have been cut down by half and been just as effective. Actually, the whole production could have easily shaved off 30 minutes of dialogue and then been performed without an intermission. Perhaps part of the problem is such a quiet and intimate show performed in such a massive and imposing space as PPAC. A smaller house could, potentially, make some of the tedium forgivable, but also the quiet of this show was frankly distracting as the audience could hear every cough and squirm of their fellow viewers as the actors just sat on stage ruminating.

Once is the perfect example of film to stage seeming like a no brainer, but then it rests on the laurels of a few fantastic songs without doing the work to create a compelling stage narrative. It's a genuine shame because this has piles of potential, but instead chose to ramp up the love story, which was hinted at, but not overt in the film and then shoehorn in a bunch of extra plot that wasn't needed at all, and actually did a disservice to any viewer who hasn't seen the film. Act II was full of moments which had no grounding, and settings which were never explained. When making the transition from film to stage, the work still has to be able to stand on its own, and that was the biggest failure of this work--it doesn't. Anyone who hasn't seen the film at all or within the last few years, will really have very little idea what's going on. Rather than focusing on the music, the writer chose to alienate the audience, which feels like a dirty trick . Many of the other songs chosen were somewhat forgettable, and instead of leaving singing them in my head, I'm instead just going to re-watch the movie.

Once runs December 2-4 at Providence Performing Arts Center 220 Weybosset St., Providence RI. Tickets can be purchased at ppacri.org, or by calling 401-421-2787

Photo: Sam Cieri as Guy and Mackenzie Lesser-Roy as Girl