Review: Once – Phoenix Theatre, London
Blood Brothers spent 21 of its 24-year West End run at the Phoenix Theatre and, during those two decades, sent countless audience members out into the night wiping the tears away. New Phoenix incumbent Once goes for a much more subtle tug of the heartstrings but is no less powerful or effective.
The film to stage musical route may be well-trodden but, despite music being at its very core, the low budget 2006 Irish film Once initially seems an unlikely stage musical transfer. Its gentle story and score perhaps in danger of being swamped if scaled up for live performance.
Where other film to stage musicals have gone for the full out onslaught, Once takes a gentler approach but beware its quiet appearance, here is a show that packs a mighty emotional punch.
On paper it looks like it shouldn’t work. A tale of a quietly brooding musician, busking on the streets of Dublin, who ends up mending the broken Hoover of a Czech fellow musician, seems to be a shaky foundation for any play. What Enda Walsh’s script does, married with original music from the film’s stars Glen Hansard and Marketa Irglova, is to build a multi-layered love story. Not only a tale of love between the Guy and the Girl (we never learn their names) but an ode to the love of music.
Hansard and Irglova’s music, a fusion of Irish folk and rock, also seems unlikely musical theatre fare but their infectious melodies and brutally honest lyrics about life, love, and loss draw you completely in and stay with you longer after the show ends. Love here isn’t some rose-tinted ideal, it’s cold, tough, and there’s no guarantee of a happy ending.
It may all sound like a dour and depressing evening but John Tiffany’s sublime production is strangely evocative and uplifting, thanks in no small part to the total conviction of the company of actor/musicians.
Onstage throughout, including a pre-show impromptu Céilidh, the company drift in and out of scenes populating the streets of Dublin, while providing the live musical accompaniment. Aided by Steven Hoggett’s subtle, dreamlike, choreography, it creates a sense of journey, a sea of humanity longing to find their path in life.
That longing and yearning from the ensemble is mirrored by the central couple. He longing for a reunion with his ex-girlfriend, she yearning for acceptance in a new country and an escape from a loveless relationship. Neither can express their feelings, though, instead relying on their music to speak from their heart. Declan Bennett and Zrinka Cviteŝić share real chemistry, despite their differences in style. Bennett gives his Guy a powerful intensity, Cviteŝić imbibes her Girl with an infectious enthusiasm. Both though temper their performances with a fragility making their faltering steps towards happiness painfully real. The duos rendition of Falling Slowly tugs at the heart while Bennett’s act one closer Gold, building in the entire ensemble, sticks long in the mind. When the song is reprised in a cappela form in the second act, it’s a powerful testimony to the power of song.
There’s no fancy scenery here, Bob Crowley’s mirror lined pub set provides the multiple locations with the barest of suggestion, no big Broadway showstopper and certainly no jazz hands, but there’s never any doubt this is a fully formed and compelling new musical.
Once offers it audience richness and texture not often seen in the West End; it is deceptively simple in structure and yet it wields immense power. Once you have been drawn into its world the sheer humanity of the piece grips your soul. Subtle and sensitive, Once certainly won’t be enough for this sublime show.
