It’s understandable why many local theaters over past decade have taken spirited tries at recreating the 2007 independent surprise hit film “Once.”
On Broadway, the musical adaptation ran for three years and won eight Tony Awards. What intimate stage could resist presenting this show’s zestful Gaelic musical flourishes, with guitars, violins, mandolins and handheld percussion lovingly propelling a minimalist love story which drifts in unexpected directions.
Chance Theater opened its version last weekend in a production that infectiously taps the luminous score, though at times, especially in a restrained, unsure first act, felt disconnected from the story’s rhythms
Emma Laird and Morgan Hollingsworth star in “Once” at Chance Theater in Anaheim. (Photo by Doug Catiller)
From left, Jennifer Richardson, Will Huse, Mike Bradecich, Austin Ledger and Joseph Dailey appear in a scene from “Once” at Chance Theater in Anaheim. (Photo by Doug Catiller)
“Once” plays on the Cripe Stage at Chance Theater’s Betty Aiken Theater Arts Center in Anaheim. (Photo by Doug Catiller)
From left, Mike Bradecich, Morgan Hollingsworth and Emma Laird appear in a scene from “Once” at Chance Theater in Anaheim. (Photo by Doug Catiller)
From left, Jennifer Richardson, Leota Rhodes and Emma Laird appear in a scene from “Once” at Chance Theater in Anaheim. (Photo by Doug Catiller)
Emma Laird and Morgan Hollingsworth star in “Once,” playing through March 1 at Chance Theater in Anaheim. (Photo by Doug Catiller)
Show Caption
1 of 6
Emma Laird and Morgan Hollingsworth star in “Once” at Chance Theater in Anaheim. (Photo by Doug Catiller)
“Once” relates the bittersweet tale of Guy, a Dublin street busker — complete with an open guitar case on the pavement beckoning for tips — who is at the end his tether, despondently trying to create a singing career off original modern folk songs that rhapsodize about a relationship that has now fallen away.
In the most fortuitous of meet-randoms, Girl, a Czech immigrant, pianist and mom, happens to stroll by as Guy is losing hope.
She responds to his heart-filled and heart-heavy music. She charmingly, yet bluntly, urges and goads him to re-engage with both his artistic soul as well as his lost love.
While they may lack first names, these certainly are busy people.
Over a five-day period, they experience a will-they, won’t-they attraction deeply felt by both. He will repair a Hoover vacuum cleaner while she acquires a piano. They will take the time to rhapsodize about the Irish countryside on a starlit night and pack in a 24-hour session in a recording studio where, both singing, they cut a CD collection of his music.
With all this happening there are also many — maybe too many? — interactions with an assortment of tangential characters including a feisty/cranky music shop owner with a bad back; Guy’s saddened-by-life Irish Da and Girl’s philosophizing Czech mom; a gay musical banker and three language-challenged Czech speakers doling out malaprops in English gleaned from watching an Irish soap opera.
The mixed blessing of book writer Enda Walsh’s script is while there is a lot going on in this show it somehow unspools in an unhurried fashion.
There is certainly writerly craft in stitching together these threads into its genial telling, but during this production, especially before intermission, the show had occasional pauses where time seemed to hang a wee heavier than likely intended.
Beloved songs from the movie are re-created, along with several numbers added to the stage version by songwriters Glen Hansard and Marketa Irglova.
The music includes moments of Irish folk-rock conveyed in rapturous arrangements. Two songs swell up especially well.
The Oscar-winning song “Falling Slowly” is happily reprised more than once, building to a glorious instrumental swell at the finale. And the number “Gold” from the film has been recast for stage as a haunting a cappella ensemble featuring the male singers.
Morgan Hollingsworth and Emma Laird co-star as Guy and Girl.
In this pair, canny Chance has found two veterans of the key roles and they each bring positives to their performances.
It felt Hollingsworth took a scene or two to get comfortable in the opening night performance, but he soon inhabited the role well. A bonus came in in the dramatic pain in Hollingsworth’s voice at the near howl that ends the painful “Leave.”
Laird’s direct intensity in most of her character’s spoken words land well even though an Eastern European accent can run the risk of coming out a bit goofy. Laird employs her accent precisely, realism with a dash of quirkiness. In addition to singing, Laird was effective in her piano accompaniment, her musicality especially on display in her second act ballad “The Hill.”
Another of this production’s highlights is its talented supporting cast of eight. All are regional actors, including a couple of Chance veterans. The roles require actors who can sing and play an instrument.
A superb result of this pub-band backing the two leads is that solos or duets grow in expressiveness as other instrumentalists gently join. Inspiring each other in the moment, their talents jointly creating depth and volume, a fellowship in music.
The pleasures from the musical ensemble start even before the show does. The evening’s tone is established through an agreeable 20-minute mini concert for audiences.
On opening night, traditional Irish chestnuts sung and played included the bouncy quick time “The Rattlin’ Bog” and the inevitable lament of “Molly Malone.”
For this one, the audience was encouraged to join in singing the song’s chorus of “cockles and mussels, alive, alive, oh,” which the singer assured everyone “do not worry if you miss it (the refrain), we’ll do it another 30 or 40 times.”
That song also showcased the instrumental versatility of the performers. For example, Jennifer Richardson alternately played a hand drum, a cello and a tambourine during the tune.
Other strong support work by this group is delivered by Lex Leigh as Da, Guy’s grief-numbed widower father; Richardson as Girl’s Czech mother; Will Huse as music shop owner Billy; Mike Bradecich as the harried bank manager; Leota Rhodes as a Czech libertine Reza; Jonah Meyer as aspiring restaurant manager Andrej; and Austin Ledger as the quixotic drummer Svec.
Not a brogue-master by any means, but this set of ears heard American speakers land both Irish and Czech intonations as polished and plausible. So kudos likely go to dialect coach Glenda Morgan Brown.
Some brief visual projections on a screen behind the set were an effective touch, helping more deeply explore the outsider’s experiences of Girl and her fellow immigrants.
These projections funded one emotional haymaker. Girl speaks to Guy in Czech. He asks in English what she has said. The audience sees her real words projected in translation while her verbal reply to him in English hides her true emotions.
A heart-tug moment.
“Once” has many of these.
As events unfold, at one point Da inquires of his son, “How’s your heart?”
Now, at Chance, the answer is “true, with feeling” in each note sung and played.
‘Once’
Ratings: 3 stars (out of a possible four)
When: Through March 1. Regular performances: 7:30 p.m, Thursdays; 8 p.m., Fridays; 8 3 and 8 p.m., Saturdays; 3 p.m., Sundays.
Where: Chance Theater, Cripe Stage, 5522 E. La Palma Ave., Anaheim
Tickets: $58
Information: 888-455-4212; chancetheater.com