THEATRE REVIEW: Once The Musical, Phoenix Theatre, London

Once is not a musical in any conventional sense. What it is, is a supremely beautiful, original and enchanting piece of theatre, which demands to be seen.

by Greg Mitchell | 27th May 2013

★★★★★

Once at the Phoenix Theatre

The original Oscar winning movie, on which the stage show is based, is a naturalistic, almost documentary style, indie film. A low budget movie, it won the 2008 Oscar for Best Original Song (for the haunting Falling Slowly) and is a simple will they won’t they tale about two kindred spirits, a young Dublin busker and a Czech girl, who also plays the piano, their relationship played out against the background of the music they create.

Transferring such a naturalistic, low-key movie to the not so naturalistic medium of theatre, whilst staying true to the original must have posed an enormous problem, but director John Tiffany, movement director Steven Hoggett, and writer Enda Walsh have come up with something that, though quite stylised in places, brilliantly captures something of the essence of the original.

The clever single set pulls you into the atmosphere of a Dublin bar from the moment you enter the theatre. The on stage bar is actually open for business, and audience members are encouraged to go up on stage to buy a drink. Gradually the cast of actor-musicians enter the stage and start up an impromptu ceilidh. Eventually audience members are asked to take their seats, and, as the house lights go down, we slide imperceptibly into the show proper as Guy (a charming performance from Declan Bennett) starts singing.

Throughout the play, for in many ways this is a play with music, it is the music that provides the emotional high points. Integral to the story, it heightens and underlines key moments. A song will start with a single voice and guitar, and then gradually build as more and more layers of sound are added to it. This technique reaches its apogee in, “Gold”, when the layers keep building until the cast begin to move in unison and the whole stage is filled with music and movement. It is one of the high points of the show, but there are others, not least the beautiful, quiet, a capella reprise of “Gold” in the second act.

Direction and movement throughout are sublime, poetic. Indeed it would be hard to recognise where Tiffany’s direction ended and Hogget’s movement took over, so beautifully do they fuse together.

The talented cast of musicians are, without exception, quite excellent, and, in what is after all very much an ensemble piece, it would be insidious to single anyone out. However I cannot pass without mentioning Zrinka Cvitesic’s warmly humorous and endearing Girl, for really it is she who drives the narrative.

The show deservedly won eight 2012 Tony Awards. I recommend it unreservedly.

Once is playing at the Phoenix Theatre London