Once
Music/Lyrics by Glen Hansard & Markéta Irglová
Book by Enda Walsh
Directed by John Tiffany
at Oriental Theatre, 24 W. Randolph (map)
thru Oct 27 | tickets: $27-$95 | more info
Check for half-price tickets
Read review
A profoundly moving piece of theater

Broadway in Chicago presents
Once
Review by Catey Sullivan
Once breaks all the rules of commercially viable musicals. There are no tap spectaculars, eye-popping costumes or elaborate scene changes. The cast, which performs in more or less regular old street clothes, doubles as the show’s orchestra, a stripped down ensemble of strings and keyboards, with the musicians/actors carrying their instruments around with them. As for the story told through Enda Walsh’s book, it’s slight; a sweet, simple romance that’s as much a love story between people and music as it is between a man and a woman. Once is also a profoundly moving piece of theater, thanks to the cast’s transcendent performance of Glen Hansard and Markéta Irglová’s glorious score. This is truly music as the food of love, and when the curtain finally drops on Guy and Girl (the romantic leads don’t even have names), you will want them to play on and on and on.

Transpiring over five days, Once tracks Guy’s journey from a place of dark, rudderless, hopelessness to one of transforming joy and soul-affirming purpose, an evolution propelled solely through the power of Girl’s absolute insistence that Guy must share his music with the world. Wisely, Once doesn’t follow Guy’s pursuit of a recording contract or answer the question of whether he ultimately becomes a star. This isn’t a story of starmaking, but of healing and reconnection. What matters isn’t Guy’s success so much as his decision to open himself up to everything – good and awful – that life has to offer.
De Waal is understatedly magnificent as Girl, a luminous force for believing in your dreams and forging unwaveringly ahead to achieve them. When she and Ward combine voices for the delicate, soaring “Falling”, the impact is virtually breathtaking. The piece is a lattice-work of sorry and strength, an aching anthem to the power of love – even if it’s ultimately lost.
![]() ![]()
![]() ![]() |
Directed by John Tiffany, Once is filled with rich supporting performances. As Girl’s tough, sexy, violinist friend Reza, Claire Wellin (last seen in Lookingglass’s production of Eastland) is a fireball of blazing strings and equally powerful personality. She imbues the character with a profound kindness and a brazen sensuality, and when she lets loose on that violin, the sound sweeps you away like a whirlwind. There’s also amazing musicality from Raymond Bokhour, who opens the show with a sonorous lament that surges through the theater with the gentle but unstoppable power of an incoming tide. As the owner of the pub where Guy and Girl meet and practice, Evan Harrington provides poignant comic relief, while Tina Stafford is as expressive with her accordion as she is with her resonant vocals.
The entire production plays out on set designer Bob Crowley’s warm, wood-filled Irish pub, a place that’s at once endearingly homely and cozily homey. Scene changes are indicated by movement director Steven Hoggett’s mesmerizing interludes of dreamlike choreography.
Once is one of those rare shows that deserves to be listened to not just once, but over and over and over again.
Side note: Make sure to arrive early. Before the show starts, the entire cast performs a mini-concert. You’ll be coveting the cast recording before the first scene even begins.
Rating: ★★★★
Once continues through October 27th at the Oriental Theatre, 24 W. Randolph (map), with performances Tuesdays at 7:30pm, Wednesdays 2 and 7:30pm, Thursdays/Fridays 7:30pm, Saturdays 2 and 8pm, Sundays 2pm. Tickets are $27-$95, and are available by phone (800-775-2000) or online through Ticketmaster.com (check for half-price tickets at Goldstar.com). More information at OnceMusical.com.

Photos by Joan Marcus
artists
cast
Stuart Ward (Guy), Dani de Waal (Girl), Raymond Bokhour (Da), Matt DeAngelis (Švec), John Steven Gardner (Eamon), Donna Garner (Baruška), Evan Harrington (Billy), Ryan Link (Emcee), Benjamin Magnuson (Bank Manager), Alex Nee (Andrej), Erica Swindell (Ex-Girlfriend), Kolette Tetlow (Ivanka), Claire Wellin (Réza), Estelle Bajou, Stephen McIntyre, Zander Meisner, Tina Stafford, Tiffany Topol, Matt Wolpe (ensemble)
behind the scenes
John Tiffany (director), Bob Crowley (set design, costume design), Natasha Katz (lighting design), Clive Goodwin (sound design), Martin Lowe (musical supervision, orchestrations), Steven Hoggett (movement), Stephen Gabis (dialect coach), Liz Caplan Vocal Studios (vocal supervisor), Jim Carnahan (casting), Aurora Productions (production management), Bess Marie Glorioso (production stage manager), Ana M. Garcia (stage manager), Katherine Shea (asst. stage manager), Lisa M. Poyer (company manager), Barbara Broccoli, John N. Hart Jr., Patrick Milling Smith, Frederick Zollo, Brian Carmody, Michael G. Wilson, Orin Wolf (producers), Robert Cole (executive producer), Joan Marcus (photos)
13-1020