AN INTIMATE TIME
Pittsburgh CLO tries a change of pace with quieter, gentler ‘ Once’
For every Tony- winning mega- musical such as “The Producers” and “Hamilton,” there have been the little successes that could — and did — reap Broadway’s top prize.
“The Band’s Visit” was the best musical winner this year, and in 2012, it was “Once.” With an Oscar- winning song, “Falling Slowly,” and a bittersweet love story, the show demands a cast of quadruple threats — the actors play their own instruments — for a show with a quieter, gentler tone than, say, “The Book of Mormon.”
Based on the movie about a Dublin singer- songwriter and a Czech musician who connect through his songs, “Once” tells the story of Guy and Girl, played by Glen Hansard and Marketa Irglova in the movie, and their ideal musical collaboration and relationship complications.
J. Michael Zygo, who directs Pittsburgh CLO’s first production of “Once,” was the dance captain, among other roles, during the show’s Tonywinning Broadway run.
“It’s almost like whispering,” Zygo says of the change- of- pace musical. “When someone is whispering, you have to lean in and pay a little more attention. So our very quiet show is like that, and then” — he raises his voice — “it kind of explodes in these moments of frenetic energy.”
Zygo is speaking on a lunch break after rehearsing two songs that make his point: the romantic ballad “Falling Slowly” and the high- energy “The North Strand.” The latter is a heavytraffic ensemble number with everyone on the move.
CLO’s cast includes original Broadway cast members Lucas Papaelias ( Svec), Erikka Walsh ( Ex- Girlfriend; seen recently in Pittsburgh Public Theater’s “Indecent”), Andy Taylor ( Bank Manager) and Paul Whitty ( Billy), while Scott Stangland ( Eamon) previously played his role on Broadway. Cassidy Stirtz ( Reza), Maggie Hollinbeck ( Baruska) and Craig McDonald ( Day) have touring and regional experience with the show.
Stuart Ward returns to the role of Guy that he played when the national tour came to Pittsburgh, and Girl is played by Esther Stilwell, a longtime Lady of the Lake in the national tour of
“Spamalot.” Locals in the cast are David Toole as the Emcee — he played Guy for Theatre Raleigh — and sixth grader Lauren Vail ( Ivanka) of Eden Christian Academy and CLO Academy.
“Logistically, it was pretty difficult,” Zygo said of pulling together the experienced actors, but it was “necessary” with only eight days to rehearse and become a unit.
“Having done the show in New York for 3 ½ years, I had a very clear picture of the way it existed there and the movement and staging. ... That was actually the most difficult part of staging it here,” he said of the Benedum Center’s relatively huge space.
“Once” progressed from a 200- seat off- Broadway space to Broadway’s 1,000- seat Jacobs Theatre. The Benedum seats 2,800.
“I don’t think the show suffers because of that,” the director said. “The intimacy of the show is really felt from the stage by the audience, and we try to draw them in as much as possible.”
“Once” marks Zygo’s second visit to Pittsburgh CLO. He was here in 2015 in a very different role as Robbie Hart in “The Wedding Singer.” He also has appeared in “School of Rock” on Broadway and toured in “Rock of Ages,” the previous CLO show at the Benedum.
“If you’ve just seen ‘ Rock of Ages,’ this is exactly the opposite,” Zygo says of “Once.” “I love ‘ Rock of Ages’ just as much, but this is very different. It’s a lot more soft- spoken; it’s a lot more subtle. … It’s such a joy to see the actors as musicians become part of the story, and the instruments become almost an extension of the characters. It’s really magical.”