The Middletown Press (Middletown, CT)
‘Once’ is coming to Waterbury — 3 times
Can a disenchanted vacuum-cleaner repair man ever find happiness if he is forced by life and circumstances to abandon his God-given talents with his guitar and lock it in its case forever?
The answer is a resounding and resonating NO!
Take a Dublin street musician, known only as Guy, and plunk him smack in the middle of an Irish tavern, have him play his impassioned heart out, let him teeter on the edge of despair and you have the glorious and haunting tale of “Once.”
That is the story line of this Academy Award-winning film and the Grammy Award-winning Best Musical Theater Album and multiple Tony awards,a including Best Musical.
Based on a book by Enda Walsh and music and lyrics by Glen Hansard and Marketa Irglova, “Once” is billed as a daring, thrilling and unforgettable homage to love and to life, to desires and to dreams.
Guy is on the verge of letting his musical magic float away, like a balloon let loose of its moorings. He feels hope is lost and he needs to acknowledge that he will never succeed. That is the exact moment when a girl, an immigrant from Czechoslovia, strolls into the bar and is transfixed by his singing and guitar playing.
Will they make beautiful music together? The Palace Theater in Waterbury’s anxious for you to find out, on Friday, April 7 at 8 p.m. and Saturday, April 8 at 2 p.m. and 8 p.m.
This lovely lass from an exotic land just happens to have a broken vacuum cleaner, and she can play the piano. They barter their skills, and along the way, each ignite sparks of innovation and creativity. Miracles soon become possible. He is still caught up with an old girlfriend and, even though she has moved on to New York, his new muse offers to help him win her back.
The girl, with her daughter Ivanka, establishes a firm place in Guy’s life, writing new songs with him and arranging a meeting with a bank manager to secure loans so he can move to the Big Apple and revive his old love.
Lyrical ballads like “Gold,” “Falling Slowly,” “The Hill” and “It Can’t Be About That” propel the story and build to the point where the guy regains faith in his own abilities. Clearly, the two have given each other gifts, in words and music, that will sustain them as their paths intersect, collide, and, ultimately, separate.
Belly up to a bar in Dublin, where the action is all music and all the performers, the musicians, are on stage the whole time. Take a journey of discovery with one girl and one guy. The message is clear: “To live, you have to love” and taking risk can produce the most amazing results.