‘Once’ A Ballad That Took Its Time

Once, the Popular Musical, Opens at the Majestic in West Springfield

In the musical Once, new at the Majestic Theater,  the story brings a street performer (Guy, Nick Anastasia) in contact with a Czech immigrant (Girl, Kate Theis) in Dublin.  A transaction over fixing her Hoover vacuum becomes a partnership, and they have a few moments of shared brilliance writing an album and recording it.

To be sure, the audience at the opener tonight of the Majestic Theater’s production of Once the Musical loved the songs, especially that tender featured ballad “Falling Slowly.” This song is still heard on the radio today; it won the Academy Award in 2008 for Best Original Song. It both started and ended this show. The music of Once invites you to linger—but occasionally, I wished it would move faster.

It’s a unique staging…all of the musicians we’ve already met in the lobby, when they played songs in the cafe before the show, mingling with the audience.  Later, they’d all be on stage, watching the action, or picking up their instruments one by one they join the soloist for a full-fledged Irish jam.  The musicians were omnipresent, and one effect I enjoyed was when they’d play the music coming out of the dad’s headphones, and then he’d take them off, and they’d stop.

I wasn’t sure what to expect when the show opened with two quite long ballads. First, Da, the father and Hoover shopkeeper, sang a long song and then we go right to Guy’s long opener, the famous song.

Kate Theis (Girl) speaks like most Americans, but in this show, she has a pitch-perfect Czech accent and that perfect Eastern European timing down. She’s just finished a role in Beautiful, the Carole King Musical.  Kate’s singing is really impressive and rich. And she sings in her accent, too!

Once again, I enjoyed how the scenic director Juliana Von Haubrich created her Dublin set. She built a tall iron catwalk and put brick facades on columns that created the slice of exterior Dublin where the vacuum cleaner and the music store are located.  Upstairs in a tiny balcony was Boy’s bedroom.

The odd Czech housemates that we meet at Girl’s flat got some laughs one with a schtick about drumming for metal bands, and then the second brother goes full crazy eyeballs on the music producer and then he reveals he has drank an entire pot of coffee.

The star, Nick Anastasia, sure looks the part, and he, too, has a killer singing voice, which we hear often during the show. Kevin Tracy mixed a lot of guitar playing with his interesting role as Billy, the business owner who ‘doesn’t like capitalism’ and rails with fury against the bank Manager (Hillary Ekwall), who not only represents ‘the man’ but is from Cork. My God, Cork!  Tracy’s disgust and his karate moves were commendable.

The story follows the musical pair as they flirt and demurely say no, and eventually turn Guy’s music into a record. But the part about him calling up the old girlfriend (Eliza Weiner) and suddenly losing all of his fire for the Czech, and moving to New York? Hmm, well, that’s why it’s fiction.

Once, at the Majestic Theater, playing through October 19, 2025. Directed by James Warwick, music and lyrics by Glen Mansard and Marketa Irglova. Tickets