BWW Reviews: ONCE Is a Musical Love Story at the Kauffman Center for the Performing Arts

Once, the humorous modern musical, opened on Tuesday June 16 at the Kauffman Center for the Performing Arts in Kansas City, Missouri. The love story only needs to be seen Once to appreciate the beauty and charm of the captivating tale. Once is based on the motion picture written and directed by John Carney, with book by Edna Walsh and music and lyrics by Glen Hansard and Marketa Irglova.

The film opened in 2007 and the musical appeared at the New York Theatre Workshop in 2011, and then transferred to Broadway in 2012. The musical includes the Academy Award-winning song "Falling Slowly." The staged musical received 11 2012 Tony Award nominations, winning eight including Best Musical and Best Actor. The same year it won the Drama Desk Award for Outstanding Musical and the next year won the Grammy Award for Best Musical Theater Album.

Using a restrained stage, the musical unfolds as the Guy meets the Girl in Dublin, Ireland. He has just given up on his music and on life in general. In steps the Girl, an immigrant from the Czech Republic, convinces him that his talent is too good to be discarded like an unwanted guitar. He tells her that he repairs vacuum cleaners and she tells him that she has one that like his singing "Does not suck." She gets him to repair the vacuum in exchange for a song. She persuades him to follow his musical dream and to visit a banker to get a loan for recording time to produce a cd, and then to go to New York to pursue his career and the girlfriend that left him in Dublin.

Dani de Waal is superb as the Girl. She delivers the humorous and sometimes sarcastic quips with ease and great comedic timing. Her vocals are magnificent as is that of her co-star Stuart Ward. Ward plays the Guy and from the first song "Leave," the audience knows they are in for a grand treat.

The small cast is filled with enormously talented performers but the two violinist Erica Swindell and Erica Spyres are extraordinary. The enthusiasm they put into their music is wonderful to watch and magnificent to listen to.

Once continues at the Kauffman Center for the Performing Arts through the box office at 816-994-7222 or visit the Theater League of Kansas City online. Photo courtesy of the Theater League.