Showing posts with label Once. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Once. Show all posts

Saturday, December 11, 2021

City Theater Company Jumps Into New Season and a New Home — All at "ONCE"!

By Mike Logothetis
Mike Logothetis grew up in North Wilmington, performing in school and local theater productions. He lives in Newark, but you can find him wherever the arts are good.

City Theater Company launches season with ONCE. Photo by Joe del Tufo. 
To open its 2021-2022 season, City Theater Company (CTC) begins a new residency at The Delaware Contemporary (TDC) on the Wilmington Riverfront. CTC Artistic Director Kerry Kristine McElrone is “excited to bring the communal, immediate, accessible experience of art in live action to The Delaware Contemporary’s patrons, and to introduce City Theater Company’s audiences to all that they have to offer.”

McElrone added: “Our approach to theater and improv considers the art form of live performance to be a creative collaboration between players, directors, designers, writers, and the audience.”

It should be noted that CTC has been entertaining audiences virtually during the pandemic with online content but is eager to get back to live performances (and audiences) starting with the musical Once. The 2012 Tony Award
winner for Best Musical is based on the Irish musical film and features actors playing their own instruments onstage. The musical features 12 performers/musicians and a child actor.

The space inside TDC is intimate and three rows on each side flank a central performance area with a larger stage at one end and a small musicians’ area at the other. In this way, the audience is sometimes being directed to follow back-and-forth dialog like an attendee at a tennis match. (It’s not that extreme, but noticeable during certain dialogs.) But the space also allows musicians to sit in all corners of the room,
 providing a true unamplified “surround sound.” A large bank of TV screens looms over the stage end and provides clever multimedia effects for the show.

However, the acoustics are tricky and only the full ensemble numbers properly fill the room. While pleasant, the solos and intimate duets could stand to be a bit louder to properly resonate with the audience. Some of the dialog got swallowed up by the room on Opening Night, but the performers portrayed the emotions and plot devices well enough to move the narrative forward.

If you’re not familiar with the story, an Irish busker/”Hoover repairman” meets a plucky Czech woman in Dublin and their passion for music 
 and each other  takes them to wonderfully sonic places. You don’t need to understand much of the accented dialog to enjoy the incredible music Glen Hansard and Markéta Irglová composed for the original 2007 film written by John Carney — no, not our current Delaware Governor. ;)

And it’s the music that shines in this production. Righteous Jolly is listed as “Guy” in the program but is “The Man” whenever he’s featured. Jolly has the musical chops to deliver glorious melodies and guitar accompaniments plus the charisma to have the audience root for him. His wounded and vulnerable Guy has an inner drive to better himself by spending as much time as possible with new acquaintance “Girl.” Girl is portrayed in a lovingly restrained way by Julia Natoli, whose talented vocals and piano-playing act as the perfect complement to Jolly’s Guy. He’s sociable but shy, while she’s quiet but direct. Together, they are a power couple of sorts in their world. The two enjoy a whirlwind relationship that never quite gets to where both think it could. They drag their family and friends along for the ride while the audience gets to gleefully watch it all unfold.

Guy and Girl soar to new heights in duets like “When Your Mind’s Made Up” and “If You Want Me” which included an inventive dream-quality choreography. But the show highlight is the Oscar-winning song “Falling Slowly.” Simply put, this is one of the most hauntingly beautiful pieces of music to come out of Hollywood or Broadway (or Ireland/Czech Republic) in the past 25-40 years. Jolly and Natoli nail it. (Song co-writer Irglová once said: “This song was written from a perspective of hope, and hope at the end of the day connects us all, no matter how different we are.”)

But this is not a morbid or depressing show. At its heart, Once shows the joy of making music together here and now, regardless of its potentially fleeting nature. The cast includes fantastic local musicians who turn out to be pretty solid actors. Aidan McDonald (“Billy”) and Emma Romeo Moyer (“Bank Manager”) were lively whenever in the spotlight. Moyer’s off-key “Abandoned in Bandon” was a hoot! The ensemble numbers “Gold” and “Ej Pada Pada” were delightful. And not all of the Guy/Girl songs are about unrequited love as “Broken Hearted Hoover Fixer Sucker Guy” happily refutes.

Director/Music Director Joe Trainor put together wonderful musical arrangements for his cast. Some of the stage blocking was clunky, but as the company better grows into its new space I think cooperated movement will improve. Credit should be given to McElrone for taking on such an ambitious project to restart CTC live productions in a new performance space after the pandemic. While there are some minor issues to iron out, Once is a worthwhile return of CTC to a Wilmington community looking for earnest live theater.

Once will run for seven performances through next Saturday (December 10-18). Curtain is at 8:00pm, save for the lone Sunday matinee (2:00pm, December 12). The show lasts just under 2.5 hours, which includes one 15-minute intermission. City Theater Company’s new home is at The Delaware Contemporary located at 200 South Madison, Wilmington, DE 19801. Tickets ($30-40) can be purchased at the CTC box office or online. Special ticket pricing is available for military personnel, and students. Please call the box office at 302.220.8285 or visit city-theater.org for details.

City Theater plans, on average, two big shows each season 
 which runs from December to late spring. These shows typically run two or three weekends. Up next spring is Blues in My Soul by Delaware playwright David Robson.

Sunday, April 2, 2017

Once Takes Playhouse Theatergoers on Heartfelt Musical Journey



By Jenna Montgomery
Jenna is a property manager and ardent patron/volunteer in the local music, art & theater community.

For one weekend only, a Dublin pub is nestled in the heart of downtown Wilmington with Once, the Tony award-winning Broadway musical, taking audiences on a captivating journey with touching songs and heartfelt performances.

The show's tagline – "His music needed one thing. Her." – perfectly encapsulates the storyline of a brokenhearted street musician and Czech-immigrant muse. Sam Cieri and Mackenzie Lesser-Roy brilliantly play the lead characters simply named Guy and Girl, who demonstrate such incredible emotional vulnerability as they struggle to move through life and their own complex, unlikely connection. The tender moments and songs they share bring to life the universal themes of moving past fear and embracing one's destiny.

Unlike typical Broadway musicals, there is no pit orchestra. Instead, every instrument is performed on stage by the talented musician actors. It's literally music in motion as the guitars, mandolins, accordions and more all get swept into the choreographed dances.

As a novel bonus, theatregoers are invited to come onstage as pub patrons during both pre-show and intermission. Many of the cast's musician actors treat them to a rollicking live jam as they enjoy their drinks.

Several notable cast members include John Hays – who brings welcome comic relief as Billy, a raucous but endearing piano store owner – as well as 9-year-old Lily Caputo, a Brandywine Valley resident making her Broadway debut, who brings sweet, youthful energy to her role as Girl's daughter.

While 13 cast members dazzle onstage, the character without program recognition is Dublin itself. The Irish capital comes to life through the storyline and its characters, highlighting Dublin's incredible diversity and energy. A particularly poignant line, "You can't have a city without music," underscores this point.

Falling Slowly is the show's signature song with soaring melodies and vocals. It's the Oscar winner for Best Song from the 2007 indie film, upon which this musical is based. Ranging from a cappella songs, solo numbers and rousing group performances, the music in this show delivers an emotional wallop with earnest lyrics and beautiful melodies, written by Glen Hansard and Markéta Irglová, stars of the original film.

Once incorporates many clever elements in its minimalist staging and storytelling, which includes inventive scene changes, dramatic lighting and original use of subtitles to illustrate the private exchanges and lively debates between Czech-speaking characters.

While the national tour sadly ends soon, fortunately new licensing rights will allow regional theaters to begin staging their own productions of Once. But in the meantime, this is a top-notch unconventional and romantic musical worth experiencing immediately.

Once runs through April 2 at The Playhouse on Rodney Square. Tickets range from $65-$85 and discounts are available for seniors, groups of 10 or more and children ages 12 and under.

See www.ThePlayhouseDE.org.