{"id":29592,"date":"2018-07-06T03:46:28","date_gmt":"2018-07-06T10:46:28","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/?p=29592"},"modified":"2018-07-05T12:49:58","modified_gmt":"2018-07-05T19:49:58","slug":"once-will-be-enough","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/2018\/07\/06\/once-will-be-enough\/","title":{"rendered":"Once will be enough"},"content":{"rendered":"

Gili Roskies and Adrian Glynn McMorran in Once<\/em> at Granville Island Stage. (photo by Emily Cooper)<\/em><\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

Walking into the Arts Club Theatre\u2019s Granville Island Stage and seeing a bar set up on stage is usually not a big deal. But when it turns out that the bar is a working bar for theatre-goers, well, that is a nice twist.<\/p>\n

Not only can you go up on stage to buy your drink, the cast of the play (musicians all) hang out and mingle and eventually start playing instruments as patrons stand about chatting. Then, as audience members make their way to their seats, just a few movements on stage get the set ready for the first scene.<\/p>\n

Once<\/em> is set in Dublin\u2019s music scene and opens with the male lead, known only as \u201cGuy\u201d (Adrian Glynn McMorran), singing and playing guitar despondently in a bar. \u201cGirl\u201d (Jewish community member Gili Roskies) admires his singing and starts up a conversation about his songs. He explains that he wrote them for a girlfriend who left him and moved to New York, and now he\u2019s giving up his music and devoting his time to working as a vacuum salesman. Girl convinces him to fix a vacuum she has and, as payment, she\u2019ll play piano for him. They end up at a music store where the two sing the breakout hit \u201cFalling Slowly.\u201d Girl, a Czech immigrant, cannot afford her own piano, so the music storeowner lets her use his.<\/p>\n

After that, Girl insinuates herself into Guy\u2019s life. She bugs him to go after his former girlfriend and win her back with his songs, she signs him up for an open-mic night and she even makes an appointment with a banker on Guy\u2019s behalf to get a loan to book a recording studio. (Though broke, with no collateral, Guy gets the loan by playing a song for the banker. Ahhh, if only that happened in real life.)<\/p>\n

As to be expected, the two fall for each other, but keep things platonic, as Girl is actually married and might reconcile with her estranged husband; and, eventually, Guy sees the possibility of getting back with his girlfriend, too.<\/p>\n

Despite the romantic settings and interactions between the two main characters, I was never fully engrossed in this play. I didn\u2019t find the chemistry between Guy and Girl to be that captivating and I think I got somewhat annoyed by the mixed messages and constant back-and-forth of emotions demonstrated by Girl for Guy. Guy\u2019s feelings for her were clear; Girl was all over the map.<\/p>\n

There are also several long, convoluted stories that seem only to end in lame jokes, and some odd dance routines whose choreography I just didn\u2019t get. In this case, as with many productions, I found the backstory more interesting.<\/p>\n

Once<\/em> is based on a 2007 Irish film in the musical drama genre. The sleeper hit was made for only $150,000 US and grossed more than $23 million US. Part of its success was no doubt due to winning audience awards at both the Sundance and Dublin film festivals, the Independent Spirit Award for best foreign film in 2007 and an Academy Award for best original song, \u201cFalling Slowly,\u201d in 2008. The soundtrack was nominated for a Grammy.<\/p>\n

The musical did even better, winning eight of 11 Tony nominations on Broadway in 2012, including best musical, as well as a host of other awards for productions around the world.<\/p>\n

\u201cFalling Slowly\u201d was written, composed and performed by the film\u2019s co-stars, Glen Hansard and Mark\u00e9ta Irglov\u00e1, specifically for the film and recorded by Hansard\u2019s band, the Frames. Many of the other songs in the production were provided by Hansard and Irglov\u00e1 and gave them material to perform together in the years following the film\u2019s release. The film\u2019s director, John Carney, called Hansard and Irglov\u00e1 his Bogart and Bacall.<\/p>\n

Unfortunately, that chemistry is nowhere to be found on stage at the Arts Club. Thankfully, their performance of \u201cFalling Slowly\u201d does justice to the original, and is one of the highlights of the play, as is an a cappella version of the song \u201cGold,\u201d sung by the entire cast. The voices and musicianship are all of high quality and there is definitely sweetness in this play, but once was enough for me to see it.<\/p>\n

Once<\/em> runs until July 29 at the Arts Club Granville Island Stage. For tickets, visit artsclub.com<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Baila Lazarus<\/strong> is a Vancouver-based writer and principal media strategist at bailalazarus.com<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Gili Roskies and Adrian Glynn McMorran in Once at Granville Island Stage. (photo by Emily Cooper) Walking into the Arts Club Theatre\u2019s Granville Island Stage and seeing a bar set up on stage is usually not a big deal. But when it turns out that the bar is a working bar for theatre-goers, well, that […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":29593,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[785],"tags":[490,1567,6497,6588],"class_list":["post-29592","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-performing-arts","tag-arts-club","tag-gili-roskies","tag-ireland","tag-musicals"],"blocksy_meta":{"styles_descriptor":{"styles":{"desktop":"","tablet":"","mobile":""},"google_fonts":[],"version":8}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29592","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=29592"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29592\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/29593"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=29592"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=29592"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=29592"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}