Once Upon a Time at Pantages

Matt McAllister

Los Angeles offers its residents and visitors a wide variety of live musical theater each year from large scale, flashy productions to intimate, off-Broadway style experimental fare. Once, currently running at the Pantages Theater through August 10, is something of a moving target on that scale. Originally a small, minimalist, off-Broadway production, the show quickly became the darling of the theater set when it opened two years ago. Garnering a trophy case of awards, the show was reworked, its film rights sold, and it was morphed into a decidedly slicker and more accessible shadow of its original self. Nevertheless, Once still retains its small venue feel, mostly by virtue of its folksy book and charmingly unpolished songs.

Largely set in a Dublin pub, the plot revolves around the heart-broken “Guy” who is about to give up on a career in music and pursue his father’s business as a vacuum cleaner repairman. Upon giving what he thinks is his final performance, he is approached by a young Czech “Girl” who barters a vacuum repair for her musical abilities. The two find that they harmonize but their potentially romantic involvement becomes complicated, a plot turn that reinforces the overall motif of the show. Without giving too much away, the story is a beautifully wrought, modern tale of unrequited love and its potential to call us to action. And while so many narratives of this type leave the audience rolling their eyes and groaning at transparent clichés, Once manages to have us buy into its pretext and root wholeheartedly and without cynicism for its characters.

This feat, nothing small to be sure, is achieved largely on the strength of its score. The musical is saturated with folksy, rock-infused songs that are entirely stripped of the usual Broadway style patina of saccharine-sweet melodies with highfalutin lyrics. While none of the songs (except perhaps for “Falling Slowly” near the opening) qualify as a showstopper, nearly all of the music keeps the listener engaged, if not enchanted. There’s almost nothing in the show that one hums on the way out the door, but snippets of songs haunt the memory as short catches linger in the ear long after the show has ended, and herein lies the key to the show’s success. The effect of this upon the audience is to revisit the experience, to come back to its songs and inspect them with careful, contemplative ears.

While the majority of Broadway touring productions rely upon dazzling stage effects, immediately accessible songs, and eye-popping choreography, Once depends almost entirely upon the quality of its melodic invention in order to spark the audience to invest in the emotional arc. This approach is difficult to pull off and has sunk countless shows before their time, but Once is the rare theatrical event that neither panders to its audience nor provides easy, sensuous effects, and yet it still engages everyone on a visceral and intellectual level.

Once will run at the Pantages Theatre through August 10.