Once you’ve had your heart broken, focusing on every day aspects of life can be difficult.  Eating, sleeping, fixing vacuums, and writing your Irish-inspired music falls victim to your heartbreak.  Your life just isn’t the same anymore and nothing can fill the emptiness in your heart until you fall in love with someone you would’ve never expected.

Based on the Irish movie of the same name, Once is a beautiful love story following two young songwriters who meet on a street corner in Dublin, Ireland.  Written by Enda Walsh with music and lyrics by Glen Hansard and Marketa Irglova, the musical takes place over the course of 5 days and is heart warming and heart breaking at the same time. The minimalist set of a bar, about 12 chairs, and a few mirrors never changes throughout the whole show.

The fourth wall between the audience and the actors was broken from the moment the audience walks into the theater. The bar, which is a part of the set, is fully functional and open to the audience before the show and during intermission.  The cast joins the audience on stage during this time for an interactive jam session.

The simple, never-changing set allows for the main characters of Guy and Girl, played by Stuart Ward and Dani de Waal respectively, to grow not only in perspective but also dimensionally. This allows us to see their relationship transform into being fully functional, and by relationship I mean their professional relationship of course. Their romantic relationship is on hold because both of them are committed to other people, or are they?

With the help of some other wacky characters along the way, Guy and Girl explore the world of music and save each other in ways they never thought were possible.

This may sound like any other love story but Once uses the music and emotions of all of the characters in a way that’s never been done before. Guy, an Irish guitar player, and Girl, a Czech pianist, discover they have a similar interests in creating melancholy folk-rock songs which sets the tone for the music in the show.

Something that sets Once apart from all other musicals is that there is no pit band. The actors on stage are also the musicians playing the score. Each actor plays more than one instrument throughout the course of the show. This was amazing and contributed to the uniqueness and beauty of the show.

Guitars, mandolins, a ukulele, banjos, violins, an accordion, a cello, an electric bass, and a piano were the instruments played by the actors.

The writers of the show didn’t include the common Broadway ballads of angry reflections of what could’ve been but instead melancholy, beautiful songs about accepting the present loneliness and reality. The way that the actors put their emotions into the music is undeniably perfect and adds a savory sweet sadness to the events happening in the show and makes the music feel not only universal but organic.

The amplification of the music doesn’t distort the music but rather enhances it and makes it accessible to all walks of life.  Once is a wonderful show that gives a glimpse of life and reality that everyone can relate to.