The native Dubliners and Czech immigrants who populate “Once” are hardworking, well-intentioned and often quite funny — the kind of folks who would be welcome denizens at the neighborhood pub.
Where: Pittsburgh CLO at the Benedum Center, Downtown.
When: 7:30 p.m. Tuesday-Thursday; 8 p.m. Friday; 2 and 8 p.m. Saturday and 2 and 7 p.m. Sunday.
Tickets: $26.25-$81.25; pittsburghclo.org or 412-456-6666.
One of the strengths of “Once,” the utterly endearing musical now in Pittsburgh CLO’s felicitous care, is that there are no villains. Another, of course, is the music. Oscar-winning “Falling Slowly,” “When Your Mind’s Made Up,” “Gold,” “Broken Hearted Hoover Fixer Sucker Guy” — what’s not to love?
Celtic indie folk rocker Glen Hansard and Czech singer-songwriter Marketa Irglova, the duo formerly known as The Swell Season, took the raw, romantic energy of their musical collaboration first to the big screen in John Carney’s 2007 charmer of a movie. The film was adapted for the stage, with “Once” winning best musical and best book of a musical for Edna Walsh in 2012.
CLO’s “Once” strays from the Broadway and national tour’s working pub set with new staging: sites are suggested by projections, minimal props and context. The two-story, barebones set allows for a laser focus on the performances, movement and music, under the guidance of Camille A. Brown’s choreography and J. Michael Zygo’s direction.
Don’t come expecting to be invited onstage, as in the origin productions, where you could buy a drink and mingle before the show begins. Instead, come a bit early for a jam session showcasing the performers’ musicianship and camaraderie.
“Once” is a demanding show for many reasons, not the least that every performer plays an instrument and has a role in the lives of Guy and Girl.
The disillusioned Guy (Stuart Ward) is a singer-songwriter whose life is turned around by a chance meeting with a perpetually upbeat Girl (Esther Stilwell), who happens to be a pianist with similar musical tastes.
If this were just another guy-meets-girl story, Ward and Stilwell’s chemistry alone — as a couple and musically — would demand that you root for these two. But “Once,” to its credit, doesn’t play by the rules, so there’s a bittersweet edge to their blossoming relationship.
Stilwell is a blissfully bossy force of nature as Girl. She recognizes that Guy’s wellspring of emotion comes from missing his girlfriend, who has moved to New York. Girl harbors some secrets of her own, but she can’t resist this quiet Dubliner who sure can sing and write a tune.
She pushes her way into Guy’s life — her vacuum cleaner won’t suck; he fixes Hoovers at his father’s shop and lives above it. “It’s destiny” that they should meet cute and make beautiful music together.
Ward’s Guy takes her blunt and often hilarious words of encouragement to heart, even as this new Girl in his life presents a plan to record his music in a pricey studio.
“Are you serious?” he demands.
“I’m Czech. I’m always serious,” she counters.
As they become evermore entangled in the space of just a few days, she meets his understanding, understated Da (Craig MacDonald), and he is drawn into her wider circle, including jealous music shop owner Billy (Paul Whitty), who allows her to play his piano while taking some time warming up to this new guy in her life.
There’s also her family, Baruska (Maggie Hollinbeck) and Ivanka (Pittsburgh sixth-grader Lauren Ivory Vail), and housemates: aspiring manager Andrej (Andy Christopher), flirty Reza (Cassidy Stirtz) and Svec (Lucas Papaelias), who seems like a goof but plays multiple instruments and proves invaluable on drums.
Scott Stangland as an encouraging studio engineer, Andy Taylor as a banker with musical chops, violinist Erikka Walsh and David Toole on guitar each have key scenes, but also are ever-present, providing musical backup or interpretive dance or both.
The cast of 13 boasts resumes bursting with musical theater experience, and it shows. They have jelled into a unit at warp speed, delivering a CLO opening night that seems more like a group of consummate professionals at mid-run.
This is the first time around for CLO and “Once,” the penultimate show of the season. Once more, and then again, would be most welcome in CLO summers yet to come.
Sharon Eberson: seberson@post-gazette.com or 412-263-1960. Twitter: @SEberson_pg. Sign up for the PG performing arts newsletter Behind the Curtain at Newsletter Preferences.
First Published: August 1, 2019, 12:00 p.m.
