REVIEW: ‘Once’ brings haunting beauty to Brucemore stage

CEDAR RAPIDS — I’ve seen “Once” once before, but never like this.

Director Angie Toomsen and the wild amount of talent onstage and behind the scenes at Brucemore’s outdoor amphitheater have taken a lovely, melancholy musical and infused it with laughter, as well as heart.

The Theatre Cedar Rapids production opened Friday under perfect night skies, and continues through Sept. 11. Pack a picnic, tote a chair and blanket, and go. Also take a tissue or two.

While I thoroughly enjoyed the first national tour I saw in Des Moines in 2014, this staging is very different, and much more intimate, with venue seating for a couple hundred instead of a couple thousand. That makes all the difference in drawing viewers into the story, expertly guided by Toomsen.

If you’ve seen the show elsewhere, you may recall the background being a Dublin pub, where viewers are invited to come onstage before curtain, to order up a drink to sip back in their assigned seats.

In this COVID-emerging era, however, TCR is keeping a little distance from the audience, by taking the show to the streets of Dublin, where Girl first spies Guy busking on the sidewalk. And like Toomsen said in an earlier Gazette interview, audience members typically bring their own beverages to the outdoor venue, so the pub setting is less important.

What’s important is the story, and the music, played so beautifully by all the actors. Tim Riven (Guy) and Mary Jane Knight (Girl) are riveting as the yin and yang in a show full of opposites attracting.

He is described as “stopped,” nursing a broken heart that pulses through the achingly beautiful, Oscar-winning “Falling Slowly” and his other compositions. But Girl strolls onto the scene, hears the emotion throbbing though his music, and is horrified when Guy leaves his guitar in the gutter and prepares to walk away from his art.

She is the life to his lifelessness, and won’t let him give up. She strikes a deal that will merge their talents and skills, beginning an uneasy odyssey in which music binds them and heals them.

Riven is well-known in the Corridor not only as an actor but also from gigging with his guitar in restaurants and intimate venues. Knight, a classically trained mezzo soprano, is making her TCR debut, after performing with operas in the South and Midwest, as well as on Iowa City area stages.

He brings a raw power to his performance and portrayal, she brings polish to her vocals and piano playing, as well as a spark of intensity to Girl. Her line, “I’m always serious — I’m Czech” sent laughter rippling through the opening night audience in a city deeply rooted in Czech heritage.

(Kudos to consultant Liba Ayach for the Czech language and cadence from Girl, her family and flatmates, and to dialect coach Katy Hahn for the various Irish accents from everyone else.)

It’s such a treat to see nearly every member of the cast playing instruments onstage, from guitars, violin and viola to conga and a mean tambourine, augmented by a tight combo tucked into an upper corner of the scenery. Janelle Lauer prepared everyone well, making way for Forrest Green to lead the ensemble in performances.

A big surprise, however, is seeing Madeline Kadlec, who charmed TCR audiences as Ella in “Cinderella” and Liesl in “The Sound of Music,” slinging an accordion and stepping completely outside “good-girl” mode and into the role of a seductress in tawdry tigress attire, ready to pounce.

Another lovely surprise was the choreographed scene changes, which kept the music and movement flowing. Megan Robinson’s choreography is inspired throughout the show, whether kicking into a lively Irish jig or illustrating the sensuality and later, the angst of Guy and Girl’s relationships.

The cast is full of great dancers, who also happen to be great singers and instrumentalists. And the audience members weren’t the only ones mesmerized by the music on opening night. A sweet deer trio walking through the grounds stopped and listened to “Falling Slowly” before ambling on, in no hurry at all.

Humor weaves throughout this production — much of which is thanks to the antics of K. Michael Moore as music store owner Billy, and Aaron Pozdol as an uptight bank manager who falls to the siren song of Guy and Girl’s music.

The show also is reeling in visual joy, with S. Benjamin Farrar’s very European wallpaper designs, cobblestone street and gorgeous lighting, and Joni Sackett’s timeless costume design.

“Once” is the whole package, winning over the folks near me who aren’t regular theatergoers, as well as those who regularly revel in the amazing amount of talent in our corner of the world. The cheers and standing ovation were well deserved.

Comments: (319) 368-8508; diana.nollen@thegazette.com