(Dolan’s review appeared on The Feminist Spectator, 12/19; ‘Once’ begins previews on Broadway, 2/28/12.)
When you enter New York Theatre Workshop’s space on E. 4th St. to see Once, the musical adaptation of the 2007 Irish indie film (see my 2007 blog post on the film), the well-worn theatre suddenly feels like a party hall. The stage has been transformed into a bar, replete with distressed old mirrors and sconce lights, and a low counter that serves double-duty as a place for spectators to get a pint before the play proper starts and as a secondary acting platform for the considerable talents of this musically distinguished and emotionally empathetic cast.
In Irish playwright Enda Walsh’s faithful adaptation, the Dublin community on which the story focuses is bound by its music making. The cast is small by musical theatre standards, since the "community here," usually represented by dozens of supernumeraries, is the close-knit one of Dublin street buskers and musicians who remain soulfully devoted to music as an expression of their pining spirits.
http://www.feministspectator.blogspot.com/2011/12/once-musical.html