Ari Post, Ricky Drummond, Carter Crosby, and Colin Villacorte. Photo by DJ Corey Photography.
The plot of “Once,” the 2012 Tony Award-winning musical now playing at Reston’s NextStop Theatre, is as thin as a Czech pilsner next to a Guinness from the tap. This guy-meets-girl story focuses on characters literally called “Guy” and “Girl.” But that does not matter, because the show is an absolute delight.
…an absolute delight…captures the heart…
The musical was based on the 2007 sleeper hit film “Once,” written and directed by John Carney and starring musician/actors Glen Hansard and Markéta Irglová. The showstopper “Falling Slowly” won the Academy Award for Best Original Song and repeats as a motif throughout the stage production. The deceptively small and slight story captures the heart as much on stage as it did on screen, with its very simplicity accentuating the fairy-tale mood.
Guy (played by understudy Ari Post in the show I attended) is a painfully romantic Dublin street busker who does not care about wealth or a record contract so much as connecting with an audience through his original songs. Girl (Emily Erickson) sternly makes it clear that she is not a Manic Pixie Dream Girl, she’s a Very Serious Pixie Dream Girl because she’s Czech, thank you very much.
After their meet-cute on the street, Girl implores Guy to sing for her. He stubbornly resists even as he forlornly moans about wanting an appreciating listener. You can hear the eye-roll in Erickson’s voice as she tells him that that is precisely what she is offering to be.
From there, a whirlwind, almost-romance spins out over the course of a week. Girl, played with wry understatement and dry humor by Erickson, drags Guy out of his somewhat performative artistic doldrums. She recruits defensively tough music store proprietor, Billy (Jeremy Allen Crawford, in a role usually played by Post), a creatively unfulfilled bank manager (Ricky Drummond), and several others into an ad hoc band to get Guy’s songs on a CD to launch him on a career—and away from her.
Post oozes softboy charm as the melancholy minstrel, shifting from a default hangdog expression to one of pure joy when he finds that appreciative crowd. His demeanor is well matched with Erickson’s no-nonsense Girl, who has seen enough of the world in her short life to know that artistic glory requires hard work as much as, if not more than, talent.
“Once” is a true ensemble affair. Director Heather Lanza has framed the production against a lavish pub set designed by August Henney that is populated by talented performers playing multiple parts. Among the standouts are Amber Gibson as the vivacious bartender and as Girl’s wise and loving mother Baruska; Sally Imbriano as Girl’s vampish, fellow Czech migrant Reza; and David Weinraub as Guy’s soft-spoken, supportive Da.
Another standout is swing Mira Rose Morris who, in the production I saw, took on the role of emcee in addition to several others. The NextStop production cleverly opens in medias res (in the midst of things) with a rotating roster of local musicians “playing” in the pub as the audience enters. Ensemble members pantomime as patrons, with the emcee seeing the performers off stage at the top of the show and introducing the next act—the opener of the actual musical. It is one of many small touches that help this little show add up to something quite grand.
Running Time: Two hours and 30 minutes with one intermission.
“Once” has been extended through June 27, 2026 at NextStop Theatre Company, 269 Sunset Park Drive, Herndon, VA 21070. For more information and to purchase tickets, please go online.
