Once Reviews

Once was more than enough from Seattle, Washington

SUNDAY NIGHT PERFORMANCE IN SEATTLE. NO. ENERGY. AT. ALL.

I've seen over 100 musicals and I have to say, I was not expecting to be so underwhelmed & utterly disappointed by Once. The concept of having the actors playing their own instruments as well as singing was fine, but man, was this musical boring! There was just no energy at all to this show. It doesn't help that the pre-show on-stage gathering of audience and cast members was accompanied by a rousing number of up-tempo songs and melodies that infused the place with a high-spirited energy. Energy, that was immediately sucked from the room the moment the musical started. Had I known this was 2+ hours of nothing but moody, down-tempo maudlin stuff (my bad for not doing more research), I might not have been so disappointed. I found the story pretty bad too. There was no conflict, nor anything for the Guy to overcome, and a confusing motivation from the Girl. Emotion is not story. Fear of communicating feelings is not conflict, Talented performers stuck in a lame story w/ dull music.

Carol from Seattle, Washington

SLOW

They were having trouble with the audio so everything was garbled. Even with that, the show never took off.

Broadway show lover from San Francisco, California

BORING

Terrible set decor, phony accents really not much of a story line

Ann from San Francisco, California

SURPRISINGLY DISAPPOINTED

My expectations were high as "Once" performed in NYC received an excellent review by my son and his wife, and the movie was also fantastic. The SF production was unbearably slow, the emotional connection between Guy and Girl was weak, the one line jokes were hard to hear even in my expensive $200+orchestra seat, Girl's talking voice was impossible to understand as she didn't project, and had a silly and unbelievable Czech accent that wavered into Irish half the time. The actors are undoubtedly talented - strong singing voices and playing a variety of instruments, but this show needed more than their talent to keep my interest. Save your money and rent the DVD!

DramaDog from Los Angeles, California

GREAT MUSIC IS THE ONLY REASON TO SEE THIS SHOW

Awful. Just awful! I quite liked the movie and was looking forward to seeing the story performed live. My disappointment was threefold. The characters were never developed. They exhibited no real emotion or motivation. Not for poor acting, but important parts of the screen play were cut out, apparently to make room for more songs. I didn't care about any of them. The story line was chopped up to such an extent that it made no sense. Bits and fragments of various subplots from the movie were jumbled together. I was able to follow the story only because I already knew it. This writer is not acquainted with the craft of story telling. The acoustics at the Pantages Theater were simply horrid. What would have been the saving grace of the production, some spirited traditional songs performed by proficient performers, sounded as though I was listening through a tin can telephone. In the second half, amplified music sounded better. Don't waste your time.

Anonymous from Los Angeles, California

VERY DISAPPOINTING.

I was really hoping that the stage version of 'Once" would capture the intimacy of the movie but was sadly disappointed. Very slow moving, too much dialogue and not enough of the music. the female lead had great singing voice but phony accent. And too much time was spent on the ensemble characters than the two leads. Would not recommend, rent the movie instead.

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