Connection, connection, connection.
So much theater is interested in the power of human connection — how we need it, how we achieve it and how we are changed by it.
Such is the case with “Once,” the charming little musical about an unnamed young Irishman who meets a forthright Czech immigrant and finds his life upended over the course of an emotional week. The beauty of this simple story about Guy and Girl, as the script calls them, is augmented by the music they make together.
Guy is giving up on his music as the story opens, but after a chance meeting, Girl — who happens to be a trained pianist — convinces him to persist. Turns out, in the way theatrical allegories tend to work, the music each makes is even stronger when they make it together.
On the days things seem bleakest, the musical seems to say, isn’t it an incredible boost to have a fellow human help shoulder the load and help show you the way. It’s a lovely message for our times.
And all of this messaging comes through loud and clear in director Derek Critzer’s production of “Once” at Theater West End in Sanford. Vitally, he does that without hammering any of it home. You just feel the power of shared humanity as you watch the burgeoning relationship between Guy and Girl.
Critzer, who also designed the production, keeps the focus firmly on his leads. That’s not to take away from his supporting cast. Woodrow Jackson Helms is funny as passionate Billy — he has Spanish ancestry, he keeps reminding us; Jason M. Bailey has quiet strength as Guy’s father; in a touching decision, Andrew Lejeune plays a bank manager dreaming of stardom with more heart than the typical broad humor.
In smaller roles, Elizabeth Golden Curtis is a slyly funny gal on the prowl, Clarissa Moon makes an immediate impact with just a few lines as Guy’s ex-girlfriend. And in a beautifully staged moment, Daniela Monzon Villegas, as the matriarch of the immigrants, and Baily Fier, as one of those migrants with a dream, bring a lump to the throat without even uttering a word.
But even with all that the supporting cast members bring to the show, you feel as though they could be stripped away and a compelling story would remain. Even Critzer’s lighting keeps Guy and Girl in the spotlight. They exist in their own sphere, and both performers are mesmerizing to watch.
Valerie Torres-Rosario played Girl in Theater West End’s 2021 production of the musical and won my Critic’s Pick for Leading Actress in a Musical that year in the Sentinel’s annual theater honors. At the time, I wrote that her luminous performance captured the character’s sincerity, showed her knack for comic timing and made a complicated woman real. She’s even better this go-round.
Playing opposite her is Andrew Heidorn, who wrote and starred in the award-winning “Tanabata,” which won the Critics’ Choice Award for best show of the 2024 Orlando Fringe Festival.
Heidorn affectingly embodies the emotional paralysis Guy finds himself in, displaying an appealing underdog factor that makes him eminently rootable. He might show us a few more flickers of legitimate joy as things with Girl progress, but this is beautiful heart-on-his-sleeve work.
Also, both Heidorn and Torres-Rosario have the ability to sing beautifully while remaining in character, critical in this intimate of a show. Did I mention that all the actors also play instruments and serve as the show’s orchestra?
Music director Maura Sitzmann creates a gorgeously lush sound that brings sonic life to the show’s melancholy yet hopeful mood — a mood Critzer greatly enhances with not only his lighting, but movement and simple yet effective tableaux such as handheld candles representing the “little lights of Dublin.”
“It’s a complicated business, this love,” the bank manager sagely says toward show’s end. At Theater West End, it’s beautifully complicated.
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‘Once’
Length: 2:20, including intermission
Where: Theater West End, 115 W. 1st St. in Sanford
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