Once in Concert - London Palladium

We have this discussion from time to time. Isn't it called acting?

Doesn’t that remain to be seen? This is billed as a concert, so it’s unclear how much ‘acting’ there will be.

What grinds my gears is that they are shoehorning in performers who are in vogue, but aren’t at all appropriate for the parts. Ergo they are trying to ensure ticket sales, and immediately comes across as a cash grab.

Is Jamie Muscato going to be performing with a convincing Dublin accent? Is Carrie Hope Fletcher going to be performing with a convincing Czech accent? Their characters are all this show has to tell its simple little story.

The second a show needs to fiddle with the book to accommodate star/stunt casting, is the second the show’s vision is comprised.

Irish singer/songwriter Ronan Keating cast as an Irish singer/songwriter 😉

I do agree with TallPaul though, it is called acting so any role is an opportunity for someone to show what they can do.

This is Steve Kazee and Cristin Milioti.

I haven’t actually been to an “in concert” production, as either they haven’t appealed or I’ve not been free on the few nights they are on. So I am coming from a theoretical point of view. But, surely their main plus point of a concert is they are cheaper than a full production, due to no staging/set. However, what I can remember from seeing Once about 10 years ago (I saw Arthur Darvill as Guy, he was good), is that the staging here amounts to a piano, a bar and a couple of chairs. So why any need for a concert version? You’re not saving anything, surely. It must be about as low cost a set as a musical gets, even less than Come From Away. There isn’t even a separate band/orchestra, it was designed as an actor/musician show wasn’t it?!?

I am someone who could afford those insane ticket prices if I felt it was worth it. And I really like “Once”, a few of the songs are favourites of mine to play/sing for pleasure But presenting this being in concert just holds zero draw for me, what’s the point. It does just immediately feel cynical.

The boots look familiar, maybe Carrie nabbed them before Cinders got boxed up and despatched to America. Broadway Cinders will have to get a new pair 🙂

Another concert!

And another concert version of a very recently produced show. At least use concert stagings to try new productions of rarely seen shows, or older shows that could develop into full revivals, or new stuff. Like the recent Treason production. I see the merit there - try something as a concert, rather than have to go the whole hog with a full production. A test or tryout. I can also see the point in staging something as a one off concert if it had a huge star name attached who would never do a full run. But was anyone asking for Kinky Boots or Once in concert form like this? Really? What’s the point?

Is it on for a few nights or just Once?

I'll get my coat......

A 3pm matinee has been added. On sale now.

Just saw the matinee and loved it.

Some spoilers follow. . .

Having loved the central duo together in "Heathers," I booked mostly to see them together again, in something different, rather than just to see "Once" lol.

From that perspective, it's a show of ironies as not only are they performing it "twice" (ie again tonight), but in "Heathers" they are rolling all over each other on stage and then try to murder each other in unrestrained abandon, but here, in their reunion, for "once" they must exercise almost complete and total restraint in this updated "Brief Encounter."

And it is the brief encounter loneliness of this concert production that will linger with me:

For one, the Palladium is massive compared to the Phoenix, and the ensemble seated at either side of the stage create a chasm of space between them. Second, the principal lighting approach is almost total darkness, with a few star-like lights above, so when Muscato's Guy takes central stage for his opening number, "Leave," he looks so so lonely.

Muscato has such incredible technique and pipes though, that despite his half-Elvis, half lonely cowboy slouch, and despite the morose sadness of his opening line, he builds to an absolute ecstatic finish to the song with so many colours and roaring passion. It was a scene stopper, though uninfused by narrative, it is all Muscato's achievement, rather than the show's.

Muscato speaks in a creditable Irish accent, and when Carrie Hope-Fletcher appears, she speaks in a creditable Czech accent. Used to filling a stage with characters consumed by agency, CHF easily assumes the buoyancy of this catalytic character of Girl who inspires the morose Guy back to life.

If "Leave" was Muscato's solo highlight, CHF's solo highlight was "If you want me," as she was facing the stage, and she embued the line "if you want me, satisfy me" with a lingering longing and wistful passion. Unfortunately, the director chose to angle her in "The Hill" away from the audience, as she played the piano, so we were denied a facial confirmation to this confession of love, which was frustrating, as the song was exquisitely performed.

At the Phoenix Theatre, and I saw it there three times, the stage was so colourful and so busy with actor-musicians, the bar always open, even for the audience during the interval lol, that the sheer liveliness seemed to uplift the bonding and loving element ls of the story. Here, the dark cavernous emptiness of the Palladium, with it's unfriendly curtain descending during the interval (instead of serving drinks lol) served to emphasise the lonely aspects of the story. Muscato, in particular, really leant into this fragile sadness, and no amount of cheeky flirtatious perkiness from Hope Fletcher could quite lift him out of it. Mournfulness and soulfulness were accentuated over the community and collaboration of the Phoenix.

A gloriously funny performance by Sean Keany, as Billy the shop owner, all lanky posturing boastfulness and affected threat undercut by physical clumsiness and social awkwardness, relieved some of the sad vibe.

But luckily, not all of it, as when, in the starlit sadness of the dark vast lonely stage, Hope Fletcher and Muscato performed the "Falling Slowly Reprise," I had never seen it so splendidly and evocatively mournful, and I was overwhelmed with tears.

A terrifically spare and soulful rendering of the musical.

4 and a half stars from me.

At the evening show and 20 minutes in they’ve stopped for “technical issues”.

Falling Slowly was lovely though.