Once at HCTO

The first time I saw the musical Once I didn't know anything about it but I ended up loving it so much because it is a beautiful and moving story about the impact that one person can have on your life.  I even downloaded the music during intermission!  I was absolutely thrilled (and a little bit surprised but more about that later) when I found out that it was part of the 2023 season at HCTO.  I saw their production last night and it is grand!  A Guy (Will Ingram) is busking on a Dublin street when a Girl (Rachel Ryan Nicholes) strikes up a conversation with him because she likes his music.  He reluctantly tells her that he wants to give up on music because all of his songs are about a girl who left him to move to New York.  The Girl encourages him to play more of his music for her and eventually helps him to record a demo.  He begins to have feelings for her and tells her that he may have written the songs for another girl but now he is singing them for her.  She knows that she needs to reconcile with her estranged husband for the sake of her daughter and that he needs to go to New York and play his music for his former girlfriend so, even though she loves him, she tearfully convinces him to go.  The Broadway touring production that I saw was set in a Dublin bar (you could even go up on stage and buy a drink during intermission) with very minimal props representing the other locations so I was very intrigued to see how HCTO would stage their version.  It is quite different, with the main stage configured as a Dublin street with the music store, repair shop, bar, and other locations in the wings, but it is very effective and I liked it.  All of the secondary characters (Caleb Collier, Makenzie Belnap, Shaunna Thompson, Clark Woolstenhulme, David Kocherhans, Nathan Holley, Jordan Briggs, Caleb McCleary, Nathan Bowser, and Angelica Salazar) play a variety of instruments live on stage and it is really clever how they are integrated into the action.  Both productions that I've seen (Broadway touring and PTC) had a lot of profanity and I wondered how HCTO would address that.  I am happy that they really toned it down (and it didn't detract from the narrative at all) because now I feel like I can recommend it to anyone (and I wholeheartedly do!).  The music is really beautiful and the way the cast performed my favorite songs, "Falling Slowly," "If You Want Me," and "Gold," gave me goosebumps!  Both Ingram and Nicholes are outstanding in the lead roles because they also play guitar and piano, respectively, as well as sing and they have a lot of chemistry (Ingram reminded me a lot of Jack Raynor).  I really loved this production and I suggest you get tickets as soon as possible (go here) before every show sells out because I'm sure they will!