I was late to Once the movie - I only saw it last year, which is also when I heard about the Broadway version. I love the movie so I was very curious about how this intimate film could be adapted into a stage musical.
The performances and direction were excellent, but the types of problems I expected from this type of adaptation were indeed there. The two biggest issues for me:
- To make the show longer, we spend more time with minor characters we really don't care about. The character of Billy was particularly intrusive.
- The understatement in the movie was largely lost. The implicit things you could see and feel that weren't spoken are now not only spoken, but spoken LOUDLY AND REPEATEDLY IN CASE YOU DIDN'T GET IT.
But these seem kind of inherent to an adaptation to Broadway. I'm not really sure what you could do differently. In this case, the material just seems better suited to its original form.
The one thing I think could have been avoided was a sourness and meanness towards some of the characters, especially Bank Manager. The movie treats everyone with affection and understanding, including Heroin Addict. The show, less so.
One other nit as a musician is how they change "Gold" to be one of Guy's songs. Of course, in the show the actors are not singing their own songs, so it doesn't matter that "Gold" is Fergus's song while the rest are Glen's songs. But it comes from a musically different place than Glen's songs so it's a little odd. But that's my problem. I doubt hardly anyone else even notices, especially if you didn't see the film.
I still liked the show! It's a good show and it's a lot of fun to see different actors interpret these wonderful characters. It just doesn't come up to my very favorite adaptations where I like them better or equal to the source material.
