Eight Tony Wedding Play Analysis

Romance serves as a strong foundation for many stories. Winner of eight Tony Awards, Once weaves an intricate love story between a Guy and Girl through the use of emotionally captivating songs composed by Glen Hansard and Markéta Irglová. The soundtrack is composed of contemporary folk music with Irish and folk-rock influences which aids in developing intangible properties of the play such as the theme as the songs transcend the lyrics through their use of genre. Innovative direction allows the performance to be immersive and engages the audience by giving the cast a dual purpose: operating as both the actors and musicians. The ways in which the songs are incorporated into the story also differs from standard musicals. The style and decisions

The musical is set in working-class Dublin, and the songs are credited to the unnamed Irish male lead, credited as Guy. This serves as the reason for the Irish influence in his songs. Though the characters make many references to the bustling city in which the musical is set, Guy’s lilting Irish accent and the use of certain instruments help to set the atmosphere in an understated way. The distinct bright and hollow timbres of fiddles and accordions (respectively), two instruments used in the production reminds the listener of an Irish sound. The classification of the musical’s soundtrack under the contemporary folk genre is an important distinction because it is unlike traditional urban folk music: used to comment on political and social issues (Starr and Waterman 342).¬¬ The songs in Once predominantly deal with love and relationships but remain “folksy” by maintaining meaningful and significant lyrics. The weight of these lyrics is highlighted in the acapella reprise of “Gold” in the second act. A folk singer, Bob Lewis, describes the positive qualities of performing unaccompanied and has said that he prefers “to sing unaccompanied as [it] enables [him] to concentrate on the words of the song or ballad with the tune being the means of emphasizing and decorating the lyrics”

Once integrates its songs in a more overt way, in the sense that the characters and audience are aware when a song is about to be played, by the plot itself, rather than the introductory notes that a hidden orchestra begins to play from beneath. Unlike traditional musicals, characters do not just burst into song. Jenny Ovallon-Koloski writes that they are what John Mueller “referred to as ‘integrated’ musical numbers (1984, 28-30), in which the characters’ singing or dancing relates casually to the plot in a way that moves the narrative forward” (Ovallon-Koloski 93). Rather than forcefully moving the story along, the songs reflect the characters’ feelings and are never used in place of dialogue. These content in these kinds of songs are “narratively relevant… [but have] little to do with the larger plot, and… [do] not provide any essential causal information. Instead, the moment serves to deepen [the] understanding of [the] character and the environment [they] live in” (Ovallon-Koloski 93). The songs are incredibly rich in meaning: from the melancholy melodies reflecting lost love; to the poignant lyrics demanding answers to questions about human relationships; to the emotional vocables in “Leave” which wordlessly convey the pain of heartbreak. It is impossible to resist being swept away by the romance between the Guy and Girl or the romance