iTunes Exclusive Episode Once The Stage Musiceal

The following is a sooner orgator production.
The following is a sooner orgator production.
The following is a sooner orgator production.
Welcome Empire member and members.
If you are hearing my voice, it means one of a couple of things we hope.
We hope you visit the clubhouse podcast at least once in your life.
Your one-stop shop for all things sports entertainment, live every Sunday, night, 70's turn for Pacific.
Or maybe it means you listen on because you subscribe and I too.
And we're cool with that too.
Because this time for another, I tone disclosure.
My name is Rob, I am the executive producer of the clubhouse podcast.
Whatever we do one of these, we're always reviewing something.
And this is no exception, but I'm not going to review it by myself.
I always get fired up when I hear a tonic in the background.
Joining me across the desk is he tends to do each and every week.
Is a man who if he had any more luck of the Irish, he would have none.
He is Chad, welcome to the show sir.
As much as I got on a box of cereal, I guess.
Also joining me from this particular episode right across the desk is the official fact checker of this show.
And he can say he's done a lot of things once.
You may know him is fun, don't go.
But his mom and name him Don Ford, I'm going to call him Don Ford, welcome sir.
Good to see you.
I actually met tonic.
I saw their little show.
They did it on the lumber parade floor.
There's no such thing as a little show for tonic.
There's a great name.
And that album like they made it.
It was like a club show, but they were actually in South Dallas.
And after the show, I got to hang with the guys.
Big fan, big fan of the show.
We're not here talking about tonic.
We're here to talk about a stage production.
Currently being featured in the Dallas Fort Worth area.
But it's a traveling company.
So we want to make sure every member of the empire all over the world
gets a chance to hear us talk about it.
Back in 2006, there was a movie directed by John Carney,
who did the recently directed Begin again.
We thought you want to know what we thought.
Go back and go back and find out.
Called once.
Basically, the story of a couple of young people
and their musical dreams.
Finding music to find the ways to unite everyone.
Well, in 2010, somebody came up with the idea.
Well, let's turn this into a stage production.
It's about music and it's young people being young and living in Dublin
and having a good time.
Some of them.
So let's make a new stage production.
And when I heard this, I hadn't seen the film,
but it's always been on my list.
And I'm like, you know what? This makes sense to me.
It's popular.
The kids with the clothes and the hair will love it.
Well, then we found out it was going to come right here to the Dallas Fort Worth area.
Yeah.
And we got a chance to see it.
Yeah, and it first off.
We got to think city events for everybody here.
Everybody at the AT&T pack org.
And also everybody at the Winspir Opera House
Let's see this incredible show.
And we got to see this at the beautiful facility known as the Winspir Opera House.
Got to think.
It is absolutely gorgeous.
So let's talk about it.
Once again, is the story of two young people.
They do not have names.
Just guy and girl.
Guy and girl.
And or he and she depending on which you know you're at.
They live in Dublin.
It takes place in modern times.
He is a man whose who feels his heart has left the music.
And he's very frustrated.
She is a Czechoslovakian girl.
Who happens to bump into him on the street hearing him play his music.
And convinces him to play his music with heart.
And how their association blooms are both dealing with with.
Broken hearts and and how the music can kind of heal them.
And they determine that he's going to be the next big thing.
So that they're going to get the shot to make him popular.
One thing I will say is this is.
I would say the most different musical that I've ever seen.
Me too.
I've seen some musicals that attempt to do what this musical did.
And have followed horribly short.
Even before it starts agreed.
And one thing you'll notice if you go to see this and we're not spoiling anything.
Because this is a thing.
There's only one set piece in this entire show.
And it is an Irish pub.
But the weird thing of it is.
It's never really an Irish pub.
But the reason it's an Irish pub is if you get there early enough.
The pub is open for business.
You can walk right up on stage to the cash bar in order yourself a cocktail.
Have a tag yourself a good time.
Exactly.
And about 10 minutes before the show starts.
The cast comes out onto the stage while you're on the stage.
Drinking.
And they're just kind of having a little jam session.
I will say I've been to Ireland once.
I had the joy not going to kill Ki Ireland.
Always one of my.
Yeah.
But.
But.
It.
I don't know.
No.
No.
But not Ireland.
Because I know when you were in the service.
I remember those bars in Ireland.
They respect the bars.
They have nice decor.
And this reminded me of a pub in Dublin to it.
And now I do have an Irish mother.
So.
Of course.
The look of the pub was so a spot on.
It was even funny.
Do a team.
So once the course wants to show starts.
They clear the stage.
Exactly.
One thing I really dug about the way the production's done.
And I don't know if Chad, if you've ever seen this.
It was probably two thirds of the way through the first song before the lights dim
all the way.
Really.
It is the slowest light dim I've ever been involved in.
But it didn't take away from anything.
And what they did because the floor of the pub is huge.
The pub itself, the bars kind of.
Crescent, crescent moon curved.
Right.
So you have this huge area.
And they actually use the area on the floor of the pub to do the individual scenes in.
But they rely on the props and the lighting to differentiate the scenes.
There's no scene changes.
Brilliant.
Yeah.
Right.
And so what they would do is they bring out a couple of chairs.
And then right now we're in his apartment.
Okay.
We take the chairs off.
Put a couple of tables up.
And now we're in her apartment.
And it's put the lighting above.
Right.
It's like square lighting.
That's with with the whole transitional deal.
Which works really well.
The transitional music.
And we're going to talk about the music here in a second.
Because the way this was done.
I'm recording the card before the horse here.
Oh yeah.
It's it is you feel that genuine Irish feel to it.
Which I thought was great.
But really what I thought was brilliant.
You know what you didn't have in this production?
What's an orchestra pit.
All the music was played live on stage.
By the entire cast.
This is really ambitious then.
It's it's really great because what you end up happening is.
If an actor is not in a scene.
They're sitting in a chair on the side of the stage playing the music.
When was the last time you saw an accordion or a squeeze box played in a musical?
I think real hard.
You had both of them in this production.
It was Irish enough that you had that old Irish feel.
But it was modern enough where you weren't.
You didn't feel beaten down by that old style.
Right.
It was the music itself.
It was just it was brilliant.
Tight as a drum.
And when I say tight as a drum.
There was not there was no room for error in this thing.
These people had this thing down cold.
And most of them and done correct me if I'm wrong here.
Most of them playing multiple instruments.
Yeah.
One point the guy's gotten acoustic guitar.
Next thing you see he's got a banjo.
Next thing you see guy's got a bass guitar.
Next thing he's playing a drum set.
It was it it never.
The the transition of musical instruments never took away from what was going on.
The character played even John Steven Gardner.
Play the piano.
The guitar percussion.
Middle looking harmonica.
Yeah.
And it's.
It moves very well.
Sometimes you go to musicals where they have.
Transition of scene to scene.
It can get kind of lunky.
Uh huh.
Because you're playing that.
Yeah.
They're famping more.
Right.
Yeah.
This this just felt very organic.
You knew what they were doing.
But the music fit what was going on.
That's really fascinating.
It's.
It is.
And the way I described it to dawn afterwards.
To me it was performance art done right.
Because they they they focus as much if not more on the music than they do on the story line.
Absolutely.
Because when you think performance art you think this.
Yeah.
Yeah.
You know coffee house now.
This wasn't anything but that.
This was performance art for people who don't.
Who don't normally enjoy performance art.
Yeah.
I mean it it worked.
And it worked so well.
If somebody had told me this was the original Broadway cast, which I'm sure it's not.
It wouldn't surprise me.
Because this cast worked so well.
And the next thing you don't know all of a sudden someone else is singing.
Right.
Someone else is taking a lead.
You know there's one scene where the girl is on the violin.
And also she stands on the stage and goes.
Yeah.
Like open night.
Yeah.
Yeah.
And it just starts bailing it out.
Then it's like you didn't see it coming.
But it didn't upset you or anything like that.
And another thing you know this song.
There was a song from this.
That one the Oscar for best song falling slowly.
It was like in that first act.
They don't wait.
They don't make you wait on it.
It comes out there pretty much second or third song in.
You're in.
And it's just as good here as it was in the film.
Or as I saw the performance when they did the Oscar better.
Everything topped a bottom in this was first class.
So I'm going to see this film now.
I as do I.
But don and I were sitting there the whole time just going.
This can't get better.
And then it does.
Like this.
Was about as close to a flawless production as I have ever seen.
That's high praise.
If there were any mistakes made, you didn't know it.
Here did I.
Because there was I mean these people were just played played it straight.
Now there's a couple of times where I heard that maybe a note was missed or something.
But nobody on that stage was phased.
Nobody.
And if you heard it, you were really you were really picking.
Not a single solitary soul.
There was like a couple scenes where they're on top of the thing.
And they're like at the ocean or looking over the city.
And when they did that over the city view, those lights coming in.
That's just like, oh, that's just kick it better.
And I was so into the music.
I was getting annoyed by the people next to us with the cups of the ice on the drinks and
Yeah, kicking the ice.
That's how you, well, you are into the music where.
But he was shaking that cup of the ice.
Drink is empty.
You're, I know you're, you know, like you're alcohol.
It's the $19 glass.
Everyone is done.
And you know what?
When someone like got up or someone shake the ice.
People on the other side of the thing hurt it.
Yeah.
That's how quiet they were listening to this.
Everybody was zoned in.
Like I heard a guy coughing on the floor.
And we were in the fourth deck.
Wow.
I mean, everybody was zoned into this thing.
And when you get into production,
you're, you're two mains.
Danny DeWall and Stuart Ward.
You would swear these two of don't each other for years.
Bear chemistry was so amazing.
What I thought was kind of cool is her family being checklist.
Levocian spoke check, but they spoke English in the production.
But instead of them speaking check and having English subtitles,
they spoke in English and above the bar there was just like a little
LED screen that had what they were saying in check.
So it was like reverse subtitling.
Wow.
Which I thought was kind of cool.
Yeah.
Because what it did is it gave you that sense of what was going on.
And you didn't have to try to take your eyes away from what was going on the stage.
And you got someone to the music, but they added comedy.
Some good, and then comedy moments were perfect.
Stuart Ward.
Before it's wise.
This dude was on.
His performance just, he, he glides from scene to scene.
And again, everything's played live.
So there's times where he's playing an acoustic guitar in performance right in the middle of the stage.
Kind of mighty.
I have to give a shout out.
Please do.
I, you know, played a mean viola back there.
Yes, you did.
And then it's well documented on this show.
But Eric has went down on the vital one.
That's awesome.
She plays the female sister.
Who is, she likes to party a little bit.
And I mean, I think of outside of Ward, even though she was playing check,
she reminded me more of an Irish person just because she had the little white street.
The white street.
Yeah.
But her and the violin.
I was critical on that.
And she was to the, and just Stuart Ward with his voice in the music in the guitar.
You can ask any better.
And I want to say this on the music.
You know, I want to put my little word on this here.
Rarely this has happened.
Where I'm about ready to break out and get it to hear my eye.
You never ever see that.
There's about there was about four times rise about ready just to get that to your ruin.
It was that incredible.
The music.
I was just like, this is the perfect soundtrack.
This is the music.
This is what I call the best musical I've ever seen.
You know, that kind of music is top notch beyond belief.
You know, when you love music or hate music, you see this.
You're going to love the music.
Evan Harrington as Billy.
And I said this in my written review on the,
The clubhouse podcast.com or website.
He was the comic relief without being the comic relief.
If that makes any sense to you.
It was such a natural organic relationship that he had with both of the leads.
That he was the funny one.
But it wasn't like the whack.
It is smack.
He knew kind of a guy.
Okay.
He was that natural organic funny that made him the comic relief without him being the comic.
He's a lighthearted, likable guy.
That's a way.
If they had done for it in the cast, he'd be playing me.
And another one, I either had a smaller role.
But I thought just crushed me.
Scott Wara as the father in the very, very beginning of the production.
One of the girls that's down in front of him.
He says, when a pretty girl asks a man to sing a song, he can't tell her no.
And he sings a song that's based on an Irish poem.
That will break you down molecularly.
And he doesn't have much involvement after that.
Except he has a couple of scenes with the male lead as his father.
But my god, man.
That saw it just once he started that song, you could have heard a pin drop from 90 yards out.
Everybody was in.
It was just brilliantly set up.
And I have to give a, you know, met mechanicalists who did the drums in the back there and the bar there.
Oh, yeah.
Yeah.
Mr. Energy.
Yeah.
Mr. Energy.
Yeah, but he had some great comic throughout, but he played about everything too.
I just cannot find anything wrong with this music.
I'm speechless.
Still on this thing.
Yeah, I have been trying to say, how do you describe greatness?
In act two, they take the song that's at the end of act one.
In act two, as they're doing a transition, they do it acapella.
And it's the entire cast.
And it's just, it's moving.
It is ridiculously good.
There's words, I can't find the words to properly frame how good this was.
And when they play falling slowly twice,
Oh, yeah.
Here are my eyeball times.
The first time I was hooked after that, it's just like,
I don't want this thing to end.
I don't care how they, they could go for another two out.
Yes.
And I would not be bored.
And the film now available on Blu-ray as well for the first time.
I, you don't, I haven't seen the film yet.
I, number one, I'm going to watch it now for sure.
Sure.
Don't have to know anything about it going through this just no,
you're about to have your brain melted for two and a half hours.
Because it ran two and a half hours solid with a 15 minute animation.
And got home late, didn't care.
And everybody leaving didn't care either.
Yeah, I mean, it was 10, 30 seconds.
I was listening to a lot of the conversations of people as we were leaving.
And everybody that I could hear, there was not a negative thing.
I heard said by anybody as we were walking out of the windspear.
This show, honestly, in my opinion, is not getting the respect it deserves.
And also, if it didn't have a, if this thing doesn't have a bajillion tonies behind it,
there's something wrong.
Number two, it was in the windspear.
Oh, yeah.
The music in that.
We were, I, I made a point when we were watching the show that we were probably about 100 yards away from the middle of the stage.
He's done.
He's great.
He's great.
We could have been 20 feet from the stage.
This, this sound, the sound in this particular production.
And it was interesting because normally when you go to a show,
there's a lot of speaker arrays that pump the sound out.
In this production, Chad, you had one over the center of the stage.
One array on each side.
That was it.
So really bare bones.
Because the acoustics in that room are so good.
Any more than that, and you're going to start bleeding.
Well, and you're, you're talking about musical numbers.
It aren't really bombastic though, right?
And I'm not talking like Phantom of the Opera size.
No, no, no, no, no.
But it's full enough.
And it's basically the only electric instrument I saw was a base.
And I still think he was playing that acoustic.
Everything was acoustic.
There were no, there were no amps on the stage.
That's good.
Yeah.
Now, we have to warn there is some language.
But you got a teenager or above.
You know, it's, it's fine.
And you got, well, you got the kids with the clothes in the hair.
You know, if you take the kids to the clothes and the hair on this thing,
they're going to, they're going to go just in who's your daughter would die at this thing.
Really, I'm not kidding you.
I think my god daughter would dig this the most.
It is absolute brilliant.
You, and it's, you know, of course, they're speaking in their accents.
But you understand every word that's going on.
It's not like you're like, what did you say?
What do you say?
You're right there the whole time.
And the fact, another thing that kind of blew me away,
and you don't really notice it until the second act,
when Danny DeWall, when she sings,
she's got the check accent when she's singing.
That's not easy to do.
Yeah, and because I was listening for it,
and there was, there's a song that that she sings by herself.
It's called the, it's called the Hill.
And when she started, she's just her and a piano on the stage.
Hello, piano.
You with me on that?
Totally.
It's just, it's spot on.
She never leaves character.
And you know how normally when you go see a show,
and they bring each people, each person out individually at the end,
no sir.
Everybody together on the stage leaves the stage.
Everybody comes back together and bows again.
Ensemble piece from start to finish.
Absolutely.
No doubt in my mind.
This thing did not drag your soul into the plot.
Even though the plot is kind of simplistic when you think about it.
Yeah, but it's a lot of fun.
But it was, you were so into it.
You know, like, oh my god, the intermissions are already going right now.
Yeah.
Oh, it is.
I was saying, please keep,
I cannot say.
I cannot say.
I cannot say enough good things about this show.
And I guess I'm going to say it right now publicly.
And it's also going to be on my review at the,
on our website at the clubhousepodcast.com.
That is our website.
Okay.
Out of everything I've seen so far this year,
every movie, every performance.
This by far was the best thing I've seen all year as press as a critic.
And we cannot thank enough.
Oh, Cindy.
Thank you.
Cindy for giving us the opportunity.
The Winspir Opera House,
AT&T Pack.org.
Cindy, we thank you so very much for letting us see this thing.
This, this production wrecked it.
Absolutely wrecked it.
So let's get into the final analysis.
This is going to be real easy to be exactly.
Normally, in our show,
you're not going to get letter grades.
You're not going to get thumbs up thumbs down.
You're not going to get stars.
You're not going to get a number ranking.
Our audience, the empire, better than that.
So here's what we're going to do.
Normally, the first question remains the same of the two.
Would you see this again?
If the answer is no, then we're done here.
If the answer is yes,
since this is a stage production,
we're not going to say how would you see it again.
We're saying what level of ticket price
would you be willing to pay to see this again?
So done.
Let's start it up.
Would you see this production again?
Put that in doubt.
Totally.
And whether I would,
what level I pay,
would I pay like the bottom floor?
We pay the first level,
this B level,
the DC level, E level.
I would pay totally.
I would pay any ticket price to see this again.
If only tickets they have are the fifth row.
Take those tickets.
So you don't miss this thing.
If you're in the top row,
seat get into the building to see this.
I could not agree with you more.
If I go see this,
go see it now.
Listen to this podcast on the way to seeing it.
See it now.
See it tomorrow.
See it again.
It is that good.
It's going through the December 28th at the Winspir Opera House.
And then it's going to go to Bass Performance Hall on Fort Worth from there.
Exactly.
Touring the country.
When it comes to where you are,
you have to make an effort to see this.
No matter who you are.
Wonderful.
You know,
Winspir Opera House.
The tickets I have is just a top row.
Take it because it don't matter where you're at.
And this thing,
because that place is so great.
And the show is so great.
Any ticket, any price.
Just get your body into the door to watch this thing.
All right.
Let's take a breath and do the plug.
Totally.
Visit our website,
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I am a yes that Rob Irvin.
That is spelled ERV.
I am.
I am at chat in PG69.
I'm at Fondongo.
And you can email me at Don at the clubhousepodcast.com.
Let Don know.
We love doing live shows to wherever you are.
You can email me.
Questions, comments, concerns.
I am Rob at theclubhousepodcast.com.
I am chat at theclubhousepodcast.com.
Charlotte Parker is on Pinterest
because we are morally obligated to say that.
And Jules Womack.
She probably know more about this.
This area of the world and probably the three of us can buy.
Because she is closer to it.
Our normal show every Sunday night,
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Or just keep subscribing on iTunes as we appreciate that as well.
So until the next time we talk for Don,
for Chad, for the Empire,
my name is Rob,
the clubhouse is closed.
Brittany Palmer,
you can work this in.
Teach you how to play the violin.
I am just saying.
Come here.
We are just going to show you how to play.
We are going to show you how to play the violin.
The preceding was a sooner or later production.
Get it, get it.
Why?
Because I have to.
How are you?
How are you?
How are you?
How are you?
How am I?
How are you?
Hey I'm yours.
Sorry.