South Bay Actress-Singer Takes On Tony Award-winning 'Once'

SAN JOSE, CA — When South Bay actress-musician-singer Devin Renee Kelly took up the violin at age 11, it was a match made in heaven. It also showed her a passion and a talent that propelled her beyond her adolescent years. It also gave her a multi-pronged career.

Today, she splits her time between teaching music and acting in musicals. The versatile, hard-working performer has taken her classical violin training and evolved into the fiddle. It helped early on that she gave her parents relief by being a quick study. The violin is not only one of the hardest instruments to learn, it can be the "screechiest." So those in the household really need to love the one learning.

"I warn them: 'You'll have this for a while,'" she said of what she tells her violin students' parents.

Kelly is the consummate professional, ready to take on any challenge as it comes her way. With all the 32-year-old performer's background since attending the Berkeley College of Music in voice performance, nothing could prepare her for the "amazing experience" that is "Once" — an eight-time Tony award-winning play that originated on Broadway and comes to San Francisco through 42nd Street Moon productions.

Right off the bat, or rather beat, the cast serves in the orchestra. Think of it as a triathlon in the arts and entertainment world. Instead of swimming, cycling and running, Kelly is singing, playing and dancing — an aerobic test of carrying three jobs. In a total bonding experience, the cast even "jams" together on stage aside from the play.

If anything, "Once" provides the audience with an inside, plain view of what it takes to put on a production. Kelly said that even her veteran musical theater colleagues admitted to "never" having that kind of expanded role.

"This makes it extremely unique," she said. "We're actually pretty graceful."

In a production she deems her favorite playing Reza — a Czech immigrant and one of the lead's roommate referred to as "Girl," the whole cast delves into the complexity of love. Don't let the label musical fool you with grandiose claims of "boy meets girl and lives happily ever after." Far from it.

There's unrequited love, and something so tender and bittersweet about the play. The actress even hinted that when asked if the lead actor "Guy" belongs with Girl, she gave a resounding "no" but then qualified the answer with love's "multiple possibilities" and the chance that "there's always hope."

The story starts with a lovelorn Guy playing guitar, who meets Girl through a pledge of a vacuum cleaner repair. It evolves into their relationship, albeit distant at times but always strong in different variations.

"It's a love story that is rooted in reality that you don't get to see in musical theater. It's that even in couples in love, there's always something that comes up. This story embodies that. It forces you to think about love, but it has its funny moments. People will know how it feels," she said.

Kelly went on to say that even the ending (no spoiler here) doesn't result in a universal reaction, as evidenced by her own cast members' assessment.

The performer saw "Once" during its Los Angeles tour.

"I truly recommend it. It's an experience you rarely get in musical theater," she said.

"Once" will play at the Gateway Theatre at 215 Jackson St. in San Francisco starting June 15 at 6 p.m. Tickets range from $28 - $75 and can be purchased through the Box Office at 415-255-8207 or online at www.42ndstmoon.org.

Based on the 2007 movie, "Once" tells of an Irish musician who learns to love and dream again through a fateful week with a Czech immigrant. Heart-breakingly romantic but also bursting with joy and humor, the play features a lively folk score - with the onstage actors playing their own instruments. It's the only score to have won an Oscar, Grammy, Tony, and Olivier Award.

"'Once' is the kind of show that gets inside you and rattles you with recognition,” Director Cindy Goldfield said. “In addition to the themes of immigration and cross-cultural migration, we watch the two characters connect and find a shared passion and sensibility, and while doing so, we remember our own version of this universal heartache."

Other theater productions to continue in 42 Street Moon's seasons include:

• "The Oldest Living Cater Waiter" starting June 23
• "Titanic, the Musical" starting Sept. 7
• "Hot Mikado" starting Sept. 24
• "Scrooge in Love" starting Dec. 4
• "A Gentleman's Guide to Love and Murder" starting Feb. 26, 2020
• "The Pajama Game" starting April 15
• "Merrily We Roll Along" starting May 13