Valerie Torres-Rosario has starred in Theater West End’s “Once” … twice.

She played the unnamed leading lady, identified as Girl in the musical, in 2021 for director Derek Critzer at the Sanford theater — and won the Leading Actress in a Musical award in the Sentinel’s annual year-end theater honors. Then Critzer invited her back for the revival of the show that’s currently running.

It’s unusual for an actor to get the chance to revisit a role that way, and Torres-Rosario is relishing it.

“It’s been lovely to reflect on who I was then and who I am now,” she says. “I don’t take that for granted.”

And a lot has happened during the four years between stepping into Girl’s shoes. Torres-Rosario left Florida, where she had lived nearly all her life, for New York City. And she performed on Broadway, in the Lincoln Center production of “Camelot.”

All that has helped her bring even more depth to the role of Girl this time around.

“I’ve had four years of life informing me of all the other possibilities that could exist,” she says.

Born in Puerto Rico, Torres-Rosario has led a life of possibilities. Seeking opportunities, her parents moved the family to Florida — first High Springs, then Gainesville — when she was a child. Her bilingual upbringing gave her a love of languages, but she started pursuing a pre-med degree at the University of Florida. She graduated, however, with a bachelor’s of fine arts.

In 2019, Valerie Torres-Rosario played Girl in “Once” for Theater West End — for the first time. She’s pictured opposite costar Andrew Romano. (Orlando Sentinel file photo)

“It was a debate I was having with myself,” she says with a laugh.

Fortunately for theatergoers, the arts won out.

In 2018, after graduating, Torres-Rosario moved to Orlando.

“I could have gone to New York first,” she says. “However, I thought I’d like to experience adulthood in the context of the state I was familiar with. I thought, ‘If the city calls, the city calls. Let me get my feet under me first.’”

Like any Orlando-based performer, she considered the theme parks for employment — but nothing ever worked out.

Valerie Torres-Rosario won acclaim for playing Peron’s Mistress in the 2019 Orlando Shakes production of “Evita.” (Orlando Sentinel file photo)

“I never ended up doing anything in the parks,” she says with another laugh. “I tried, though, I sure did try.”

But Central Florida stages embraced her, from playing Nina in Osceola Arts’ “In the Heights” to “Lucy” in “A Class Act” at the Garden Theatre to an Irving Berlin fan in “Steppin’ Out” at Winter Park Playhouse to a particularly acclaimed turn as Peron’s Mistress in “Evita” for Orlando Shakes. (I described that performance as “exquisitely heartbreaking”).

And, of course, her first time as Girl in “Once.”

Critzer vividly remembers why he cast her.

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“Valerie to me embodies this role,” he says. “She has Girl’s strength and her vulnerability, her sweetness and her ability to stand up for herself. I knew she could find the heart and the comedy in her and not let one overshadow the other. I also knew how deep she would fall into this character and how much of herself she would find in her, and I am very grateful about how right I was.”

For Torres-Rosario, it was a role that came with sentimental feelings.

“‘Once’ was the first Broadway show I ever saw, and it shifted so much of what I thought musical theater could be,” she says. “I was so moved and impressed… it was not a shiny spectacle, it lives in the heart.”

The musical tells the story of an Irishman who dreams of being a musician but has lost his way after a painful breakup. The Girl, a Czech immigrant to Ireland, comes into his life unexpectedly and helps him re-find his footing, even as he helps unfreeze her battered heart.

“I think it’s written so well,” Torres-Rosario says. “Sometimes in grief or troubles, one of the best things you can do is pour into others, and I think that’s the reality of Girl’s life. It’s so much easier to see the way out for a friend than for oneself.”

After the initial “Once,” New York City did come calling.

Valerie Torres-Rosario played Lucy in “A Class Act” at the Garden Theatre. (Orlando Sentinel file photo)

“It was quite the adjustment, I think it challenged me in all the right ways,” she says of relocating to the Big Apple. “But I moved in the best circumstances — knowing I had a job on Broadway. Wild. Bonkers. Bananas.”

“Camelot” was a high-profile production because Aaron Sorkin, writer of TV’s “The West Wing” and fresh off the success of his “To Kill a Mockingbird” Broadway adaptation, had been hired to update the 1960 musical.

Torres-Rosario was a swing, meaning she had to learn six different “tracks” in the ensemble so she could cover when various performers were unavailable. And she went on in all six, called a “Swing-o,” like Bingo, in the biz.

“To be a swing is tough,” she says. “It’s a testament to the people I worked with that I could do something so scary with such ease.”

She also understudied the lead role of Guinevere. Though she never got to perform the role for an audience, she did do a complete rehearsal in the part for the creative team.

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“It really affirmed to me that I am capable of leading a show at that level,” she says. “It was so encouraging that people trusted me, that people welcomed what I had to offer.”

She also performed that rehearsal in a wig cap — but no wig — which adds a bit of levity to a profound memory.

“The words I received after that rehearsal filled me up and affirmed me in such powerful yet gentle ways,” she says. “The fact I could do the work and still move people in that way — so much so that they forgot I was bald!”

In the new year, she’ll be looking for new gigs — and that “P” word comes up again.

“2026 is currently wide open,” she says. “It’s an abundance of possibilities.”

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She’s keeping busy with a day job in marketing, auditioning, contributing to the workshop of a new musical and teaching voice lessons.

“Being an educator is so special. I feel like I’m learning so much,” she says.

“Oh, that’s such a cliche,” she adds, laughing. “Why do cliches have to be true?”

Meanwhile, she’s enjoying her brief visit to Florida, to see family for the holidays and, of course, to revisit “Once.”

“Torres-Rosario makes this woman resonate as real, while letting us see the warmth under the abruptly direct demeanor with which she cloaks herself. And her singing voice is first-rate,” I wrote in my 2019 review.

The actor feels Girl deeply.

“She tends to linger for a while,” Torres-Rosario says. “I’m still holding a lot of her emotion and story.”

Valerie Torres-Rosario and Andrew Heidorn star in Theater West End’s current production of “Once.” (Courtesy Jose Carlos Rivera via Theater West End)

There’s been a moment of deja vu in her return to Theater West End.

“I happened to catch myself in the mirror and had an emotional flashback to when I caught myself in the mirror stepping on stage four years ago,” she says.

And she’s grateful to again share the uplifting life-is-worth-living message of “Once” with theatergoers.

“I really hope audiences continue to be moved,” she says, and “hopefully feel galvanized to not wait to chase your dreams.”

Because, take it from Torres-Rosario, those dreams are full of possibilities.

Follow me at facebook.com/matthew.j.palm or email me at mpalm@orlandosentinel.com. Find more entertainment news and reviews at orlandosentinel.com/entertainment or sign up to receive our weekly emailed Entertainment newsletter.

‘Once’

Length: 2:20, including intermission
Where: Theater West End, 115 W. 1st St. in Sanford
When: Through Dec. 21
Cost: $25 and up
Info: theaterwestend.com

https://www.orlandosentinel.com/2025/12/02/valerie-torres-rosario-once-theater-west-end/