HELLO THERE BROADWAY FANS!! The 95th Annual Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade is just 26 DAYS from now. Because this legendary MIRACLE ON 34TH STREET has continued to be so supportive of our Theater scene, we at New York Broadway Tours continue to entertain you each day with more iconic performances from previous telecasts on our TOP 30 BROADWAY AT MACY’S COUNTDOWN. There are more legendary performances coming your way. Here we go.
At # 26 on our countdown, we take you deep into the streets of Dublin, Ireland. There, we meet a struggling Irish musician and a Czech immigrant who meet, collaborate, write a song together, and fall in love. This is Once. Based on the 2007 Oscar winning film of the same name, the show features the score from the film (plus new tunes) written by its creators Glen Hansard and Markéta Irglová along with a book by Enda Walsh.
From the 2012 CBS telecast coming to you on the stage of it’s then home at Broadway’s Bernard B. Jacobs Theatre, here is Tony winner Steve Kazee as “Guy” (the Irish musician), Tony nominee Cristin Milioti as “Girl (the Czech musician), and the original Broadway cast performing the musical’s Oscar winning theme FALLING SLOWLY.
ONCE was developed as a stage musical just a few years after the original 2007 film became a huge smash.. Glen Hansard and Markéta Irglová began work on adapting what they delivered on screen to the stage.
It was fully developed through a workshop lab at the American Repertory Theater in Cambridge, MA. Following the success of that, the first full scale production would make its way to the Big Apple in the Fall of that same year of 2011 playing Off Broadway’s New York Theatre Workshop. The run was a huge success and SOLD OUT, it officially made the move uptown.
ONCE officially arrived on Broadway in the Spring of 2012. It played the Bernard B. Jacobs Theatre for a 2 1/2 year run of 22 previews and 1,167 performances. Yup, 2022 will mark the 10TH ANNIVERSARY of the show’s ON Broadway debut.
Under the direction of John Tiffany and choreography by Steven Hoggett, the cast of actor-musicians starred….
Tony winner Steve Kazee (later Ben Hope, Arthur Darvill, and Paul Alexander Nolan) as “Guy”,
Tony nominee Cristin Milioti (later Laura Dreyfuss, Joanna Christie, and Jessie Fisher) as “Girl”,
Tony nominee Elizabeth A. Davis (later Claire Wellin and Tony winner Katrina Lenk) as “Reza”,
Will Connolly (later Carlos Valdes) as “Andrej”,
Erikka Walsh as “Ex-Girlfriend”,
David Abeles as “Eamon”,
Anne L Nathan as “Baruska”,
David Patrick Kelly as “Da”,
Lucas Papaelias as “Svec”,
Paul Whitty as “Billy”,
Andy Taylor as “The Bank Manager”,
J Michael Zygo as “The Emcee”,
and
a rotating set of young girls as “Ivanka”.
ONCE earned rave reviews by critics and Theatergoers alike. It would go on to be nominated for 11 Tony Awards that year winning 8 including BEST MUSICAL. It also won various other Awards including 4 Drama Desk Awards (including OUTSTANDING MUSICAL). Also, the show’s original Broadway cast recording would go on to top the charts and win the 2013 Grammy Award for BEST MUSICAL THEATRE ALBUM.
Following the success of its Broadway run, the show went on to wow audiences around the world. It had its UK premiere in Dublin, Ireland (where the show takes place) which later London’s West End also for a 2 year run at the Phoenix Theatre. That company would go on to be nominated for 6 and win 2 Olivier Awards in 2014.
Other productions included 3 North American National Touring companies, Australia, Seoul, and was expecting to launch a UK/Ireland Touring company.
Currently, Music Theatre International holds the rights for all productions of ONCE being performed at a local Theater near you….. we’re talking schools, community, and regional theaters everywhere.
Isn’t this show so beautifully laid back and intimate?!!
