ONCE, the 11 time Tony nominated musical just celebrated its best week at the box office yet at the Bernard B. Jacobs Theatre (242 West 45th Street), grossing $827,501 for the week ending June 3, 2012. ONCE has more award nominations than any other show this season and this past weekend won 4 Drama Desk Awards, including Best Musical.
Learn about the ONCE Tony Nominees.
Steve Kazee – Best Actor in a Musical
NEW YORK TIMES, ARTS & LEISURE
A Role That Cuts Close to His Heart
“By all outward appearances this should be the happiest year of Steve Kazee’s career. In January this 36-year-old actor finished an acclaimed Off Broadway run of the new musical ‘Once,’ playing a bereft Dublin guitarist who falls for a Czech pianist. Now the show is on Broadway, and he has just received his first nomination for a best actor Tony Award.”
Cristin Milioti – Best Actress in a Musical
WALL STREET JOURNAL
There Once Was A Girl
“It’s a role that requires her to navigate the keyboard with authority and ardor. It’s a role she almost didn’t get to play because of what she didn’t know how to play. And here—triumphal arpeggio, please—is the happy ending: On Tuesday Ms. Milioti was nominated for a Tony. “It’s an incredible honor, and I am beyond grateful. I’m amazed and stunned,” she said in an email. “But mostly I can’t wait to do the show tonight.”
Elizabeth Davis – Best Actress in a Featured Role
ASSOCIATED PRESS
Once star Elizabeth A. Davis celebrates Tony nod
“Elizabeth A. Davis is the kind of woman who sets goals, writes them down and puts them on the fridge. It just makes sense. People need to know where they’re going. If you don’t have a map and you’re driving a car, you’re going to end up who knows where. So I have a map,” says the actress and musician. How’s the journey going these days? I’m getting good gas mileage,” she says with a laugh. Davis is indeed.”
John Tiffany – Best Director of a Musical
& Steven Hoggett – Best Choreography
NEW YORK TIMES- ARTS AND LEISURE
For This Duo, the Mantra Is ‘Action!’
“The British director John Tiffany and his longtime friend Steven Hoggett, a choreographer, shot to international fame in theater circles several years ago for a feat of expressive stagecraft, the transfixing hand gestures and breakneck sprinting and leaping that depicted the pent-up feelings of Scottish soldiers in “Black Watch,” a play about the Iraq war. Yet Mr. Hoggett was dumbfounded when Mr. Tiffany proposed another project about emotionally clenched characters: a musical adaptation of “Once,” a gentle little movie from Dublin about young musicians falling in love sideways as they wander the city.”
Enda Walsh – Best Book of a Musical
BROADWAY.COM
Tony Nominee Enda Walsh on How Writing Once Lightened His Soul
“Anything I have ever written has been about characters finding a voice, or finding clarity in their lives. It’s a very tiny, delicate thing but it can become a powerful theme in the theater—it speaks loudly in those places. The deal, always, with ‘Once’ was to make an ensemble piece of theater where you are watching not just two but 13 people’s lives change. They change in small ways, but in the scale of their own lives, they are big.”
Steven Hogett – Best Choreography
LA TIMES
Steven Hoggett is the anti-dance choreographer
“A choreographer who gets excited by the prospect of numbers that don’t dance is rare indeed. “Push the story forward,” he said. “That is what I am about.” He uses movement “to communicate meaning,” he said, “rather than primarily an aesthetic.” That said, ‘Once’ is filled with rousing dance sequences, all the more remarkable because the dancers accompany themselves.”
Natasha Katz- Best Lighting Design of a Musical
TDF
How Lighting Tells a Broadway Story
“It’s possible that audiences won’t notice these details, since lighting design is notoriously easy to overlook. When it works, we just accept the world it creates, the way we accept the light outside. But that’s how it should be. “The two most important things are the storytelling and the actor,” Katz says. “For me, I’m constantly trying to make that person look great in the context of the piece. Sometimes ‘great’ means they look horrible, because that’s what the story needs, but essentially, you’re trying to pull the actor away from the background.”
Martin Lowe – Best Orchestrations
PLAYBILL ONLINE
Steve Kazee and Once Cast Spin Strings Into Musical “Gold”
“In this first-look video, Steve Kazee and his castmates take to the studio for the original cast recording of Once, the new musical nominated for eleven 2012 Tony Awards, including Best Musical, Best Book of a Musical, Best Actor in a Leading Role, Best Actress in a Leading Role and Best Orchestrations. The lush-yet-understated Glen Hansard and Markéta Irglová compositions sing out with strings aplenty — the troupers wield guitars, mandolins, violins and cellos.
Clive Goodwin – Best Sound Design of a Musical
Stage-Directions magazine
The Harmonious Sound of Once
“The man responsible for finding the delicate aural balance for ‘Once’ is sound designer Clive Goodwin, who is also the resident designer at the American Repertory Theater in Boston, where the show began life. It transferred to the New York Theatre Workshop in downtown Manhattan before landing on Broadway. Goodwin worked closely with musical supervisor Martin Lowe for a realistic sounding show. They succeeded in creating a warm, rich and intimate sonic atmosphere.”
Bob Crowley – Best Scenic Design of a Musical
The Guardian UK 2009 Interview
Bob Crowley has won 5 Tony Awards.
1994 Best Scenic Designer – Carousel
2000 Best Scenic Designer – Aida
2006 Best Scenic Design of a Play – The History Boys
2007 Best Scenic Design of a Play – The Coast of Utopia
2007 Best Scenic Design of a Musical – Mary Poppins
ONCE features a book by award-winning Irish playwright & screenwriter, Enda Walsh (Penelope, Hunger, The New Electric Ballroom), the Academy Award-winning music and lyrics of Glen Hansard and Markéta Irglová, direction by the acclaimed John Tiffany (Black Watch), movement by Steven Hoggett (Black Watch, American Idiot) and music supervision and orchestrations by Martin Lowe (Mamma Mia!).
The set and costume design are by five time Tony Award winner Bob Crowley (The Coast of Utopia, Mary Poppins), lighting design is by Tony winner Natasha Katz (Aida, The Coast of Utopia), and sound design is by Clive Goodwin.
ONCE will begin a US national tour launched by The Road Company in the summer of 2013.
The cast of ONCE features Steve Kazee as ‘Guy’ and Cristin Milioti as ‘Girl.’ Also in the company are David Abeles, Will Connolly, Elizabeth A. Davis, David Patrick Kelly, Anne L. Nathan, Lucas Papaelias, Ripley Sobo, Andy Taylor, Mckayla Twiggs, Erikka Walsh, Paul Whitty, and J. Michael Zygo.
ONCE is the celebrated new musical based on the Academy Award-winning film. It tells the story of an Irish musician and a Czech immigrant drawn together by their shared love of music. Over the course of one fateful week, their unexpected friendship and collaboration evolves into a powerful but complicated romance, heightened by the raw emotion of the songs they create together. Brought to the stage by an award-winning team of visionary artists and featuring an ensemble cast of gifted actor/musicians, ONCE is a musical celebration of life and love: thrilling in its originality, daring in its honesty… and unforgettable in every way.
The 2007 Academy Award-winning film, ONCE, was written and directed by John Carney, and starred Glen Hansard and Markéta Irglová, with original music and lyrics by Mr. Hansard and Ms. Irglová.
The Oscar winning independent Irish film, Once was made for $150,000. Shot in 17 days, it went on to gross $20M worldwide becoming a critically acclaimed international smash. It stars Glen Hansard, from the popular Irish Rock band The Frames, and Markéta Irglová. Glen and Markéta won the 2007 Academy Award for Best Original song for “Falling Slowly,” the Los Angeles Film Critics Award for Best Music, and the soundtrack was nominated for two Grammy Awards.
ONCE was originally developed at the American Repertory Theater (Cambridge, Massachusetts) in April 2011; Diane Paulus, Artistic Director; Diane Borger, Producer.
A developmental run of ONCE at New York Theatre Workshop (James C. Nicola and William Russo) began performances on November 15, 2011 and opened December 6. The production broke box office records and concluded a sold out engagement including a two week extension through January 15th, 2012.
MASTERWORKS BROADWAY, a label of Sony Masterworks, will release the original cast recording of ONCE on March 13th, 2012. Visit www.MasterworksBroadway.com for more information.
A critically-acclaimed new documentary directed by Nick August-Perna, Chris Dapkins, and Carlo Mirabella-Davis, The Swell Season follows singer-songwriters Glen Hansard and Markéta Irglová through a period of extraordinary post-Oscar® intensity and pressure while on a grueling two-year world tour. Their experiences during this time drive both musicians to question their ambitions, identities and, ultimately, their relationship. The Swell Season premieres March 13 from New Video on DVD, digital and on-demand.
ONCE is produced by Barbara Broccoli, John N. Hart Jr., Patrick Milling Smith, Frederick Zollo, Brian Carmody, Michael G. Wilson, Orin Wolf, The Shubert Organization and Executive Producer Robert Cole, in association with New York Theatre Workshop.
Tickets for the Broadway production are now on sale via Telecharge.com or by phone at 212-239-6200.