Tuesday, December 6, 2011

NYC Staging of Musical "Once" Opens

A musical adaptation of the Oscar-winning film Once has hit New York stages at off-Broadway's New York Theatre Workshop in the East Village. The space, where the original off-Broadway production of Rent opened fifteen years ago, has now taken the form of an Irish pub -- whiskey bottles and all -- for the Irish pop and folk themed musical inspired by the indie film.

As with the movie, the musical is all about the songs. Playbill.com says that, "Plaintive and rousing songs by Irish troubadour Glen Hansard and Czech musician Markéta Irglová, who appeared as mismatched would-be lovers in the picture and won the 2008 Academy Award for writing its hypnotic signature ballad, Falling Slowly, populate the new musical. The songs from the film and subsequent songs by The Swell Season (Hansard & Irglová's band) — as well as Irish and Czech folk songs — are folded into the stage experience." The staging is simple, with the pub floor acting as "the neutral ground for multiple scenes that reimagine the original screenplay."

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