John Carney’s musical Once was a winsome romance that co-starred Glen Hansard and Markéta Irglová. This Irish indie centered on a street busker who falls for a Czech immigrant, and made waves with a soundtrack full of heartstring-tugging tracks created by the film’s stars, which led to Oscar gold for “Falling Slowly.”
This endearing bittersweet musical will be heading to Broadway this Fall, but there’s no mention of the films’ stars reprising their roles. According to Variety, the production will be mounted by a creative team that includes playwright Enda Walsh, Mary Poppins designer Bob Crowley, director John Tiffany, and American Idiot choreographer Stephen Hoggett. Once will be Tiffany and Walsh’s Broadway debut, though the latter found success with a string of Off Broadway plays including The Walworth Farce, The New Electric Ballroom, and Penelope. A workshop staging of the adaptation will go up by April in Cambridge, Massachusetts at the American Repertory Theater, but no solid dates have yet been set for the Broadway run.
Once was one of my favorite films of 2007, which led me to see Hansard and Irglová in concert as The Swell Season. The experience of the latter met my high hopes, as the pair’s onstage performance was as full of grace, whimsy, and charm as the film that introduced me to them and their music. While part of me is interested in this theatrical interpretation, I worry that the simple graces inherent in the low-budget film and the dressed down song constructions won’t translate to the grandiose stages of Broadway.
How about you? What do you think of Once hitting the Great White Way?