Once - New Wolsey Theatre

Once

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A Broadway and West End hit musical that's a ravishing love story with a bittersweet difference, Once casts a spell over the audience just as its two lead characters cast a spell over each other.

Based on a cult 2006 Irish indie feature, originally shot on a micro-budget of just $160,000, it tells the uplifting yet yearning story of a part-time Dublin guitarist busker (who works by day in his dad's Hoover repair shop) who falls unexpectedly in love with a young Czech immigrant fellow musician. As we follow their relationship across five short days, big changes happen to both of them in little ways.

As conjured by a score of original Irish-inflected songs, written by the original stars of the film Glen Hansard and Markéta Irglová, the atmosphere is partly a busked concert and partly an aching romance that feels both spontaneous and freshly minted. The music, played live by the actors themselves, is alternately beautiful and rousing, and Enda Walsh's script quietly overwhelms with its sense of spirit, sincerity and solitude.

There's no other show quite like it. It's the most unusual, unique and affecting musical you're ever likely to see. It has a spontaneous free-form improvisatory vitality, yet it is also emotionally precise in the understated air of longing that anyone who has ever been in love will recognise instantly.

And audiences will fall head over heels in love with the show, too. Once is a genuine one-off which you'll need to see at least once -- but it's also unlikely to be your last time, as you'll want to see it again (and again).


Cast & Creatives

Dan Healy — Guy

Emma Lucia — Girl

Ellen Chivers — Riza

Susannah Van Den Berg — Baruska

Lloyd Gorman — Svec

Lloyd trained at Rose Bruford College.

Lloyd’s Theatre credits include: The Jungle Book (Royal and Derngate Northampton & UK Tour), Worst Wedding Ever (Salisbury Playhouse and Tour), Sunny Afternoon (Harold Pinter Theatre, West End), Nicobobinus (Dumbwise/UK Tour), Saturday Night (Arts Theatre, West End), Our House (New Wolsey Theatre/UK Tour),The Story Giant (Shanty Theatre Company), Faust (Greenwich Theatre), Anyone Can Whistle (Jermyn Street), Pinocchio (Tolmen Centre), The Wonderful Wizard of Oz, Sweeney Todd, Romeo and Juliet, David Copperfield, White Nights and The Nose and Harmless (Octagon Theatre, Bolton), Fewer Emergencies (Deptford Albany), Grimethorpe Race (Arcola) and Treasure Island (UK Tour).

Samuel Martin — Bank Manager

James William-Patterson — Andrej

Dan Bottomley — Billy

Matt Burns — Eamon

David Haywood — Emcee

Rosalind Ford — Ex-Girlfriend

Peter Peverley — Da

 

 

Emma Fraser — Onstage swing

Hannah Khogoli — Onstage Swing

Conor McFarlane — Onstage Swing

Sean Keany — Onstage Swing


Reviews of Once

What the press say


The folk score (composed by Glen Hansard and Markéta Irglová), played by a cast of incredible actor-musicians, will be sure to tug on your heartstrings.

Whats On Stage

★ ★ ★ ★ ★

Musical Theatre Review

★ ★ ★ ★

The Stage

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