ONCE, winner of eight Tony Awards including Best Musical and winner of the 2013 Grammy Award for Best Musical Theater Album, will play Tennessee Performing Arts Center’s Andrew Jackson Hall for a limited, one-week engagement from September 16-21. Tickets are now on sale at TPAC.org, by phone at 615-782-4040, and at the TPAC Box Office, 505 Deaderick Street, in downtown Nashville. For group tickets, call 615-782-4060.
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.
Once, which also was named Best Musical by the New York Drama Critics’ Circle, Drama Desk, Drama League, Outer Critics Circle and Lucille Lortel Awards, currently is running on Broadway at the Bernard B. Jacobs Theatre where it started performances on February 28, 2012. Once features the Academy Award-winning music and lyrics of Glen Hansard and Markéta Irglová, a book by award-winning Irish playwright and screenwriter, Enda Walsh (Penelope, Hunger, The New Electric Ballroom), direction by the acclaimed Scottish director of Black Watch, John Tiffany, movement by Steven Hoggett (Black Watch, American Idiot) and music supervision and orchestrations by Martin Lowe (Mamma Mia!).
“We are excited to bring Once to Nashville, not only because of the beautiful story it tells between a guy and a girl, but because this is the ultimate musician’s show,” said Kathleen O’Brien, TPAC president and chief executive officer. “The skill of this cast goes beyond singing and dancing. The actors stir emotions in you from the moment the first note is sung.”
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 $20 million 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 originally was developed at the American Repertory Theatre (Cambridge, Massachusetts) in April 2011.
For more information, visit www.oncemusical.com. Once is the first production featured in the 2014-15 HCA/TriStar Health Broadway at TPAC season. Performance schedule, prices, and cast are subject to change without notice. The season is supported by The HCA Foundation on behalf of HCA and the TriStar Family of Hospitals. Institutional sponsors for TPAC include Nissan North America, and Coca-Cola. TPAC is funded in part by support from the Tennessee Arts Commission and the Metropolitan Nashville Arts Commission. TPAC reminds ticket buyers that the only official place to buy tickets online is TPAC.org
