ONCE to Play 1,000th Performance on Broadway Next Week

The Tony and Grammy Award-winning Best Musical Once, will celebrate its 1000th performance on Broadway on Wednesday, August 13. Following the 8:00pm performance, Once composer Glen Hansard, who flies in from Los Angeles after performing songs from his new album at the Hollywood Bowl, will join the cast on stage at the curtain call.

ONCE is based on the 2007 Academy Award-winning film and plays on Broadway at the Bernard B. Jacobs Theatre (242 West 45th Street). The production opened to rave reviews on Sunday, March 18, 2012.

ONCE won eight Tony Awards including Best Musical. The production was also named Best Musical by the New York Drama Critics Circle, Drama Desk, Drama League, Outer Critics Circle and Lucille Lortel Awards.

ONCE is the winner of the 2013 Grammy Award for Best Musical Theater Album.

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 cast of Once features Paul Alexander Nolan as 'Guy' and Jessie Fisher as 'Girl.' Also in the company are Laurel Griggs, David Patrick Kelly, Katrina Lenk, Anne L. Nathan, Madeleine Pace, Lucas Papaelias, Scott Stangland, Andy Taylor, Ryan Vona, Erikka Walsh, Paul Whitty, and J. Michael Zygo.

ONCE is now playing in London's West End at the Phoenix Theatre where it opened April 9, 2013 after premiering to critical acclaim in Dublin in February, 2013. Once is also playing to rave reviews in cities around the country on a US national tour which was launched by The Road Company in Fall, 2013. Once will also open in Australia and Toronto soon. The London production of the Tony and Grammy Award-winning hit musical Once won two Olivier Awards and the National Tour of Once received a 2014 Elliot Norton Award nomination for Outstanding Musical Production by a Large Theater. The hit musical has now amassed 51 award nominations and 24 awards from around the world.

Featuring an impressive ensemble of actor/musicians who play their own instruments onstage, Once tells the enchanting tale of a Dublin street musician who's about to give up on his dream when a beautiful young woman takes a sudden interest in his haunting love songs. As the chemistry between them grows, his music soars to powerful new heights... but their unlikely connection turns out to be deeper and more complex than your everyday romance. Emotionally captivating and theatrically breathtaking, Once draws you in from the very first note and never lets go. It's an unforgettable story about going for your dreams and the power of music to connect us all.

The original cast recording of Once is available via MASTERWORKS BROADWAY, a label of Sony Masterworks. Visit www.MasterworksBroadway.com for more information.

Photo by Joan Marcus