Photo Flash: Fall Slowly Into Paramount's New Production of ONCE

Aurora's Paramount Theatre - Chicago's most decorated theater at the 2017 Jeff Awards with the second largest subscriber base in the nation - is excited to present the first Chicago-area regional staging of the Tony Award-winning Best Musical Once to close its 2017-18 Broadway Series.

Paramount Artistic Director Jim Corti and Music Director Tom Vendafreddo, who together helmed the Jeff Award-winning Best Production-Musical-Large for the past three seasons, are teaming up again to stage this modern-day musical about an Irish busker (Guy), his immigrant fan (Girl) and their eventful week in Dublin as they write, rehearse and record songs from which their beautiful love story unfolds.

Barry DeBois and Tiffany Topol, both nationally acclaimed actor/musicians, will play the leads, surrounded on Paramount's glorious stage by fantastically talented co-stars and top-notch production values.

Grand in its themes of love and longing, yet simple and subtle in its execution, Paramount's new production of Once will remind people that in today's world where we're all struggling to connect, often the simplest way is through song.

Previews of Once begin April 25, 2018. Press opening is Saturday, April 28 at 8 p.m.Once runs through June 3: Wednesday at 1:30 p.m. and 7 p.m.; Thursday at 7 p.m.;Friday at 8 p.m.; Saturday at 3 p.m. and 8 p.m.; and Sunday at 1 p.m. and 5:30 p.m.

Single tickets to Once are $36 to $64. For tickets, visit ParamountAurora.com, call (630) 896-6666, or stop by the Paramount box office Monday through Saturday, 10 a.m. to 6 p.m., and two hours prior to evening performances.

The Paramount, located at 23 E. Galena Blvd. in downtown Aurora, is surrounded by affordable parking and a variety of restaurants. Once is rated PG-13 for some four-letter words and mild sexual innuendo.

People come into our lives for a reason. Sometimes it leaves us with joy, other times with sorrow. But it's what we do with those chance encounters that truly define who we are.

Guy and Girl, as they're known throughout the show, share a fateful meeting on the bustling streets of Dublin spurred by their mutual love for music. Guy is a singer about to give up his dream. Girl is a fan entranced by his music. Their story begins when he tells her of his day job as a vacuum repairman. Lucky for him, she's got a Hoover that "doesn't suck." When she asks him to fix it, she says she can only pay with a song. That song is all it takes for Guy and Girl to fall in love, but with that love also comes baggage. Guy has an ex he can't get out of his head, and Girl has an estranged husband and a daughter. What's holding them back couldn't be heavier, but when it comes to love, the only thing that can stop them is life.

Hailed as "glorious and inspiring," "gorgeous" and "complete magic," Once, based on the Oscar- winning movie, won eight Tony Awards in 2012, including Best Musical, Best Actor and Best Book. Enda Walsh penned the book, with music and lyrics by Glen Hansard and Markéta Irglová, who also originated the roles of Guy and Girl in the 2007 film written and directed by John Carney. The signature song from Once, "Falling Slowly," went on to win the Academy Award for Best Original Song.

In his weekly "Tuesdays with Corti" blog post recently, Paramount Artistic Director Jim Corti wrote, "Every time I play back these songs, the greatness in this score by Glen Hansard and Markéta Irglová becomes more and more real and compelling and like a dream coming true as the time approaches for us to be bringing Once to our audience. The story is a tale of how we can make a change in someone that lasts a lifetime through simply loving selflessly. How change in life can save a life. How we are stuck and then unstuck. If we can have this happen to us, just once, we really can be a gift to each other."

Paramount's cast for Once is led by Barry DeBois and Tiffany Topol as Guy and Girl, respectively.

An Oswego native, Topol returns to the Paramount after appearing in a community theater production of Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat with Fox Valley Summer Stage when she was sixteen. More recent credits include national tours of Onceand Xanadu, and closer to home, Shining Lives at Northlight, Sweet Charity at Writers Theatre and Eastland at Lookingglass.

DeBois, who boasts numerous credits in New York and around the U.S., served as a swing and the music captain on the 2016-17 National Tour of Once. DeBois is making his Paramount debut in Once.

Photo Credit: Thomas J. King

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