Tender Irish movie musical Once set for stage adaptation
Once, the critically acclaimed, low-budget musical film that picked up an Oscar for best song earlier this year, is set for a stage adaptation.
Award-winning theatre producers John N. Hart Jr., Jeffrey Sine and Frederick Zollo have purchased worldwide theatrical rights to adapt writer-director and musician John Carney's film for Broadway.
"Those of us who fell in love with it and its score at the movie theatre came out singing, and will do so again when it finds its way to the stage," Hart said in a statement.
Zollo added praise for Once, saying that even though it was shot on a "shoe-string budget," the tender film smashed box office expectations and "managed to capture the hearts of fans around the world … because it invited its audience into the process of artists making music and did not stoop to melodrama."
Musicians enlisted as actors
Carney, who for a time envisioned Once as a sort of video accompaniment to a concept album, enlisted his former Frames bandmate Glen Hansard to help him develop his idea for a film about a busker street musician and create the music for it. When the original actor he had in mind dropped out, he asked Hansard to step in.
Hansard and Marketa Irglova — neither of whom have any formal training as actors — composed the music for and starred in the Dublin-set film, which organically follows a budding relationship and life-altering musical collaboration between two unnamed characters: an Irish street performer/vacuum repairman and an immigrant songwriter/flower-seller.
Made for less than $150,000 US and shot in just over two weeks, Once went on to become an international hit and spawned a bestselling soundtrack, as well as a performance tour for Hansard and Irglova.
The composer-performers also went on to win several honours during the film award season, capped by Falling Slowly, the film's main song, scoring the Academy Award for best original song at February's Oscar ceremony.
Producers hope for 2010-11 debut
Each of the producers boosts impressive theatre world credits (Chicago and The Who's Tommy for Hart, Angels in America and Caroline, Or Change for Zollo and Spring Awakening for Sine).
The producers are eyeing a Broadway debut for the musical sometime during the 2010-11 season and expect the show to be a more intimate production along the lines of Spring Awakening.
A creative team will be announced at a later date, but Zollo said he hoped Hansard, Irglova and Carney would all be involved in developing the stage production.