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The Movie "Once"
Aloysius J. Gleek:
--- Quote from: Front-Ranger on June 11, 2012, 02:21:24 pm ---Wonderful news!! Does Steve convey the tortured agony as well as the original actor, Glen Hansard, did? I'm sure he does!!
--- End quote ---
“Once” star Steve Kazee won his first Tony for lead actor in musical and stole the show with a heartfelt speech dedicated to his mother, who died of cancer this year.
“My mother always told me to stand up there and show them whose little boy you are,” the actor said. “And I’m showing you today that I am the son of Kathy Withrow Kazee who lost the fight with cancer on Easter Sunday this year.”
Yes, there were tears.
[youtube=425,350]http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=endscreen&v=wkHLTCNJAYc&NR=1[/youtube]
[youtube=425,350]http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=bQ3nI_tZRzY[/youtube]
The second time I saw Steve Kazee in 'Once' as 'Guy' was February 28, the first preview at the Bernard B. Jacobs Theatre (March 18 was the official opening), and, though as much as I still enjoyed the show and definitely loved him, his performance that night was a bit--distracted, not quite as unbelievably perfect (far better as 'Guy' than Glen Hansard himself) when I had seen him on a VERY rainy night in early December at the New York Theater Workshop on East Fourth Street. But then I didn't know that his mother was battling cancer, and she died April 8, Easter Sunday. Poor Steve! No wonder he was distracted--the character, 'Guy', is also motherless! He is amazingly gifted--now he has won the Tony--brought her photograph, showed it on the red carpet before the Tonys show. His mother must have been so proud.
Cristin Milioti, left, and Steve Kazee perform in a scene from "Once" at the
66th Annual Tony Awards on Sunday June 10, 2012, in New York.
Aloysius J. Gleek:
http://artsbeat.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/08/13/once-turns-a-profit-faster-than-most/
‘Once’
Turns a Profit,
Faster Than Most
By PATRICK HEALY
August 13, 2012, 3:40 pm
Steve Kazee and Cristin Milioti in “Once.”
The Tony Award-winning musical “Once” has recouped its $5.5 million capitalization costs on Broadway in less than six months, the producers announced on Monday, becoming one of the few shows to turn a profit and doing so faster than most.
The musical’s box office success – grossing more than $1 million a week since mid-June – is unusual given that the show is unlike most Broadway hits. Rather than a high-kicking crowd pleaser with big-name talents attached, “Once” is a low-key and somber tale of lost love, starring largely unknown actors and featuring minimal sets and nontraditional choreography. Yet “Once,” based on an indie film of the same name from Ireland, enjoyed strong reviews from critics and prominent television exposure on “America’s Got Talent” and other programs after winning eight Tonys – including best musical and best actor – in June.
Only about 30 percent of shows ever turn a profit on Broadway, most needing a year or more, though one of the biggest moneymakers of recent theater seasons, “The Book of Mormon,” recouped its $11.4 million capitalization last year in just nine months. “Book of Mormon” recouped quickly in part from charging premium ticket prices of up to $477; the top premium ticket for “Once” is $275, with only a relative handful of tickets selling at that price so far.
The producers’ statement said that “Once,” which began running in late February, recouped in 21 weeks after 169 performances. The producers said the pace was faster than any other new musical in more than a decade – an apparent reference to the musical “Rent,” which recouped its original capitalization almost immediately in 1996. But the 2005 musical “The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee,” for one, recouped its $3.5 million capitalization in just 18 weeks.
The “Once” producers have benefited from relatively low weekly running costs; they have never said how much the show costs to run each week, but it is believed to be in the mid-six figures. A spokesman for the show said that the advance ticket sales for “Once” were “very healthy” – he declined to provide a figure – and said that its stars, Steve Kazee and Cristin Milioti, were on contract to stay with the show until at least March 2013.
Front-Ranger:
Yay! I am going to Once, the Musical!! But not on Broadway...in Denver. Since I won't be going to New York anytime soon, I snapped up tickets for closing night of the two-week run in Denver, and friend EDelMar has graciously agreed to go with me. He's learning to play guitar, so I managed to get him to go to hear some good guitar playing, since he hasn't seen the movie.
Aloysius J. Gleek:
--- Quote from: Front-Ranger on April 11, 2014, 02:07:15 pm ---Yay! I am going to Once, the Musical!! But not on Broadway...in Denver. Since I won't be going to New York anytime soon, I snapped up tickets for closing night of the two-week run in Denver, and friend EDelMar has graciously agreed to go with me. He's learning to play guitar, so I managed to get him to go to hear some good guitar playing, since he hasn't seen the movie.
--- End quote ---
Hope you enjoy it Lee! Sadly, you won't be seeing the wonderful Steve Kazee as the 'Guy'
in the original New York production, but--I do hope the Road Show Production is as good!
(As you may remember, I was NOT quite so enamored with Cristin Milioti as the original 'Girl' ::) :laugh: )
http://chicagotheaterbeat.com/2013/10/12/review-once-broadway-in-chicago/#review
Stuart Ward as 'Guy' and Dani de Waal as 'Girl' in Once
Broadway in Chicago
presents
Once
Review by Catey Sullivan
Rating: ★★★★
Once breaks all the rules of commercially viable musicals. There are no tap spectaculars, eye-popping costumes or elaborate scene changes. The cast, which performs in more or less regular old street clothes, doubles as the show’s orchestra, a stripped down ensemble of strings and keyboards, with the musicians/actors carrying their instruments around with them. As for the story told through Enda Walsh’s book, it’s slight; a sweet, simple romance that’s as much a love story between people and music as it is between a man and a woman. Once is also a profoundly moving piece of theater, thanks to the cast’s transcendent performance of Glen Hansard and Markéta Irglová’s glorious score. This is truly music as the food of love, and when the curtain finally drops on Guy and Girl (the romantic leads don’t even have names), you will want them to play on and on and on.
Based on the film written and directed by John Carney, Once opens in a Dublin pub where Guy (Stuart Ward) is singing his heart out in a love-gone-wrong tune (“Leave”) that tells an old story with wrenching, raw immediacy. What’s extraordinary about the song – and the score as a whole – is the sheer weight of emotion within Irglova and Hansard’s transcendent harmonies. Love-gone-wrong songs are a dime a dozen, but this one, thanks in large part to Ward’s authentically impassioned delivery, will rip you to shreds. Like many of the pieces in Once, it starts hushed, then gradually crescendos to a point of all-but unbearable intensity. This forcefield of music draws the attention of Girl (Dani De Waal), a Czech pianist whose straightforward, unshakable conviction in Guy’s soulful talent will wind up changing both of their lives.
Transpiring over five days, Once tracks Guy’s journey from a place of dark, rudderless, hopelessness to one of transforming joy and soul-affirming purpose, an evolution propelled solely through the power of Girl’s absolute insistence that Guy must share his music with the world. Wisely, Once doesn’t follow Guy’s pursuit of a recording contract or answer the question of whether he ultimately becomes a star. This isn’t a story of starmaking, but of healing and reconnection. What matters isn’t Guy’s success so much as his decision to open himself up to everything – good and awful – that life has to offer.
De Waal is understatedly magnificent as Girl, a luminous force for believing in your dreams and forging unwaveringly ahead to achieve them. When she and Ward combine voices for the delicate, soaring “Falling”, the impact is virtually breathtaking. The piece is a lattice-work of sorry and strength, an aching anthem to the power of love – even if it’s ultimately lost.
Directed by John Tiffany, Once is filled with rich supporting performances. As Girl’s tough, sexy, violinist friend Reza, Claire Wellin (last seen in Lookingglass’s production of Eastland) is a fireball of blazing strings and equally powerful personality. She imbues the character with a profound kindness and a brazen sensuality, and when she lets loose on that violin, the sound sweeps you away like a whirlwind. There’s also amazing musicality from Raymond Bokhour, who opens the show with a sonorous lament that surges through the theater with the gentle but unstoppable power of an incoming tide. As the owner of the pub where Guy and Girl meet and practice, Evan Harrington provides poignant comic relief, while Donna Garner is as expressive with her accordion as she is with her resonant vocals.
The entire production plays out on set designer Bob Crowley’s warm, wood-filled Irish pub, a place that’s at once endearingly homely and cozily homey. Scene changes are indicated by movement director Steven Hoggett’s mesmerizing interludes of dreamlike choreography.
Once is one of those rare shows that deserves to be listened to not just once, but over and over and over again.
Side note: Make sure to arrive early. Before the show starts, the entire cast performs a mini-concert. You’ll be coveting the cast recording before the first scene even begins.
(Note to Lee: If the Road Show Production is the same as the original production, YES, get there early, pile your stuff in your regular seats, then just walk up the steps onto the stage, go to the bar, get yourself a drink and get comfortable! (Of course, you have to go back to your theater seats before the show starts.)
Again, have fun!
Front-Ranger:
Thanks for the note friend! It sounds like the pre-show is something we won't want to miss!
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