Musical ‘Once’ invites audience to jam onstage with the cast

The unlikely shift of an Irish independent film turned Broadway musical is one to raise an eye brow or two. Continue down the rabbit hole to find that the film garnered international success, receiving an Independent Spirit Award, Academy Award and two Grammy nominations.

Still curious? “Once” was made with a meager budget of $150,000, shot in just 17 days, and later went on to gross $20 million worldwide.

The transition from film to stage is not the easiest, according to Irish playwright Enda Walsh, when asked to write a Broadway musical based on the film.

“I guffawed when my agent called and asked me to speak to the producers,” Walsh said in a news release. “I said, ‘What a stupid idea.’ It’s a two-hander with very little plot. It’s delicate. So I called the producers and told them it wasn’t for me. There’s no tradition of musical theater in Ireland, so I rubbished the idea. Then they told me John Tiffany was attached to it as director.”

Walsh and Tiffany’s lifelong friendship gave Walsh a reason to ponder this idea and reconsider its viability. It only took two days for the pair to move forward with the project, and thus something special was born. The Broadway adaptation of “Once” went on to win eight Tony Awards in 2012, including Best Musical, Best Book (Enda Walsh), and Best Direction of a Musical (John Tiffany).

Such attention surmounted in a London production and a US national tour, which opened Oct. 1 in Providence, Rhode Island, and will appear Tuesday and Wednesday at the Grand Opera House in Macon.

“ ‘Once’ 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,” said Jacqueline Smith, senior tour marketing and press director for Allied Marketing, in a news release.

True to its innately unique charm, the 12-person cast can all play at least one instrument and are onstage nearly the entirety of the production.

“They’re an ensemble of misshapen people who sing and tell the story. Watching them play the music and sing and find their voice is very beautiful and very strong. But in addition to making it about community, we also wanted the show to be hugely communal. So how do we do that? We allow the audience onstage,” Walsh explained in the release.

Prior to the start of the show, the proverbial fourth wall is demolished by allowing audience members to come onstage and mingle with the cast while they are having a jam session.

Nyssa Duchow, who plays the ex-girlfriend, said in a phone interview that “interacting on stage with patrons allows us to really feel the energy that comes from a beaming look or a tapping of the feet. Typically, it’s hard to engage with the audience as they’re seated in the dark. However, to see their appreciation calls us to perform bigger and brighter.”

This story was originally published March 9, 2017 at 6:57 AM with the headline "Musical ‘Once’ invites audience to jam onstage with the cast."