The Tony-award winning “Once The Musical” now is in Toronto to make every musically-inclined hopeless romantic swoon all over again. Produced this time by Mirvish Productions, the positive buzz it generated in the Academy Awards years ago transcended on musical theaters. It was more than enough to get Canadians excited. Even better, it now features an all-Canadian cast.
“Once The Musical” often gets viewed as an insight about musicians trying to keep themselves inspired. This was the issue faced when a Guy reached a point of giving up on his craft until he met a Girl that helps him get inspired again. You will read more about the creative process being addressed later from the interviews with the musical supervisor and the stage director. Besides, inspiration is mostly what an artist needed to keep the content churning.
Martin Lowe, the musical supervisor of “Once The Musical”, described the exhilarating response that “Once The Musical” received the first time that it got performed in Toronto.
Toronto is fantastic and the reaction to “Once” in Toronto has been fantastic. The tour came here earlier in 2014. It did fantastic business. I mean it exceeded all out expectations.
“Once The Musical” then returns to Toronto. Lowe then mentioned how changing the cast is not really an issue the moment he explained the adjustments made, if any:
“Once” is a funny show because it changes all the time depending on the actors that are in it. “Once” is the music so the actors play the instruments. The actors are the band. The actors are the actors. The actors are the dancers. The actors do everything. And it is fundamentally about making music and what that means to us.
John Tiffany, the stage director for “Once The Musical” mentioned the shift to an all-Canadian cast knowing how it was already performed on Broadway and on London.
We had no choice but to create a whole new production with the amazing Canadian actors that we met. Every single version of “Once” that we’ve done has been different.
[About actors playing the instruments] Not only do you have to be a fantastic actor but also an amazing musician. You also have to dance once you’re creating the music. We push them to their limits. “Once” is about music. It’s a piece of it. It’s about it and you literally watch the music being created on stage.
Indeed the level of talent seen here at “Once The Musical” was immense. Dancing around and prancing onstage while playing instruments looked very easy for the ensemble, even more so for that guy playing the cello. Imagine the weight that comes with the pressure of playing it well while dancing to the very music that you create. And the music that comes from this gets you thinking which plays what – the musicians playing the music or the music playing the musicians. Take your pick.
It’s still running at the Ed Mirvish Theatre at Toronto, Canada since this all-Canadian version started playing last February 10. Click the image below to buy your tickets online. Packages come at your perusal as well. Just click the other image displaying the deals that go with buying the tickets online and pick the dates that fitted your schedule.
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