The stage version borrows the 2007 movie's songs by Glen Hansard and Markéta Irglová, who also played the would-be lovers in the film. The stage experience offers two additional numbers — "Abandoned in Bandon" and the Czech folk song "Ej Pada Pada Rosicka."

A company of 13 actor-musicians performs all roles and serves as the on-stage orchestra in the Dublin-set fable. (An expected pre-show jam session is a reason to show up early at the Bernard B. Jacobs Theatre on West 45th Street.) Opening night is March 18.

The cast of Once features Steve Kazee (110 in the Shade, Spamalot) as Guy and Cristin Milioti (Off-Broadway's That Face, Stunning, The Heart Is a Lonely Hunter) as Girl. Also in the troupe are David Abeles, Will Connolly, Elizabeth A. Davis, David Patrick Kelly, Anne L. Nathan, Lucas Papaelias, Ripley Sobo, Andy Taylor, Mckayla Twiggs, Erikka Walsh, Paul Whitty and J. Michael Zygo.

Once has a book by Irish playwright Enda Walsh (Penelope), direction by John Tiffany (Black Watch), movement by Steven Hoggett (American Idiot, Black Watch) and set and costume design by Tony Award winner Bob Crowley (The Coast of Utopia, Mary Poppins).

The score is orchestrated and arranged by music supervisor Martin Lowe. Expect Guy on guitar, Girl on piano (as in the film) and the supporting cast on mandolin, melodica, cajon, banjo, ukulele, harmonica, accordion, bass, drums and other instruments. Lighting design is by Tony winner Natasha Katz (Aida, The Coast of Utopia) and sound design is by Clive Goodwin. Production stage manager is Bess Marie Glorioso. Stephen Gabis is the dialect coach.

The actor-musicians who play characters, sing together and accompany each other on a range of instruments create a rare organic, communal and potently theatrical experience — all within Crowley's Irish pub setting that transforms into multiple locations, including the twinkling lights of Dublin itself.

There are public performance numbers, but this is a new era of show tune where music also punctuates, illustrates and gives abstract-expressive life to the characters' moods and hopes.

"We're going to be different," Kazee previously told Playbill.com. "We're going to be the one show on Broadway that's very different from all the other shows, and I think that's a good selling point for us. Our audiences have been really loving it. People find something about it that touches them, much like the original film. It goes right to the heart. It's very surgical."

 

	Glen Hansard and Markéta Irglová at the Off-Broadway opening.
	photo by Monica Simoes

At the Dec. 6, 2011, Off-Broadway opening-night party, co-songwriter Hansard told Playbill.com, "When [a stage version] first came up as an idea, everybody was very careful in the beginning that the director was someone with the kind of sensibility who'd 'get it.' It was almost like, 'Find someone who can do Beckett. If he can direct Beckett, he can direct this.' Not that this is anything in any way remotely like Beckett — but that quietness, that confidence — whatever that is, John [Tiffany] has it."

The Off-Broadway company of the new musical Once gathered Jan. 17, two days after the show ended its Off-Broadway run at New York Theatre Workshop in the East Village, to record a cast album of the unique ensemble-driven show. The album will be released on the Masterworks Broadway label March 13.

The 2007 Academy Award-winning film "Once" was written and directed by John Carney. It won the Oscar for Best Original Song.

Once began performances at NYTW on Nov. 15, 2011, and opened Dec. 6. Prior to that, it played a developmental engagement at the American Repertory Theater, Cambridge, MA, in April 2011.

Once is produced by Barbara Broccoli, John N. Hart Jr., Patrick Milling Smith, Frederick Zollo, Brian Carmody, Michael G. Wilson, Orin Wolf, The Shubert Organization, and Executive Producer Robert Cole.

Here's the producers characterize the musical: "[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. Brought to the stage by an award-winning team of visionary artists and featuring an ensemble cast of gifted actor/musicians, Once is a musical celebration of life and love: thrilling in its originality, daring in its honesty... and unforgettable in every way."

Tickets for the Broadway production are on sale via Telecharge.com or by phone at (212) 239-6200.

For more information, visit www.oncemusical.com.