Singer-songwriter Daniel Healy will take the lead in the new actor/musician co-production of Tony Award-winning Once which will make its regional premiere at the New Wolsey Theatre, Ipswich next month.
Co-produced by the New Wolsey and the Queen’s Theatre, Hornchurch, the new version of the hit show will feature Healy as Guy, a role he previously under-studied when Arthur Darvill and Ronan Keating took on the role during the show’s successful West End run. Healey also played the supporting role of Eamon in the West End production.
Directed by the New Wolsey’s artistic director Peter Rowe, and presented by the creative team behind the New Wolsey’s latest success, the locally-flavoured Our Blue Heaven, the production will play the Ipswich-based theatre from Thursday 6 to Saturday 22 September before heading for Hornchurch to play the Queen’s Theatre from 3-20 October.
Healy will star oppostie Emma Lucia (Beautiful: The Carole King Musical, UK tour) as Girl; with Rachel Dawson (The Jungle Book, UK tour) as Ex-Girlfriend; Lloyd Gorman (Our House, New Wolsey) as Svejc; Sean Kingsley (Oxy and the Morons, New Wolsey) as Billy; Samuel Martin (The Taming of the Shrew, Shakespeare’s Globe) as Bank Manager; Caolan McCarthy (The Plough and The Stars, National Theatre) as Eamon; Peter Mooney (The Commitments, West End and UK tour) as Emcee; Peter Peverley (Our Blue Heaven, New Wolsey) as Da; Kate Robson-Stuart (Crazy For You, UK tour) as Reza; Susannah Van den Berg (Guys and Dolls, New Wolsey) as Baruska; and James William-Pattison (The Last Ship, UK Tour) as Andrej.
Three members of the New Wolsey Theatre’s Youth Theatre will alternate the role of Ivanka (Girl’s young daughter) while the production is in Ipswich with three youngsters from the local community sharing the role for the Hornchurch run.
The creative team for the production includes designer Libby Watson, musical director Ben Goddard, sound designer James Cook and lighting designer Mark Dymock.
From Tuesday 11 September, every performance of Once will be available with audio description through a headset. On Thursday 20 September at 1.30pm, the New Wolsey Theatre will present a dementia-friendly/relaxed performance of Once where the performance and environment will be adjusted for those who might benefit from a more relaxed atmosphere, or require additional support.
At the Queen’s Theatre, a sign language interpreted performance will take place on Wednesday 17 October at 7.30pm in addition to a dementia-friendly performance on Thursday 18 October at 1.30pm.
Based on the cult favourite 2007 film which was written and directed by John Carney, the musical version of Once also features music and lyrics by original writers Glen Hansard and Markéta Irglová including the Oscar-winning song ‘Falling Slowly’. With a book by Edna Walsh, Once premiered on Broadway in 2012 with a production which received 11 Tony award nominations, winning eight including Best Musical.
Angela Thomas
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