As it nears the end of its third consecutive summer at Dublin's Olympia Theatre, Cathal Synnott, the Associate Music Supervisor of Once: The Musical, writes for Culture about the phenomenal success of the show.
It’s hard for me to believe that Once is nearly at the end of its third successful summer run at the Olympia Theatre in Dublin. It has really become a fixture on the entertainment calendar of the city. The show is a technical and an artistic tour de force. 76 instruments are on hand every evening for the production; 13 performers are on stage and 14 people off stage to work each performance (not including the Front of House staff of the Olympia); A jaw-dropping 11,600 batteries are used each year during the two month run; 115,000 people will have seen the show when this year’s run ends on the 26th of August (including Glen Hansard, Hozier, Saoirse Ronan, Panti Bliss, Domhnall Gleeson, Gay Byrne, people of all ages from 6 months to 101 years old, and every member of my family).
What makes Once 2017 very special for me is that it is the first time that the show has had an entirely Irish cast including the two leads, Guy (Brian Gilligan) and Girl (Niamh Perry). The casting demands of this show are not insubstantial. The show is 100% live and each member of the cast must be able to act, sing, play an instrument and move, the word "move" being a euphemism which describes choreography, set changes and effortless deportment whilst playing an instruments (A special mention to Tully Gunarwardhana, who plays Emcee, for being able to dance and sing whilst playing a cello!!). All the movement is supervised by the amazing Jennifer Rooney.
In 2014, when Anne Clarke asked me to help Landmark Productions find an entirely Irish cast for a possible 2015 run at the Olympia, I was delighted. With the tireless help of Maureen Hughes and Sarah Jones at Maureen Hughes Casting we searched all the usual agents, faces and places to unearth the talent required to meet the exacting standards of the Once creative team of John Tiffany, Martin Lowe, Stephen Hoggett and Enda Walsh. It proved to be a very useful and insightful process. We have an abundance of talent in this country, and we have a huge amount of heart and soul. We learned that many young Irish people travel abroad, mostly to England, to train as actors and musical theatre artists. In 2016 we cast the net wider and got close to an all Irish cast. In 2017 we achieved our goal. There is an increasing appetite for musical theatre in Ireland and we know that there is an ever expanding pool of home grown talent to feed that appetite!
Once is a very special show. It describes perfectly why people become musicians or singers or both. It gets to the core of why people want to communicate through music.
Billy (Phelim Drew) says "We are creators of music…" Guy says, "You want to sing your songs for people"…Girl replies "I am people; Sing me a song!". It says it all.
Once runs at The Olympia Theatre, Dublin, until Saturday August 26th - details here.
