ONCE, winner of eight Tony Awards including Best Musical and winner of the 2013 Grammy Award for Best Musical Theater Album, will play the Broward Center for the Performing Arts for a limited engagement from October 6 – 18. Tickets for ONCE, which are 35–$80 with $125 LAN & TAN Airlines Club Level seating are now available and can be purchased by visiting Browardcenter.org or by phone 954-462-0222.
ONCE, which was also named Best Musical by the New York Drama Critics’ Circle, Drama Desk, Drama League, Outer Critics Circle and Lucille Lortel Awards, ran for more than 1,100 performances on Broadway with acclaimed international productions from London and Melbourne to Japan and South Korea.
ONCE features the Academy Award-winning music and lyrics of Glen Hansard and Markéta Irglová, a book by award-winning Irish playwright & screenwriter, Enda Walsh (Penelope, Hunger, The New Electric Ballroom), direction by the acclaimed Scottish director of Black Watch, John Tiffany, movement by Steven Hoggett (Black Watch, American Idiot) and music supervision and orchestrations by Martin Lowe (Mamma Mia!). The set and costume design are by five time Tony Award winner Bob Crowley (The Coast of Utopia, Mary Poppins), lighting design is by Tony winner Natasha Katz (Aida, The Coast of Utopia), and sound design is by Clive Goodwin.
ONCE is the celebrated new musical based on the Academy Award-winning film. It 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.
It was a pleasure to sit down with Matt DeAngelis who plays Švec for this exclusive Hotspots Interview.
When was the first time you sang in front of someone?
When I was 8 years old, my mother got tired of me performing on the coffee table and drove me to my first audition, which was for Godspell. I immediately caught the bug and that’s all I have been doing ever since.
What was your first professional gig?
I did a production of Alter Boys at the Adirondack Theater festival in about 2005.
What has been your favorite part and why?
My Broadway debut of Hair, in the part of Woof, was my favorite as it provided me so many opportunities professionally and I grew as an actor. It changed my life in so many ways.
What would be your ultimate part?
I would love to play Judas in Judas Christ Superstar on Broadway. It’s such a great role, its historical and the signing is amazing.
You were in the Broadway Company of HAIR when they performed some of New York’s first gay weddings on the stage. Tell me about that experience?
It was spectacular to witness and be a part of. We cancelled a performance to sing in DC prior to that. It was so wonderful to see the theater community rally around these 3 couples. Hair is a show about love, acceptance and peace and everyone came out to see the first gay wedding in NYC right on a Broadway stage!
When did you start in the touring company of Once?
I started in August of 2013 and I have been with it the whole time. It’s been a blessing, and it’s really cool to make music.
What should the South Florida audiences expect from the touring company of Once?
I think they can expect something they have never seen before. It’s a unique experience in the theater. It’s a musical that everyone can understand as everyone loves music. Its music, it’s acting, it makes you think, and it has an ensemble of actors that are committed to telling the story and playing music.
ONCE is produced by Barbara Broccoli, John N. Hart Jr., Patrick Milling Smith, Frederick Zollo, Brian Carmody, Michael G. Wilson, Orin Wolf and Executive Producer Robert Cole, in association with New York Theatre Workshop.
For more information, go to OnceMusical.com
