College of Arts & Humanities news

John Tiffany is this year's recipient of the 2012 Tony Award for Best Direction of a Musical for ONCE. Tiffany's international credits include The Missing; Peter Pan; The House of Bernarda Alba; Hunter; Be Near Me; Nobody Will Ever Forgive Us; The Bacchae; Black Watch (Laurence Olivier Award for Best Director, Critics' Circle Award for Best Director); Elizabeth Gordon Quinn; Home: Glasgow (National Theatre of Scotland); Jerusalem (West Yorkshire Playhouse); Las Chicas del Tres y Media Floppies (Granero Theatre, Mexico City;Edinburgh Festival Fringe); If Destroyed True, Mercury Fur, The Straits (Paines Plough); Gagarin Way, Abandonment, Among Unbroken Hearts, Perfect Days, Passing Places (Traverse, Edinburgh). 

Tiffany is Associate director of The National Theatre of Scotland and a Radcliffe Fellow (Harvard University, academic year 2010-11).

ONCE opened on March 18, 2012 at the Bernard B. Jacobs Theatre and stars Kazee as 'Guy' and Cristin Milioti as 'Girl.' Also in the company 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 features a book by award-winning Irish playwright & screenwriter, Enda Walsh (Penelope, Hunger, The New Electric Ballroom), the Academy Award-winning music and lyrics of Glen Hansard and Markéta Irglová, direction by the acclaimed John Tiffany (Black Watch),movement by Steven Hoggett (Black Watch, American Idiot) and music supervision and orchestrations by Martin Lowe (Mamma Mia!).

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 described as "a musical celebration of life and love: thrilling in its originality, daring in its honesty... and unforgettable in every way."

ONCE was originally developed at the American Repertory Theater (Cambridge, Massachusetts) in April 2011; Diane Paulus, Artistic Director; Diane Borger, Producer.

First published: 29 August 2012