Only ‘Once’
Award-winning play comes to Popejoy
Mackenzie LesserRoy and Sam Cieri knew they had big shoes to fill — and they still jumped at the challenge.
The duo are the leads in the travelling production of the Tony Award-winning musical “Once.”
The musical begins an eight-performance stint at Popejoy Hall beginning Tuesday, March 8.
“I saw the show for the first time at 16 and it blew me away,” says Lesser-Roy. “I was a cellist, pianist and a singer at the time and I knew I wanted to do theater. ‘Once’ let me know that there were shows out there where I could incorporate the acting and music that I love to do.”
“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.
The 2007 film was written and directed by John Carney. It starred Glen Hansard and Maréta Irglová and the duo performed all of the songs in the film — even picking up an Academy Award for best song with “Falling Slowly.”
The musical is adapted from the film. It premiered at the New York Theatre Workshop in 2011 and on Broadway in 2012. The touring musical’s cast also doubles as the orchestra.
That same year, the musical garnered 12 Tony Award nominations and won eight, including best musical, best actor and best book.
Stepping into the role of Guy, Cieri knew he had to make the role his. With Hansard and Steve Kazee both playing the role before
him, there was some pressure.
“I’ve been a fan of Glen for a long time,” Cieri says. “Ultimately, I would love to be his friend and just make music.”
Both leads are fairly new to the touring musical business.
While Cieri was touring with “Rock of Ages” before he booked this role, it’s Lesser-Roy’s first.
“It’s all been a time to learn,” Lesser-Roy says. “I went to school for musical theater and I booked this role and took a year off. It’s such an amazing opportunity for me.”
In getting cast as Girl, Lesser-Roy had to audition for the role at the end of last summer.
She was just about to start her junior year of college at Boston Conservatory.
“It was three weeks into the new semester,” she says. “I got the call that I booked the part. I was terrified because there are thousands of people just like me trying to do this for a living. They saw something special in me and I couldn’t be happier.”
For Cieri, his journey to “Once” began with a 5 a.m. flight out of Bermuda to New York City.
At the time, he was working on a cruise ship as part of the “Rock of Ages” touring musical.
“I barely got through the first song for the audition,” he says. “The producers could see that I was tired and asked me to come back the next day and audition again.”
Cieri feels a personal connection to his role because, like Guy, he is a musician.
He started off busking and had a lot of “almost” moments of making it big.
Cieri began to sell motorcycles and it was through the show that music came back into his life.
“I’ve been influenced and while I’m on tour, I’m working on some of my solo material,” he says. “It’s nice to be working on music again and having fun with it. ” Both actors agree that “Once” is a story of hope, which lends itself to audiences finding a bond with it.
“The genius of this musical is there are so many elements of it being relatable,” Cieri says. “We all know people like the two main characters. We’re searching for our place in the world. In this case, there’s a lot of love that grows between the two characters.”