Dream part in 'Once' for Dunboyne singer and actor
Dunboyne singer Sean Keany is fulfilling a dream as part of the production of the musical 'Once' on a tour of the UK, which opened with previews in Croydon before Christmas.
Sean is playing first cover to Guy, Glen Hansard's character in the Oscar-winning movie, as well as to other characters, Billy and Emcee, and is an onstage swing.
“As a swing, I'm onstage and in the show, and if one of those three go down sick or get injured, then I'll go on in their place,” the 25 year-old explains.
'Once' began on Broadway in 2012, then went to the Gaiety in Dublin, then went to the West End where it ran for two years It also ran in the Olympia in Dublin for three consecutive summers from 2015.
“I saw it in Dublin when it first came to the Gaiety in February 2013 and I completely fell in love with it,” Sean says.
“Ever since then, I dreamed of being in the show. I think between Dublin and London, I've seen it five times."
The current show stages in Fairfield Halls in Croydon until 11th January, and tours until August, visiting Southend, Liverpool, York, Woking, Milton Keynes, Ipswich, Bath, Coventry, Stoke, Malvern, Aberdeen, Nottingham, Oxford, Brighton, Sheffield, Cardiff, Southhampton, Edinburgh, Birmingham, Canterbury, Leicester, Salford, Newcastle, Plymouth, Glasgow and Hull.
Sean toured Germany with 'Dúlamán Voice of the Celts' in 2018, and last year, joined a show called 'The Choir of Man', doing an Australian tour with them this year, which included a month long run at the Sydney Opera House
“That was somewhat of a similar show to Once,” he explains. “Both are set inside an Irish pub. And all of the actors are also the musicians. And I got to play an Irish character in both of them, which definitely helps.”
Once is a 2007 Irish romantic musical drama film written and directed by John Carney. The film stars Glen Hansard and Markéta Irglová as two struggling musicians in Dublin, Ireland. Hansard and Irglová had previously performed music as the Swell Season, and composed and performed the film's original songs. The song, 'Falling Slowly', from the movie won the Academy Award for Best Original Song in 2007.