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#TBT: ONCE ON THIS ISLAND Preps to Tell the Story on Broadway!
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Nov 1, 2022
As BroadwayWorld previously reported, the Tony Award winning Best Revival will close this Sunday, January 6, 2019. When it closes this production will have played 29 previews and 458 performances. Once On This Island opened on December 3 at Circle in the Square Theatre (235 West 50th Street) to rave reviews.
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Hello, I'm Richard Ridge for Broadway World
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Lynn Arons and Stephen Flaherty's award-winning, beautiful musical once on this island
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is returning to Broadway. Under the direction of Michael Arden, it will open on December 3rd at Circle and Miss Square
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And we dropped by the rehearsal room to bring you a sneak peek and to meet the company led by Tony Award winner Leah Salanga
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and making her Broadway debut, Haley Kilgore. where no one who has been
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You spared my life, show me a wife. Get me to rise like a fish to the bay
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now tell me to wait. Well, I'm waiting, waiting for life to begin
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Once morning, Waiting for life To be gone One small day
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One small day You're about to make your Broadway debut Yay! I'm really excited
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I'm sure there's so many things going through your mind. Is it all surreal
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It's very surreal. I mean, I'm only 18. I came from a really small town
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Happy Valley, Oregon. No one knows it exists. So it's like I'm on Broadway
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I'm in a room full of brilliant minds. It's magical. So Michael Arden was obsessed looking at your video when you was 16 years old
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and they were like, we've got to find her. What was that like? Well, first of all, getting that phone call of them saying, you know
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Michael Arden, Stephen Flaherty, Lynn Arons, Nikki James. Did she want a Tony
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That one? Like, literally they sent out this email and they said, we're going to have you sing and we're going to have you do a few scenes and then gave me a list of everyone that was going to be in the room
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And I was like, so literally walked in and my hands were like shaking
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And Michael comes up and gives me a big hug and just let me do my thing
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So what's it like of you work with Michael Arden? Stephen and Linder in the room, I mean this incredible, Lega Salanga
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Lange No we started our first day of rehearsals and I was doing a Netflix binge and I ended up on Mulan And I was like who is that
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I'm going to be in the room with Leia Salonga in less than 12 hours
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I should really get some sleep. I remember just being like, oh my god, but no, it's, you know, you hear all these big names and Leia and Michael and Nikki
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And then it's like you meet them and they're just, they're people
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And they're people with good hearts and good, spirit, so I'm, I'm so happy
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Why do you think the time is right to bring this musical back to Broadway? Oh man, because the world needs healing, always
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And this is a show about healing. And it does it in such a beautiful way, speaking of love and heart and people
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unity coming together. So it's a time for healing. Steve and Lynn in the room
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Every day. Every day. And if something needs to change, if they need to make a cut, if they need to add something
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if they need to change something, because they're there. The fact that they're in the room, it's amazing
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And it's just been such a gift to have the both of them there. Because it's not always like that
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I mean, for example, revivals down the road of West Side Story
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they're not going to have Leonard Bernstein in the room anymore. So it's stuff like that that makes me appreciate what they have been able to give
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And Stephen's husband brings us baked goods, so... You're all about the baked goods, right
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Thanks, Trevor. What an incredible cast you had put together. And your leading lady you discovered, talk about her
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She's incredible. Haley Kilgore. She's 18 years old. She... I happened to see a videotape of her, and I said, who is that
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The videotape was when she was, like, 16. And I said, we have to find her
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And so we called her in, and everybody just fell in love of her. and she's really remarkable
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And, you know, it's so exciting to see someone waiting for life to begin
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who is at that same point in their life. You know, she's, there's, I sometimes have to remind myself, oh, she's 18
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She probably hasn't been to a ball yet, you know. So it's really fun
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But everybody else you've assembled in this. I mean, you have Tony Award winner Leia Salanga
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I mean, and then you have someone making their Broadway debut and everybody in between. I really wanted to create a diverse company You know it my firm belief all the work I do that the show is only as strong as every single member of the company
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And they really work together and tell this story as one. There's no star in this production
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The company and the story is the star. I'm really excited to share that. Welcome to Broadway with Once on this island
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Thank you. Is it all surreal? What's it like for you? It's so, like, it's different from glee
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That's so different. No, it's not. It's same hours. Same people, really
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It's refreshing. I grew up doing theater, and so to be on a stage
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and to reach a goal of mine is wonderful. I always knew that I was going to be on the Broadway
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I just didn't know when, I didn't know how, but I feel something's starting right now. And it's, I love it
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I love it so much. And to work with people like Leia Salonga, whatever. You'll be terrified
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Must be nice to make in the room Yes, yes, yes, yes
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Michael you need with me I'm the left of my It must be nice to have worked together
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Then you come into this beautiful room that Michael Arden's put together And you're like, oh my God, we're together again
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Yes, yes, Michael, I'm just so jealous of his imagination imagination and the ideas he has for the show are just brilliant
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I really want to tell you all about them, but you have to buy a ticket to actually see it
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because it's some wonderful surprises from this to that and to this other thing that comes down
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and this other thing that walks onto the stage. You will not believe it
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Always is it. What are you both looking forward to with having your glorious musical back on Broadway for a new generation
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I'm looking forward to seeing the audiences again. You know, I mean, the show is, I'm quite sure that it's going to be beautiful
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but I'm so looking forward to seeing faces in the audience reacting to the show all over again
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a whole new generation, and seeing the, you know, the mixed-up gender and the mixed-up race of this new incarnation
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I think is so important and I think it going to be very meaningful And that what I looking forward to is just seeing the first off I really am dying to see it The show has always been about it not like we the actors you the audience
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It's very much a dialogue. And I cannot wait for that first audience to see that dialogue and to
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watch the show take off. How well did you know the musical before you started this
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I could reside the entire, I had the cassette tape. I wore that thing out. This musical is so
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in my heart and in my spirit. It was the first. one of the first shows that I ever saw, and I saw it at the International
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Fespian Festival, and it gave me vision for what I could do. So this has kind of been in my bones to do this on Broadway for a long time
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This is a full circle moment for you, like seeing possibilities of what you could be on stage
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Yes, and the fact that we get to do things like gender bend and include with race
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and all that kind of stuff, a whole new generation is going to see a refresh
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new point of view about what they can do and what's possible
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What's been the biggest pinch me moment for you so far with working on this
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Oh my god. I think when I heard Leis Along as singing Human Heart
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I was fully wet, my face was just like covered in tears
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and that's when I realized like I am doing this incredible thing. I am part of something that is huge that so many people are invested in and care about
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about and it's an incredible opportunity and just being in a room with all of these incredible
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pros who have just been a dream to work with. I mean, I pinch myself every day, but like
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that I remember when she finished singing that song, I was just like, whoa, this is, this is special
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This is really special. You are God
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You are God This is the gift I give Through your love you'll live forever
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You are hard
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