The Oral History of Once

This article was originally published in 2017 for the 10th anniversary of Once (the film). It has been republished in memory of Glen Hansard, who passed away this week (July 29th, 2026) at the age of 56. It’s 2011, and Glen Hansard is worried. His breakout film, Once, is about to open as an Off-Broadway musical at the New York Theatre Workshop in Manhattan’s East Village. Sure, the movie brought him and his co-star Marketa Irglova a level of fame in America neither could have ever dreamed of — the duo had, at that point, played two sold-out shows as The Swell Season at Radio City Music Hall, won an Oscar, and garnered two Grammy nods — but they both, Hansard especially, were anxious about how their delicate, incredibly low-budget indie film would transfer to the stage. “What if these guys fuck up?” Hansard reminisces. “What if they turn it into some nonsense?” So one night in late autumn, Hansard decides to take the leads of the musical to his favorite Manhattan bar, an unassuming, dimly lit Irish pub on a quiet block on 5th Street called The Scratcher. He has his friends, including renowned Irish singer-songwriters Mark Geary and the late Fergus O’Farrell, meet him there as barten...