A MUSICAL version of Oscar-winning film Once is headed for Broadway.

And the man behind it is acclaimed director John Tiffany, of Meltham.

The man who made his stage debut 30 years ago in a production of Oliver! by Huddersfield Amateur Operatic and Dramatic Society is now a hot property in the theatre world.

And he’ll have his mum Margaret with him for his big night. She is flying out first class to New York for the Broadway opening.

Much of Tiffany’s success is due to Black Watch, a show which earned him an Olivier award.

Now the director is set to open at the Bernard B Jacobs Theatre on Broadway with Once, after the production earned rave reviews at a small Manhattan theatre last year.

Once is based on the 2006 Irish film about a busking musician who falls for a Czech immigrant in Dublin.

The film went on to win the Oscar for best song at the 2008 Academy Awards.

The opening night is Sunday, March 18, when Steve Kazee and Cristin Milioti will play the ‘Guy’ and ‘Girl’ roles created on screen by Glen Hansard and Marketa Irglova.

Songs from Once – among them the Oscar-winning ballad Falling Slowly – feature in the musical.

The show has already attracted great reviews in its preview run.

“Once is that rare kind of musical which theatre lovers will want to see again,” said stage paper Variety’s critic in its review.

The view of the Hollywood Reporter reviewer was: “This bewitching stage adaptation arguably improves on the movie, expanding its emotional breadth and elevating it stylistically.”

Tiffany made his name with exemplary work with the National Theatre of Scotland.

But he has never forgotten his Huddersfield background.

He is the son of Neil and Margaret Tiffany, of Meltham, and is a former student at Huddersfield New College.

His mum is a former district nurse and it was her character who inspired the hit drama series Where The Heart is, which was filmed in Slaithwaite and Marsden for many years, starring Pam Ferris and Sarah Lancashire.

In a previous interview, Tiffany said: “I was there with Steve Hoggett, another colleague in Scotland, and we were very lucky in that the college had a super drama teacher called Liz Heywood, who was wonderful.

“I was there with Steven and also with Zoe Lucker, who of course went on to be a TV star.

“Another student with us at the college was Natalie Chivers, who specialised in the technical side and she too won an Olivier award some years ago.

“I joined the Kirklees Youth Theatre and worked there with Lena Headey, from Shelley, who went on to make her name in Hollywood and on TV all over the world.

“I studied theatre at Glasgow University and then was lucky enough to land a scholarship with a theatre group in Edinburgh.

“I did go to London for a few years but Scotland drew me back and I have been there ever since”.

His success has attracted worldwide attention – including the famous Harvard University, who took him to the States for a major research project.

Since September last year, he has been on sabbatical at Harvard’s Radcliffe Institute of Advanced Study, an annual programme which brings 40 people from all around the world together, studying everything from the US federal government’s policy on email spying to the role of singer Aretha Franklin as a figurehead of gender issues among black Americans.