Once is enough for Broadway’s Britney Spears musical, ‘Once Upon a One More Time’
The Feminine Mystique? The princess-to-be with only one shoe realizes that’s not all that’s missing in her life.The premise of Once Upon a One More Time, a new Broadway musical inspired by the music of Britney Spears, hopes to rethink “happily after after” for the 21st century with the help of Spears’ catchy catalog, Keone and Mari Madrid’s choreography that cracks the musical theater mold, and some over-the-top performances that turn the show into an eye-popping “Circus” that makes up for its flaws with plenty of “Scream & Shout.”Broadway’s latest jukebox musical features the music of Britney Spears, and fans are ready for a “Circus.”Early in Once Upon a One More Time, the Narrator (Adam Godley) says to Cinderella (Briga Heelan), “Listen, I’ve been doing this a long time.
And believe me, if I change so much as an intonation, the children go full Rumpelstiltskin. They want things the same, every time… We’re not here to make fairytales, we’re here to follow them.
Don’t overthink it.”Follow that advice, and the musical — energized by the Madrid’s hip hop choreography packed with popping, krumping, and happy feet — delivers pop culture confection.
Similar to & Juliet, the musical that imagines what might have happened if the child bride had survived Shakespeare’s tragedy set to the music of Max Martin, Once Upon a One More Time hopes to give its princess posse some agency in a fairy tale world reigned by polygamist Prince Charming (Justin Guarini).The biggest pop songs of the past several decades converge in a musical reimagining of what might have happened if Juliet survived.
