Britney’s Headed to Broadway
Once Upon a One More Time opens in Washington, D.C.
Britney Spears has been in the news a lot lately. Not only did the multi-year fight to end her conservatorship come to fruition in November, but that entire debacle has also brought her work back to the forefront of pop culture.
It’s also been a long time coming to see Once Upon a One More Time, the musical from hip-hop choreographers and husband-and-wife duo Keone and Mari Madrid constructed around re-imaginings of Spears’ songs. Originally scheduled to open in Chicago in the fall of 2019 but pushed until the spring of 2020 for unknown reasons — we all know why the public is just now seeing the show.
However, the wait is over and the show is now here. After using a majority of its run for previews, it opened Friday night at Shakespeare Theatre Company’s Sidney Harman Hall.
Britney’s songs and messages of confidence, self-love, and a screw-off to those who bring you down, are used to paint the picture of a storybook universe that holds Cinderella, Snow White, Rapunzel, The Little Mermaid, and more (in Disney-deconstructed designs by costumer Loren Elstein) as they find who they really are beyond the stories they are in.
Led by a strong Briga Heelan as Cindy, the princesses have The Feminine Mystique (a joke that goes over the little heads in the crowd) dropped in their lap by their shared fairy godmother, The Notorious OFG: Original Fairy Godmother — another joke missed by the countless littles in the audience.
Now, Cinderella has the words to say how she is feeling: this can’t be happily ever after. Life for a woman is surely more than this.
It’s definitely more than life with Prince Charming, a Justin Guarini a bit too old for the role compared to his counterparts, but every bit as charming, cocky, and childish. (His “Oops!… I Did It Again” brings in a big laugh). So she brings together her best friends, the other princesses, and enlightens them. They need to write their own stories and push back on the “timeless classics” that are outdated and sexist.
You can’t miss the message. That one doesn’t miss with the littles.
Along the way, they’ll sing a whirlwind 23 Britney songs, including “Toxic”, “Circus”, “I’m a Slave 4 U”, and “Womanizer” — you’ll never guess who that one’s about.
All of the songs are shifted ever so slightly to fit the needs of the scene, some with more of a punch than others — “Oops!… I Did It Again” doesn’t miss, but does it ever?
The entire show feels that way. Some moments really work, like a budding relationship between a bumbling prince and Clumsy, one of the seven (I suppose off-stage) dwarves, while moments like the inevitable reborn kindness of Cinderella’s stepmother and stepsisters feel a bit too ready-made.
After this time working on the show in D.C., the producers and creatives have their sights set on Broadway. These contrivances, both in the story they’ve told and how the story uses Britney’s backlog, should be at the top of their to-do list before Broadway beckons.
The show is just fine as is and already brings in a hard-to-find trifecta of theatergoers: the old folk (the usual Shakespeare Theatre Company crowd), the millennials (thanks to Britney), and the tots (thanks to the Bippity-Boppity of it all).
They’re sure to sell some tickets (especially if they go the traditional route and replace the out-of-town actors will more recognizable names), but with shows like Six, a teenage aimed pop concert retelling of Henry VIII’s six wives, or The Little Prince, a coming-soon overblown circus retelling of the classic tale, dominating a similar corner of the crowded Spring 2022 Broadway landscape, the musical will have to do more to stand out. (Andrew Lloyd Webber also plans to bring his Cinderella to New York in 2022, but this has not been confirmed.)
Keone and Mari Madrid stand much more firmly in the MTV side of the project (they have experience choreographing Justin Bieber, Billie Eilish, and Mariah Carey), but that diva experience has never lasted long on theatre’s biggest stages (London’s Spice Girls musical Viva Forever! was doomed from the start, for example).
If they want the show to last, they’ll need to look more to their fairy tale counterparts like Into the Woods (the late Stephen Sondheim’s truest fairy tale deconstruction) or Shrek The Musical (for it’s overblown spectacle) to carve out a worthwhile space on The Great White Way.
They are also planning a movie. No more details on that have been announced.
The show is perfectly fine the way it is now. The sold-out crowd I saw it with laughed at all the jokes, clapped at all the right times, and sang along to all of their favorites. But if the Madrids and the gang want this show to live happily ever after, the Washington production needs to be the first draft of their story.
Tickets are very limited for the rest of the show’s run, through January 9th. For more information and tickets, click here.
