Broadway-bound musical features songs of Britney Spears
Britney Spears' songs will be featured in the new musical "Once Upon a One More Time." Credit: Mike Windle
Cinderella, Snow White, Britney Spears … something about that lineup doesn't compute. Nevertheless, the fairy tale princesses will perform the songs of the pop music queen in a new jukebox musical featuring many of Spears' major hits. "Once Upon a One More Time" — the show takes its title from Spear's 1998 hit “Baby One More Time” — will open this fall at the James L. Nederlander Theatre in Chicago, with plans for a Broadway run to be announced later.
The newly announced show ill fill the slot left vacant when producers of the planned Michael Jackson musical "Don't Stop 'Til You Get Enough" decided to skip the Chicago tryout and come straight to New York. With a book by two-time Pulitzer Prize winner Lynn Nottage, the Jackson show is set to open on Broadway in summer 2020.
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Cinderella, Snow White, Britney Spears … something about that lineup doesn't compute. Nevertheless, the fairy tale princesses will perform the songs of the pop music queen in a new jukebox musical featuring many of Spears' major hits. "Once Upon a One More Time" — the show takes its title from Spear's 1998 hit “Baby One More Time” — will open this fall at the James L. Nederlander Theatre in Chicago, with plans for a Broadway run to be announced later.
The newly announced show ill fill the slot left vacant when producers of the planned Michael Jackson musical "Don't Stop 'Til You Get Enough" decided to skip the Chicago tryout and come straight to New York. With a book by two-time Pulitzer Prize winner Lynn Nottage, the Jackson show is set to open on Broadway in summer 2020.
The Spears musical, written by Jon Hartmere ("The Upside") and directed by Kristin Hanggi ("Rock of Ages"), forgoes the bio-musical territory of shows like "Jersey Boys," instead taking the fantasy route of "Head Over Heels." As the story goes, Cinderella, Snow White and a few more fairy tale princesses belong to a book club that is invaded by a fairy godmother type who suggests they read Betty Friedan's groundbreaking 1963 feminist classic "The Feminine Mystique."
Where that ends up is anyone's guess, but Spears is delighted by the prospect. "I'm so excited to have a musical with my songs," she said in a statement, "especially one that takes place in such a magical world with characters that I grew up on."