By Elazar Abrahams
The Vegas-ification of Broadway continues with the 2023-24 season’s first new musical, Once Upon a One More Time, now in performances at the Marquis Theatre. The glitzy jukebox show puts a firmly feminist spin on the stories of Cinderella, Snow White, Rapunzel, and many other familiar princesses using the discography of Britney Spears. The songs are great and dynamic, but the story’s lame trajectory will not inspire fans to hit the box office one more time.
Other musicals have ventured into similar territory before, and to much stronger results. Into the Woods, of course, finds fairy tale characters crossing paths with each other and discovering their “happily ever afters” may not be what they truly wished for. Last year’s & Juliet put a similar pop punk, #girlboss spin on classic literature, creating a clever and intelligent commentary on Shakespeare’s classic. Once Upon a One More Time is easily the worst of these three musicals, and it makes it difficult to appreciate what’s on stage when others have done it better.
The show starts off strong, with impressive dance numbers and a witty enough premise. Sure, the book is cliché as cliché can be, with every plight of women trop said out loud. “You should smile more,” the prince tells Cinderella in once scene. “You’re being difficult,” says the narrator in another. Some of it is eye-roll inducing, but it mostly works. There’s palpable drama in the conflict, and while it takes a while for all the princesses to band together and decide to write their own stories, it is entertaining.
Act 2 however, is a complete mess. The story loses its way, and all the momentum that Act 1 had (which was already drawn out to reach its climax) goes absolutely nowhere. Instead of moving the plot forward, the second half retreads the same ideas we just watched, and ends in almost the same place as intermission. It’s mind-boggling that the writers didn’t want to push the idea of these out of fashion fables further. Why not show us what Snow White’s story looks like now that she’s read The Feminine Mystique?
You’ll realize things are in bad shape when ‘Toxic,’ which by all accounts should be one of the show’s defining musical numbers, is butchered by being overlaid on a super confusing piece of story. Sigh.
Still, there is a lot to like here. The choreography is a true highlight, with the entire electric ensemble energetic throughout. Prince Charming and his dancers busting it down to ‘Circus’ is not something I’ll soon forget. There’s an undeniable charm to seeing familiar stories in a new light and crossing over with each other, and the sets and costumes are kitschy in a campy way. Unfortunately, One More Time doesn’t stick its landing at all, leaving this reviewer deeply unsatisfied.
I’d still recommend the show to huge Britney fans, and if you’ve been seeing the marketing fore the production and it seems like your thing, go! You’ll get a kick out of it. Temper your expectations, grab a drink, and relive bop after bop on Broadway.
Find more information and tickets HERE.
TV and City 