It’s Broadway, bitch!
Once Upon a One More Time — the new musical scored by a sea of Britney Spears hits — is coming to the Great White Way next year, producers revealed on Friday.
The show, first announced by in 2019, will open at the Marquis Theatre in New York City on June 22, 2023, with preview performances beginning May 13.
Casting hasn’t been announced yet, but the comedy comes after a sold-out run at the Shakespeare Theatre Company in Washington, D.C, which wrapped back in January.
Written by Jon Hartmere (The Upside, Bare) and directed/choreographed by World of Dance stars Keone and Mari Madrid (Beyond Babel, Karate Kid), Once Upon a One More Time follows the exploits of a group of iconic fairy-tale princesses who’ve gathered for a book-club meeting — only to have a copy of Betty Friedan’s feminist touchstone The Feminine Mystique dropped on their corseted laps by “a rogue fairy godmother.”
Suddenly, Cinderella, Snow White, the Little Mermaid and more have a royal revelation, going on an adventure to claim their own happily ever afters — and they do so while singing and dancing to chart-topping anthems by the Princess of Pop, including “Oops! … I Did It Again,” “Lucky,” “Circus” and “Toxic.”
“I’m so excited to have a musical with my songs — especially one that takes place in such a magical world filled with characters that I grew up on, who I love and adore,” Spears, 41, previously said in a statement about the show. “This is a dream come true for me!”
Tickets for the musical can be purchased starting Friday for Britney Spears fan-club members, who will have exclusive access to a presale through the weekend.
A general on-sale begins via Ticketmaster on Monday at 10 a.m. ET.
The rest of the musical’s creative team features Tony Award-nominated scenic designer Anna Fleischle (Hangmen, Everybody’s Talking About Jamie), costume and hair designer Loren Elstein (Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead), Tony-winning lighting designer Kenneth Posner (Wicked, Beetlejuice), sound designer Andrew Keister (KPOP, On Your Feet!), and projection designer Sven Ortel (Newsies).
David Leveaux (Nine, Romeo and Juliet on Broadway, NBC’s Jesus Christ Superstar Live) is serving as a creative consultant on the project.
Meanwhile, this isn’t the first musical to hit Broadway that features a song made popular by Spears.
Open now at the Stephen Sondheim Theatre, the hilarious & Juliet is entertaining audiences eight times a week, with a score taken from the catalogue of five-time Grammy-winning songwriter and producer Max Martin that includes Spears staples ” … Baby One More Time,” “I’m Not a Girl, Not Yet a Woman,” “Overprotected,” “Oops! … I Did It Again” and “Stronger.”
Like Once Upon a One More Time, & Juliet uses the hits to offer a twist on a well-known tale — in this case, the greatest love story ever told: William Shakespeare’s Romeo & Juliet. It simply asks, “What if Juliet didn’t die at the end?” before imagining a Juliet who gets a second chance at life and love on her terms.
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