The Broadway Theatre Review: Once Upon a One More Time

By Ross

Andrew Lloyd Webber tried it with two different pond-jumping Cinderellas, bombing itself with the superficial. Rodgers and Hammerstein did it classic with sweet gusto a few years back swirling forth the glorious Victoria Clark abracadabra-ing it along beautifully. Sondheim spectacularly made Cinderella a perpetually caring team player stuck on the steps mid-thought. That was the one that stays solidly in my head. Now it’s Britney’s turn. Right? I guess. But one would have to ask why.

“The Child is choosing,” we are told, as we all pulled into the new Broadway musical, Once Upon a One More Time, now trying hard to kick up its heels at the Marquis Theatre. Filled to overflowing, the show is a pretty standard jukebox musical of Spears’s most popular songs formulated into a storybook tale of awakened feminism, naturally. It plays with all those well-known fairytale princesses and a prince, non-plural (although there are a number of other princes who are sidelined to the ensemble). It is structured along the same lines as the much more solidly constructed & Juliet, giving off a whiff of pop-feminism that reminds us all of the much better Six musical, but without the musical creativity. Directed and choreographed by the team of Keone & Mari Madrid (off-Broadway Beyond Babel) making their Broadway debut, the musical, with a book by Jon Hartmere (Bare) and the use of creative consultant David Leveaux (NBC’s “Jesus Christ Superstar Live“), tries hard to make us care about the frustration of its lead princess, Cinderella, portrayed kindly by Briga Heelan (NBC’s “Great News“). She begins to question her experience in her story to the steadfast Narrator, portrayed by the fine actor Adam Godley (Broadway’s The Lehman Trilogy), who has little time for her emotional troubles. “Where are you Cin? It’s like you are in a different kingdom!“

When called forth by some young girl, played by Isabella Ye (or Mila Weir), about to read her fairytale, Cinderella, destined forever to play and replay the same old damsel-in-distress role that is causing this internal squeamish feeling, finds herself losing her smile as she tries to gamely give the rendition that is classically asked of her. But her trouble doesn’t seem to go unnoticed. She is not fully convinced that this is all there is for her and for her princess sisters that meet in a weekly clutch that is first called a ‘reading’ group, although it appears they don’t really read anything but each other’s stories. Some, including her silly but engaging bestie, Snow White, played well and fun by Aisha Jackson (Broadway’s Paradise Square), as well as several of the other princesses; Princess Pea (Morgan Whitley), Sleeping Beauty (Ashley Chiu), Little Mermaid (Lauren Zakrin), and Rapunzel (Gabrielle Beckford), don’t even seem to know what books are, or even how to read, as they are kept in check by the over-controlling Narrator. Uneducated and uninformed.

Yet she is struggling, unable to quite put her finger on what’s wrong, even with some help from the obliviously self-absorbed Prince Charming, portrayed strongly by Justin Guarini (Broadway’s In Transit), or the wickedly derailing guidance from her Stepmother, played deviously well by Jennifer Simard (Broadway’s Company) giving us a cackle like no other. Her ‘assistance’ is really about helping out her two ridiculously silly daughters; Belinda (Amy Hillner Larsen) and Betany (Tess Soltau) gain traction with the prince, even if no one really sees them that way. These two step-sisters are quite the experience, but they do get one of the better moments when song and story meet together well in their “Work Bitch” rendering. Living “happily ever after” isn’t feeling everything that it should feel though. ‘Cin’ wants more #FreeBritney freedom, and maybe something akin to an awakening.

Those dreamings cue the arrival of the banished O.F.G., played silly and straight by the underused Brooke Dillman (“Bob’s Burgers“). She comes, brandishing a copy of the book, The Feminine Mystique, a book by Betty Friedan, that soon fires up all the more confident Britney anthems and all the princesses in the meta-fairytale factory. They look at this thing called a book like its an abstraction, but it does fire up a princess revolution, sending the ladies, lovingly costumed with Disney in mind by Loren Elstein (WNO’s The Magic Flute) out into the forest in search of a better, more fair place, maybe somewhere in Brooklyn, or so they are told by this Betty. With a strong visual sense, thanks to the thoughtful scenic design by Anna Fleischle (Broadway’s Hangman), dynamic lighting by Kenneth Posner (Broadway’s Beetlejuice), strong sound by Andrew Keister (Broadway’s KPOP), and vivid projections by Sven Ortel (Broadway’s Parade), the self-empowered revolt begins in earnest, yet somehow left me moderately amused and wishing this was a ninety-minute montage of feminist pop restyled for the masses, and not an over two hour, one intermission type musical trying to pretend it is something more.

Without much depth or nuance, this somewhat bore of a show does manage to enliven itself with its tight ‘pop and lock’ type choreography, played big, sharp, and somewhat repetitive throughout the show. Prince Erudite, played cute by Ryan Steele (NYCC Encores’ A Chorus Line), and his Clumsy crush, played touchingly by Nathan Levy (PCLO’s Peter Pan) are given some fun delightful moments of dutiful inclusivity. Oddly enough, the strongest bits of the whole show are sung and danced by the prince of all princes, Guarini, who actually wins over the women for once (sly nod to his second place finishing on “American Idol“), with the numbers he is given to execute. His voice, his moves, and his strong backup of lesser princes keep us completely entertained and enlivened, shifting our thoughts from trying to probe too deeply into the text (or lack of subtext).

Heelan, as the confused and breathy ‘Cin’ fails to engage as much as she should. Pushed forward by the steadfast work of music supervisor/music coordinator Patrick Vaccariello (Broadway’s The Music Man) and music director Ben Cohn (Broadway’s Dear Evan Hansen), her voice only reminded me how little I like, care about, or even know the Britney Spears catalog of music (I know, terrible of me), beyond what’s already being performed more dynamically and with a greater purpose in & Juliet. It also pales in comparison to the deranged and devilish performance being produced by Simard, especially as she struts out her wildly crazy and captivating rendition of Toxic. It’s sorta weirdly wonderful in its deadpan delivery mixed and contorted with disdain and selfish desires. I didn’t quite know what to make of it, vocally, but it certainly made me sit up and take notice inside a show that kept me sitting back and looking forward to the end. Outside of that campy moment, this Once Upon a One More Time becomes almost something of a joke inside a joke. The audience seemed to be laughing at the musical almost as much as they were laughing with or applauding it. Not a good sign for the future of this fairytale.

So, just like a BS “Circus“, “all characters now released.”