Briga Heelan as Cinderella
The Broadway show “Once Upon a One More Time” — a fairytale spin on the songs of Britney Spears, with a touch of “The Feminine Mystique” — will end its Broadway run on Sept. 3 after 123 performances.
“Once Upon a One More Time” originated in a spec script by writer Jon Hartmere, who has been a fan of Britney since her first hit, “Baby One More Time.” “If I recall, the premise was that a descendant of the Brothers Grimm who doesn’t believe in the power of fairy tales finds them coming to life all around him,” he says, “and has to figure out why it’s happening and what it all means.”
Fairy tale princesses and the Princess of Pop, Hartmere eventually realized, make a perfect match.
“Britney, like our fairy tale princesses, is an icon,” he said. “And, like our princesses, just needs the mononym to identify her. She’s a legend. There’s a power to her — and to her story — that captivates the world. She means so much to so, so many people.”
Having seen Britney in concert, Hartmere has seen her spellbinding powers. “I can attest that she has a hold over her audiences that’s almost otherworldly. She brings a singular joy and energy that I think is reflected in our show.”
There’s another link between Britney Spears and the world of fairytales, says Hartmere. “I also see a thematic match in expectations around how Britney should behave, questions of what she should represent — and to whom — that have been asked throughout her career, and the public feeling ownership over her story when it’s ultimately hers to tell as she sees fit.”
(As Hartmere also points out, she also has a song called “Cinderella.”
During the writing process, as Hartmere explored the lyrics of Britney’s songs, one motif and theme emerged most strongly: “Love, obviously – crushes, first love, bad love, true love — Britney’s got all aspects covered there. I think I was struck, too, by her reflections on, and knowingness of, how she’s represented — and misrepresented — and the desire to tell and own her story which, again, echoes Cinderella’s journey.”
Of all the songs he got to include in the show, Hartmere is proudest of “Make Me.”
“I got to write a fairytale rap,” he said. The trickiness came in trying to make it scan as close to the original as possible — and then it’s made even trickier onstage in that Justin Guarini is somehow doing an entire magic show while performing said rap…”
