For “One More Time,” they go overboard on index fingers pointing. The musical is directed and choreographed by husband-and-wife pair Keone and Mari Madrid, who have gone viral on YouTube for their dance videos, but here seem fascinated by weird, jerky arm movements that suggest the performer is having a seizure. “Real quick, though, this is happy ever after - right?” asks Cinderella. They’ve then added them to a script that mixes a threesome joke, drunk princesses and references to Howard Stern with lines like “You’re not pulling my slipper?”Īdam Godley is delightful as the droll, fussy Narrator, who is like the backstage ringmaster of fairy tales, ordering about the princesses - “Ready the wedding scene!” - and standing in the way of change or growth. Why Friedan has been brought low here is unclear, or even why a post-conservatorship Spears authorized this unsubtle musical, which includes many of her hits like “Oops!… I Did It Again,” “Lucky,” “Stronger” and “Toxic.” The creators have hollowed out the original song’s lyrics to shoehorn a narrative they are not suited for. Betty Friedan’s book helped launch the women’s movement by depicting women as prisoners of a culture that made a fetish out of motherhood and housework. The musical has a story written by Jon Hartmere about classic fairy tale princesses - Cinderella, Snow White, Rapunzel and the Little Mermaid, among them, (gathered just as they were in the movie “Ralph Breaks the Internet”) - who are transformed after reading “The Feminine Mystique,” a landmark feminist text. It’s also a safe feminist story about women writing their own story led by a creative team led mostly by men, an enduring problem on Broadway but very awkward for a story about princesses seizing their narrative. One of the main characters actually swings on a chandelier.Įverything about it seems recycled: A fractured fairy tale that is a tired concept by now - no less a giant than Andrew Lloyd Webber failed with it with “Bad Cinderella” this spring. “Once Upon a One More Time,” which opened Thursday at the Marquis Theatre, is pure summer dumb - it’s got smoke machines working overtime, weird dance breaks, tons of glitter and every song ends with a manufactured IMAX-level sonic boom. Free of this bombastic, patronizing, clumsy, lazy show. It glows in the end because you are free. But the gift is strangely inert for the whole show, only coming to life and gleaming at the curtain call. NEW YORK (AP) - You’re handed an LED wristband as you enter “Once Upon a One More Time,” a musical on Broadway stuffed with Britney Spears songs.
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