ONCE UPON A ONE MORE TIME On Broadway - Opening Night Reviews — Page 5

"You're handed an LED wristband as you enter “Once Upon a One More Time,” a musical on Broadway stuffed with Britney Spears songs. But the gift is strangely inert for the whole show, only coming to life and gleaming at the curtain call. It's not a wristband — it's a metaphor. It glows in the end because you are free.

Brutal and hilarious. This show is fun and as people said here, it's for the girls and gays. Should be fine for awhile.

Oh boy. Well, I went into this with low expectations based on the reviews I read here, but they’re definitely warranted. The biggest weakness, ironically, were the princesses. Cinderella had a weird cadence to her speaking voice and never committed to the campiness of the role, so she’s very bland. And the whole point of the show is that she’s not bland and cookie cutter; she’s her own smart, feisty, independent woman. K. Snow White was also not good. Her voice was not strong enough. I felt like they all were imitating what they’ve seen divas do in other shows, but theirs was Wednesday night at your local bar’s karaoke. The story itself was redundant, but it’s a Britney Spears musical, so eh.

Justin Guarini was the best part of this thing. He committed to camp! I also enjoyed Jennifer Simard and her stepdaughters. Once Jennifer hit her power at the end of Toxic (I think it was Toxic), there was a genuine response from the crowd. She always elevates the material she’s given. At intermission, my friend asked what I thought, and what I think is that this is running on Broadway, so it can be marketed to schools. Kind of reminds me of Addams Family in that as it stands, it’s too much, but if you cut it down to an hourlong junior version, it’ll be fun, and schools will eat it up.

Somebody on Reddit posted pics Saturday to show how empty the theatre was at the matinee.

https://www.reddit.com/r/Broadway/comments/14o3l7p/its_205_pm_do_you_know_where_your_audience_is/

I think we can all agree its sales hasn't been great from the beginning. But I think these sales this week(end) are also largely to do with the fact that NYC and Broadway is typically a kind of dead during the week and weekend of the 4th. I think the next few weeks will be more telling about the trajectory for this show. I imagine their average ticket price to increase in the coming weeks while maintaining its capacity, maybe a little more. I agree that Labor Day is the likely closing date, but this week's grosses should be taken with a grain of salt for any show.

Interesting though it may be, it’s what Britney explicitly did NOT want. She’s only just turned 41, and so a musical about her life is not only too soon, but would be heavily lopsided toward her controversies and struggles - especially knowing what we know about her years under conservatorship. It would be a spectacle that would make the audience more inclined to pity her than root for her.

I think the timing of their opening was absolutely dumb - it should’ve come in during the fall after Bad Cinderella was a faded memory and & Juliet may have lost a little steam. But instead, it opened in May where it competed with both - one show with a shared story and another with a shared music catalogue, as well as all the other hot Tony nominated shows. I don’t think the Nederlanders would’ve lost much by leaving the Marquis empty for the summer and then having the show open in late August/early Sept.

Also, not until recently did I actually see them attempt to market this show. If I wasn’t a theatre geek who had a finger on the pulse, I wouldn’t know this show existed outside of bus and Link ads in midtown.

FINALLY a nice TV feature on the show from ABC News:

https://twitter.com/abcnewslive/status/1677105747778256898?s=46&t=0XG46rJiPEOy8dyIeDsimg

I saw this show this last Wednesday evening (the show Aisha Jackson called out of halfway through Act 1). After giving a day or two to simmer... I truly think this is one of the worst shows I've seen. I'm sorry for feeling that way, but it's how I feel.

The good? Justin Guarini. Committed to the acting, can sing, can dance. He's got it. Jennifer Simard was only an 8/10 for me... even her talent couldn't make up for the slog of a plot

I enjoy the dancing, but it's incredibly clear a few songs in that the choreography is impossible to sing with. At least, proper, healthy, singing. I wondered if it could also be the vocal arrangements? Everything just sounded so thin and not arranged properly. Songs sat in weird registers for some people. There were points were singers were meant to wail and do some runs, but it just sounded like screaming?

The elephant in the room with this production? Briga Heelan. At first I thought I had an understudy. Nope, that's who's cast. I texted a friend at intermission to ask if her voice is always this nasally/50s voice... they said yes. Imagine my surprise when I watch in an interview that that's not her actual voice... meaning she was directed to sound like that! BWW Board, she couldn't sing the role. The band was working overtime to try to make sure she stayed on the beat. More often that not, she'd lose the pitch. You can tell the places in the show that were the audition cuts, because everything besides that was quite literally ear grating. I've seen casting be the reason a show goes down, and this is definitely a contributing factor. This town is crawling with skinny white girls that can sing and do Cinderella! Like cmon.

I'm in my 20s, so I'm well experienced with pop music. I was a show choir kid all through high school, and I've seen show choirs put on more polished vocals than this. How did they find millions to put this on when shows are killing each other for theaters right now? It boggled my mind. If I wasn't with someone else, I would've left halfway through Act 1.

I thought Bad Cinderella was better put together than this.

1/10

HunterK said: "I didn't know where else to ask this, so please excuse it.

I won the lotto for "One More Time" for tomorrow. Can anyone tell me if you have to pick up the tickets personally at the box office or are they sent to your email?

Any help would be greatly appreciated. Thank you in advance!"



They will get emailed to you a few hours before the performance.

HunterK said: "frogs_fan85 said: "HunterK said: "I didn't know where else to ask this, so please excuse it.

I won the lotto for "One More Time" for tomorrow. Can anyone tell me if you have to pick up the tickets personally at the box office or are they sent to your email?

Any help would be greatly appreciated. Thank you in advance!"



They will get emailed to you a few hours before the performance.

"

I cannot thank you enough! Thank you!"

I hope you love the show!!

The company will perform on GMA3 Tuesday morning… I’m assuming that because of the SAG-AFTRA strike, it will not feature Briga?

According to their social media, two performances tomorrow: Circus on GMA, Crazy on GMA3. Circus doesn't feature Cinderella. I don't recall if she comes in at some point in Crazy?

Also interesting is a podcast Justin G. does where his non-theater, non-actor co-host describes her candid reactions to the changes the show made, including how she thought they made it worse with some earlier changes in the previews and then she thought they fixed the major issues by opening night, especially by adding the new musical number for Prince Charming in the second act to keep the energy up.

What's the cheapest way to see this right now (for someone who's not a TDF member and doesn't want to wait at TKTS)? My friend wants to take her kid and I can't find a discount code that hasn't expired.

I just looked at any number of performances and the show is selling next to nothing - why in God's name would they pull all discount codes?