Britney Spears has had a Las Vegas residency and the Disney princesses have been put on ice -- so I guess Broadway is the most logical next step!
In a new musical set to premiere at the James M. Nederlander Theatre in Chicago for a limited run from Nov. 13 to Dec. 1 before moving on to New York's Broadway, 23 of the Princess of Pop's hit tracks will act as the soundtrack for a musical following modern-day takes on the Disney princesses. Appropriately named “Once Upon a One More Time,” the musical sounds like a millennial girl's dream.
“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 said in a statement to the New York Post. “This is a dream come true for me!”
Since the singer has had to postpone her "Domination" show in Vegas due to her father's health, I imagine the musical is a bit of a pick-me-up.
The gist of the show is to paint the Disney princesses in a new, 21st-century light with new, 21st-century problems. Cinderella is having an existential crisis, and with the help of her princess posse, jumps into some second- and third-wave feminism while Prince Charming and an elusive eighth dwarf add to the narrative about how our societal norms have been established.
According to the New York Times, the princesses wish for new reading material besides the book of Grimm fairy tales they've been working through. When the fairy godmother brings them Betty Friedan's "The Feminine Mystique," though, everything changes.
Sounds like a fairy tale to me -- iconic pop music and feminist princesses? Count me in. This method of altering the narratives of the Disney princesses in order to fit our new age of the feminist movement isn't going away, which is great -- just look at the more recent films out of Disney and Pixar like "Moana" and "Ralph Breaks the Internet." Moana didn't even have a love interest, let alone a prince to woo her, and the story was all about forging your own path and excelling. And in the sequel to "Wreck-It Ralph," we saw the princess posse make comments basically about being suppressed by the patriarchy -- it doesn't get much more self-aware and socially-conscious than that.
So, who better to partner with a story about the princesses figuring things out than Spears? Even if she won't be in the musical herself, she started her music career when she was just 16 and became one of the biggest top-selling artists in the industry. And her very public fallout in 2007? Just more of a testament to how far she's come as a woman, right?
“These women have been in this hermetically-sealed world, and then they start to get deeper into modern ideas -- second- and third-wave feminism -- and also explore how stories are passed down to us and where we get our norms from. But it’s also superfun and funny," bookwriter Jon Hartmere told the New York Times.
Spears has already attended a read-through, so the show has the blessing of the Princess of Pop herself. Mark your calendars!