ONCE UPON A ONE MORE TIME Broadway Previews Thread — Page 4

Wow, those Ticketmaster screenshots look VERY different than the ones I am seeing. Wonder why. Papering, maybe?

Lola Getz2 said: "Wow, those Ticketmaster screenshots look VERY different than the ones I am seeing. Wonder why. Papering, maybe?"

It's from the official ticketmaster site. The biggest chunk of tickets get sold closer to the performance, I think that's the typical Broadway behavior since people decide what to see when evening/night approaches. We'll get official numbers next week, but if it continues to sell like it did in the 1st preview (around $ 170,000) per show, it could gross over 1 million with 7 previews which would be a great number!

theaterdrew said: "I've been waiting for the PR machine to really kick in. Surely they are planning some TV exposure. Both Helan and Guarini should be able to get booked on shows like the View with their TV histories, and Simard might be enough of name in the NYC media market to get on local shows (not as sure about that one). Some other shows have struggled with promotional performances but the rehearsal video suggests that won't be a problem with this show.

I am excited to see the show on Friday, but admit to being worried about the loudness reports."

Doesn't that happen after Broadway shows officially open? It just started previews, and it's still more than a month away from opening night. I'm sure there's a lot planning, and a TV performance will do wonders to this musical

Maybe it’s because I was in the Mezz, but I didn’t find this show to be anymore loud than anything else I’ve seen. No difference between this, and &Juliet. The songs have a lot more bass, but I didn’t notice anything crazy.

Thanks, YvanEhtNioj. I'm in the orchestra section kind of close to the stage. May have been a strategically poor choice, lol.

theaterdrew said: "Thanks, YvanEhtNioj. I'm in the orchestra section kind of close to the stage. May have been a strategically poor choice, lol."

Orchestra close to the stage was where I was and yes, it was very, very loud at times. If you brought earplugs to muffle the sound, you'd probably still hear everything clearly.

I went last night! Orch V5,7. I was pretty stoked as a Britney fan and as someone anticipating the show since the Chicago announcement.

I enjoyed Act 1 -- fun night out vibes, don't take anything too seriously and even the jokes weren't all the most creative, it was still enjoyable. Several uses of the songs made me laugh like Work, Bitch, Piece of Me, Scream & Shout. I thought standouts were the Stepmother, Snow, Prince Charming, and the comedic timing of the Stepsisters.

Then Act 2 happened... Toxic was a pretty good number, but everything else left me very underwhelmed. The plot was poorly constructed and executed and I felt like a lot of promise for what this could have been was squandered.

The feminism was shallow and white af, the queerness was contained, & it didn't have anything to say about the power of a strike (especially as we're in a time when SO many unions are striking or were just on strike a la the HarperCollins Union), and for all those reasons and more, I was disappointed. I wasn't expecting anything landmark or profound, just even a smidge more than the nothing that was there would have been acceptable to me. If I had to compare to a show with a similar vibe, I'd say & Juliet did it better and had a little more substance underpinning all the ideas they tackled within the scope of their story.

The choreography and dancing was pretty good! My partner thought it was the best part of the show.

The sound - I did think the opening number was a little loud in places and just ascribed that to it being previews. There was a moment at the end of... Crazy, I think? that the music was so loud at the end we couldn't understand the last line (which was a lyric change) so that was a bummer. But otherwise, the sound was fine!

Lyric changes - there were a lot and I didn't really love the decision to do that many. This might be nitpicky, but when they changed the lyrics in Cinderella to "I don't believe in my fairytale" from "I don't believe in fairytales", it just felt so unnecessary and like they didn't trust the music and spirit of the songs to do the work for them.

My advice to anyone going is get there with some extra time to use the bathroom (outside the stage/security area) and enjoy the photo opps they've set up. They've definitely tried to create a fun night out vibe with spaces to make this a full experience. Don't expect much and have a good time :)

Updated On: 5/18/23 at 09:02 AM

I genuinely may be laughing about the Hansel and Gretel gag for the rest of my life.

"My biggest problem with &Juliet is that Romeo and Juliet end up together at the end, again. What's the point of re-writing the story if the story ends up pretty much the same except for the death? 'Once upon a one more time' allows you to choose your own story, for real."

For me & Juliet was a story about two people in a struggling relationship using Romeo and Juliet to explore their own desires, problems, and future. So as they are able to reconcile their relationship and have a hope for the future, so do Romeo and Juliet get back together on their own terms.

I don't think Once Upon was trying to do the same thing, and it makes sense the fairytale characters end on a more ambiguous note of what comes next for them, since as you say, this story was more concerned with empowering the characters to break out of the roles assigned to them. Now how well they executed that is another conversation.

pablitonizer said: "PhantomMickey said: "I went last night! Orch V5,7. I was pretty stoked as a Britney fan and as someone anticipating the show since the Chicago announcement.

I enjoyed Act 1 -- fun night out vibes, don't take anything too seriously and even the jokes weren't all the most creative, it was still enjoyable. Several uses of the songs made me laugh like Work, Bitch, Piece of Me, Scream & Shout. I thought standouts were the Stepmother, Snow, Prince Charming, and the comedic timing of the Stepsisters.

Then Act 2 happened... Toxic was a pretty good number, but everything else left me very underwhelmed. The plot was poorly constructed and executed and I felt like a lot of promise for what this could have been was squandered.

The feminism was shallow and white af, the queerness was contained, & it didn't have anything to say about the power of a strike (especially as we're in a time when SO many unions are striking or were just on strike a la the HarperCollins Union), and for all those reasons and more, I was disappointed. I wasn't expecting anything landmark or profound, just even a smidge more than the nothing that was there would have been acceptable to me.If I had to compare to a show with a similar vibe, I'd say & Juliet did it better and had a little more substance underpinning all the ideas they tackled within the scope of their story.

The choreography and dancing was pretty good! My partner thought it was the best part of the show.

The sound - I did think the opening number was a little loud in places and just ascribed that to it being previews. There was a moment at the end of... Crazy, I think? that the music was so loud at the end we couldn't understand the last line (which was a lyric change) so that was a bummer. But otherwise, the sound was fine!

Lyric changes - there were a lot and I didn't really love the decision to do that many. This might be nitpicky, but when they changed the lyrics in Cinderella to "I don't believe in my fairytale" from "I don't believe in fairytales", it just felt so unnecessary and like they didn't trust the music and spirit of the songs to do the work for them.

My advice to anyone going is get there with some extra time to use the bathroom (outside the stage/security area) and enjoy the photo opps they've set up. They've definitely tried to create a fun night out vibe with spaces to make this a full experience. Don't expect much and have a good time :)"

My biggest problem with &Juliet is that Romeo and Juliet end up together at the end, again. What's the point of re-writing the story if the story ends up pretty much the same except for the death? 'Once upon a one more time' allows you to choose your own story, for real



"

Why ruin the ending of “& Juliet” for people who haven’t seen it yet???

Saw it Thursday night. About 2hr 35min long and it can easily cut 15 min. There were looong book moments in the 2nd act especially that can be trimmed.

I, unfortunately, had a bad audience experience. I was in rear orchestra and people were singing. An Usher had to come and tell them to stop. There was no announcement prior to the show about filming or turning phones off, but maybe they just haven't recorded it yet. When they do, they really should add for people to refrain from singing.

The show overall was really fun. Jennifer Simard had me rolling with her take-off of the Evil Stepmother. There's a scene where she laments about the good ole days of fairy tales where it was much darker and disturbing, but now it's so tame. The humor is great. The choreography great. The ending is a big party.

They do beat the moral of the story to death though. The book can definitely be trimmed down. But definitely fixable before opening.

Sets are okay. Mainly projections. They had a part where they were showing images of powerful women, but there were giant trees in front of the screen so I had to guess if the image was Josephine Baker...still have no clue. Then they showed an image of a suffragette but it was also difficult to make out behind the tree branches.

But the laughs and good times were plentiful. Now let's just see if they can get the audience under control somehow.

Ensemble1684529655 said: "Saw it Thursday night. About 2hr 35min long and it can easily cut 15 min. There were looong book moments in the 2nd act especially that can be trimmed.

I, unfortunately, had a bad audience experience. I was in rear orchestra and people were singing. An Usher had to come and tell them to stop. There was no announcement prior to the show about filming or turning phones off, but maybe they just haven't recorded it yet. When they do, they really should add for people to refrain from singing.

The show overall was really fun. Jennifer Simard had me rolling with her take-off of the Evil Stepmother. There's a scene where she laments about the good ole days of fairy tales where it was much darker and disturbing, but now it's so tame. The humor is great. The choreography great. The ending is a big party.

They do beat the moral of the story to death though. The book can definitely be trimmed down. But definitely fixable before opening.

Sets are okay. Mainly projections. They had a part where they were showing images of powerful women, but there were giant trees in front of the screen so I had to guess if the image was Josephine Baker...still have no clue. Then they showed an image of a suffragette but it was also difficult to make out behind the tree branches.

But the laughs and good times were plentiful. Now let's just see if they can get the audience under control somehow."

Thanks for sharing! Interestingly, I listened to Justin Guriani's podcast yesterday where he confirmed the sets are no finalized yet. They'll be changing and adding stuff during previews. He also mentioned many of the customes had to be re-done after tech rehearsals since the lighting was not doing justice for them. He also noted something that probably happens in all shows that are in previews, there's an executive producer in every show analyzing audience reaction. She goes during intermission hearing people's conversations and taking notes of what works and what does not work. It's good they're open to make changes, and that's why I got my tickets to see it once it officially opens

ColorTheHours048 said: "Y’all. Maybe it was the good mood I was in, maybe it was the substances I partook in beforehand, I don’t know. But this was an absolute BLAST.

If you don’t want to have a good time, don’t see it. Not sure what else to tell you. If you like Britney, if you like fairytales, if you like Jennifer Simard milking every drop of comedy from a line of dialogue or you’re intrigued by the idea of her singing “Toxic”, if you like fluff and camp: get thee to the Marquis.

My friends and I couldn’t stop laughing and smiling. Truly, a great night out."

What a great, fun review. I wasn't interested in this but these reviews have been exciting to read so I will buy a ticket in the orchestra. I hate the mezz at the Marquis but I think I'm in the minority there. Thank you!