ONCE UPON A ONE MORE TIME Broadway Previews Thread- Page 9

[bwayphreak234]

Posted: 6/6/23 at 10:29am

YvanEhtNioj said: "HeyMrMusic said: "I went tonight. The song “3” was added."

Who sings this? Prince Charming?"

From what I've heard, "3" happens when Prince Charming goes off to find Cinderella. Apparently he read the Private Parts book Cinderella tosses aside late in the first act and thinks he knows what she might be missing. Can someone who was there last night confirm?

[labellaragazza1]

Posted: 6/6/23 at 2:41pm

Yep, Charming sings "3" in act 2 after a discussion with the stepmother about things he learned from Howard Stern's book - I wasn't expecting it so I was a bit thrown off and didn't fully get the context - it sounded like he was singing about the other princesses (maybe as options) during the song too?  But I didn't notice any major changes when he catches up with Cinderella later

Updated On: 6/6/23 at 02:41 PM

[YvanEhtNioj]

Posted: 6/6/23 at 4:00pm

Lol thats actually kinda funny. 
 

[Dirty Rotten Scoundrel]

Posted: 6/6/23 at 4:55pm

That's actually pretty funny. Is this an additional song for Charming, or is it replacing one of his other songs? Fingers crossed for additional...the more Justin Guarini in this show, the better. 

[muscle23ftl]

Posted: 6/7/23 at 9:04pm

I went to see the show today with very low expectations, and I actually ended up having the best time with my friend. We both had a great time. It has a beautiful message, the songs were great, excellent singing and dancing. I loved the sets and the lighting. Justin is amazing!!!

[muscle23ftl]

Posted: 6/7/23 at 9:06pm

In fact, the entire cast was amazing. I loved the dancers so much! Excellent dancers. I love to see good dancing on stage.

[Jonathan Cohen]

Posted: 6/7/23 at 10:23pm

labellaragazza1 said: "Yep, Charming sings "3" in act 2 after a discussion with the stepmother about things he learned from Howard Stern's book - I wasn't expecting it so I was a bit thrown off and didn't fully get the context - it sounded like he was singing about the other princesses (maybe as options) during the song too? But I didn't notice any major changes when he catches up with Cinderella later"

I saw it today and if the Howard Stern book still reappears after Cinderella accidentally makes a wish for it (which is the show's funniest moment), I totally missed it.

The stepmother, her daughters, and the narrator talk with Charming about how to win Cinderella back, and he remembers he wanted her to come with to Scroll Club. Then he sings 3, and I got really confused because it sounded like a song originally about threesomes was now supposed to be about the three of Charming, Cinderella, and the book they were going to discuss. 

Considering Charming had already brought up a ménage à trois earlier, I'm going to assume the horrible air quality affected me more than I thought, and the intended meaning of the song went over my head.

[muscle23ftl]

Posted: 6/8/23 at 11:35am

I also was hoping they'd sing "3" when they hint a threesome, but they sang "Cinderella Reprise" instead I believe, which is a good song, but it was the moment for "3"!

[angoradebs]

Posted: 6/13/23 at 12:19pm

Did they get rid of the "its broadway, bitch" merch?! None of it is showing on their site anymore. Hoping it's just sold out and not that they discontinued it!

[Sutton Ross]

Posted: 6/13/23 at 12:33pm

Typically, when something is sold out but coming back, the website would say "coming soon". Perhaps they are still being sold at the theater though? 

[pablitonizer]

Posted: 6/13/23 at 12:36pm

angoradebs said: "Did they get rid of the "its broadway, bitch" merch?! None of it is showing on their site anymore. Hoping it's just sold out and not that they discontinued it!"

You can find them all at the Marquis, in fact they have more merch now with It's Broadway b#tch (they have t-shirts and hoodies,). The tote is getting more stock and adding the show logo on the back, but none of them are on the site online yet. I also know BMS is trying to get aligned with Sony Music and sell some Britney vinyls at the Marquis as well

[quizking101]

Posted: 6/19/23 at 10:23am

Question: Has anyone seen if they have in person rush at all? I'm coming in on Wednesday and I want to try the matinee.

I would do TDF but I'm not 100% sure if I will make it to the theatre on time so I was hoping a last-second rush would be possible (if I was able to make it)

[MemorableUserName]

Posted: 6/19/23 at 1:50pm

Playbill posted its feature story about Adam Godley and his partner, the show's writer, online.

Jon Hartmere Wrote Once Upon a One More Time; His Partner, Adam Godley, Is in the Show

Updated On: 6/19/23 at 01:50 PM

[labellaragazza1]

Posted: 6/19/23 at 4:24pm

Jonathan Cohen said: "labellaragazza1 said: "Yep, Charming sings "3" in act 2 after a discussion with the stepmother about things he learned from Howard Stern's book - I wasn't expecting it so I was a bit thrown off and didn't fully get the context - it sounded like he was singing about the other princesses (maybe as options) during the song too? But I didn't notice any major changes when he catches up with Cinderella later"

I saw it today and if the Howard Stern book still reappears after Cinderella accidentally makes a wish for it (which is the show's funniest moment), I totally missed it.

The stepmother, her daughters, and the narrator talk with Charming about how to win Cinderella back, and he remembers he wanted her to come with to Scroll Club. Then he sings 3, and I got really confused because it sounded like a song originally about threesomes was now supposed to be about the three of Charming, Cinderella, and the book they were going to discuss.

Considering Charming had already brought up aménage à trois earlier, I'm going to assume the horrible air quality affected me more than I thought, and the intended meaning of the song went over my head."

 

I might have misremembered the context or they might have changed it already. I was back at the show this weekend and I don't remember him mentioning the Howard Stern book again in that scene and 3 was more of a "be the man she needs" song so it sounds like it was more in the vein of what you rememeber.


Act 2 has changed drastically since I saw it in early June so I'm wondering which version they'll land on. I was surprised when 

 

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BOTH of the stepsisters got banished and they don't have the fake Bellinda wedding anymore. That felt like they hadn't made any changes to it for the first few weeks, only to suddenly change it up pretty late into previews

 

[muscle23ftl]

Posted: 6/19/23 at 7:28pm

I honestly thought the show was so much fun, they don't need to change much. But this seems like a nice change. I guess I need to go see it again.

[Ensemble1686998462]

Posted: 6/19/23 at 7:41pm

I know it's common for shows to still be doing some tweaking during the previews, but it feels strange to me that this show at this point still is. Maybe it's because of the pandemic making the journey to Broadway feel so long, but it feels like the show had more than enough time to perfect itself, yet here they are still adding in songs and other things.

The whole role out is so messy. I have only heard one radio ad, but nothing else. I would think considering its Pride month that a musical based on the music of Britney Spears would be promoting everywhere. I really wonder how it would have played out had they opened up around the time they originally wanted to. They don't seem ready now so how would they have been ready then? 

 

[chrishuyen]

Posted: 6/20/23 at 12:50am

We saw it Wednesday and came out of it thinking that Justin Guarini was by far the best part of the show (except for the too-short moments when Jennifer Simard was on stage).  While the overall story was better than I expected, some of the execution just fell apart a bit.  Briga Heelan I'd heard issues about from both this board and other friends but I thought she was adequate in the first act, and it wasn't really until Stronger that I really felt they needed a better singer (especially when Lorna Courtney is belting her heart out on that song in essentially the same context).  Aisha Jackson on the other hand, was quite good whenever she was on, and I'm glad she's getting more exposure.

I'm not sure if it's Heelan's problem or the book, but I never found Cinderella that interesting as a main character to follow.  It feels like because she wants something more than the typical princess mold, we're expected to just like her for that reason alone, but she doesn't really have any other personality traits and she's not as fun/funny as the other princesses in the book club.

I don't know if the Madrids have directed an actual book musical before, but it felt like they should've gotten an actual theater director (or co-director) with a bit more experience shaping a show.  The best moments are when the story is told through song and has movement involved (Work Bitch, Circus, Toxic, etc.), but everything else falls a bit flat.  I really love the choreography for some of the numbers but it seems like they don't trust the main princesses to dance and just give them hand choreography, while the "second tier" princesses get the main dance tracks (and then there's Justin Guarini who seems to be the only person that does both).

The set had great moments (when are they going to sell that glass ball with the quill as a Christmas ornament or jewelry, because that was GORGEOUS), but for a lot of the show it didn't seem like they knew how to use the space, which left it feeling rather empty and stark.  The costumes too were walking a thin line between looking cheap and being intentionally kitsch, though I did like Cinderella's ball gown and some of the other more period style costumes (Ariel's wig looked like it was taken directly from Sierra Boggess's costume during her run as Ariel).

If this show had been in early previews, I'd say it would still have a shot at getting to be a solid musical, and while I'm glad they've been tweaking things, I'm not sure that they'll be able to get to a point where the show flows better by the time it opens.  I thought & Juliet had better song integration into the plot, as well as a better grasp on how to just make the show campy and fun, but this show seemed almost bogged down by its premise of bringing feminism to Disney princesses (I almost rolled my eyes when they mentioned women being shrill and hysterical just because it seemed like a knee-jerk reaction for the audience to groan at it), and while I liked the resolution and the meta-narrative, it just didn't seem to really fix all that much (like Cinderella's relationship with the Prince).  I do think it tells a better story than Bad Cinderella, but I felt I enjoyed Bad Cinderella more in terms of visuals and staging.

[Scarlet Leigh]

Posted: 6/21/23 at 12:29am

chrishuyen said: "If this show had been in early previews, I'd say it would still have a shot at getting to be a solid musical, and while I'm glad they've been tweaking things, I'm not sure that they'll be able to get to a point where the show flows better by the time it opens."

This. I feel like if this show had a BIT more time to figure itself out, there is something there.

I saw it a few weeks ago and for whatever reason did not feel compelled to write up a review about it here but overall, it feels like a show didn't start to find itself until two weeks into previews, putting it overall two weeks behind on finding a happy place for itself to freeze. The concept at it's core I think is very interesting and whimsical but it would be that way with or without the Britney songs so there feels like a disconnect between pairing these two together. Remove the songs and replace them with another artist's catalog of music of even original music, and it not only wouldn't suffer from it but perhaps even make it better and a story concept fully realized.

Also, it feels very VERY commercial. Like this is not a musical being made for Broadway. This is a musical being made for future licensing purposes with high schools that have one talented boy and 20 talented girls. So you know... most American high schools. But in doing so, it feels like they are really missing out on a perfect ending where Snow White and Cinderella potentially end up together. Neither of them have the right chemistry with the prince but fantastic chemistry with one another. You are gonna try to tell me that their duet in act one is a song about two friends just being friends. Yeah. Sure it is. And it doesn't need to be a like make out session just something small. A smile to one another at the end of the last song or holding hands as the lights go out at the end. Something SMALL that suggests there could be something more for them or also just could be interpreted as best friends. I don't know, maybe the chemistry between them was just to strong the day I saw it to be ignored, it just felt like something was missing and perhaps that could have been it. Could have been something, had they more time to play around, they tested out for a few performances but to my knowledge, they have not.

[theaterdrew]

Posted: 6/21/23 at 9:14pm

Lots of interesting details in this NYT article:  A Britney Spears Jukebox Musical Hopes for #SeeBritney Energy including that the original deal had payments to Spear's father and Larry Rudolph but after the pandemic scuttled the Chicago run, the current deal was negotiated in 2022 and only Spears herself receives any compensation.  There are more details in this article than in the prior article on this subject.

Also, her spokesperson told the Times that Britney provided some notes on the choreography to the Madrids after seeing the videos, so she's clearly engaged with it even if not publicly so far.

 

[DCDrama2]

Posted: 6/21/23 at 9:43pm

My wife saw this in DC and was in awe of Guarini. From the promotional videos it looks like the cast goes out into the aisles. Does anyone know if Guarini does as well and which one? I'd love to get aisle tickets for her birthday knowing that he'll run right by her as a bonus surprise.

[Scarlet Leigh]

Posted: 6/21/23 at 9:52pm

DCDrama2 said: "My wife saw this in DC and was in awe of Guarini. From the promotional videos it looks like the cast goes out into the aisles. Does anyone know if Guarini does as well and which one? I'd love to get aisle tickets for her birthday knowing that he'll run right by her as a bonus surprise."

No. Its members of the ensemble during the megamix at the curtain call. It's VERY brief and they only got back like.... 10 rows before going back up on the stage again.

[DCDrama2]

Posted: 6/21/23 at 9:54pm

Scarlet Leigh said: "DCDrama2 said: "My wife saw this in DC and was in awe of Guarini. From the promotional videos it looks like the cast goes out into the aisles. Does anyone know if Guarini does as well and which one? I'd love to get aisle tickets for her birthday knowing that he'll run right by her as a bonus surprise."

No. Its members of the ensemble during the megamix at the curtain call. It's VERY brief and they only got back like.... 10 rows before going back up on the stage again."

Thanks!

 

[muscle23ftl]

Posted: 6/21/23 at 11:39pm

When does this show officially open? I feel like its been on previews forever now?!

[EDSOSLO858]

Posted: 6/22/23 at 12:03am

It opens tonight! Stay tuned for a reviews thread later today.