Britney Spears Didn’t Want Broadway Show to be a ‘Bio-Musical’

Britney Spears was thrilled to lend her discography to Broadway — with one particular caveat.

“It was actually Britney who approached us and said, ‘We’d like to have a show based on my music, and specifically not a bio-musical,’” producer Hunter Arnold informed Variety at Once Upon a One More Time’s opening evening on Thursday, June 22, referring to the 41-year-old pop star. “The original idea came from ideas brought forth by her: She loves fairy tales, princesses [and] storybooks. We took a couple of passes at it — we didn’t get it right instantly. Then we did a workshop after we got the current-ish version together and she came to see it and give thoughts on it.”

Once Upon a One More Time, which started performances at New York City’s Marquis Theatre in May, brings collectively six iconic storybook princesses as they collect for e book membership. During their assembly, a “rogue fairy godmother” fingers them copies of Betty Friedan’s The Feminine Mystique, which subsequently evokes them to embrace feminism. The musical — which the official abstract proclaims is “powered by the hits of Britney Spears” — stars Justin Guarini, Briga Heelan, Jennifer Simard, Adam Godley, Aisha Jackson, Liv Battista, Gabrielle Beckford, Ashley Chiu, Morgan Whitley and Lauren Zakrin.

As the women study to arise for themselves, they (together with the entire solid) can’t assist however bust out a few of Spears’ most iconic songs alongside the way in which.

“I just make sure I’m really warmed up and drink a lot of water because I sweat a lot,” Guarini, 44, informed Variety earlier this month. “In ‘Circus’ right into ‘Sometimes’ right into ‘Oops,’ it just goes, goes, goes. Everyone is dancing, and every single time I get off the stage, we’re just like ‘How did we do that?’ That is the beauty of Broadway’s magic.”

The musical, nonetheless, did barely tweak a few of Spears’ lyrics to higher match the story traces.

“The songs work way better than they have any right to work,” Arnold defined to the outlet. “Most importantly, Britney and her team gave us pretty liberal ability to shift lyrics here and there, to make sure things didn’t feel clunky, but purposeful. You don’t want to change too much because this is music that everyone on Earth loves; it’s a half art, half science to make sure everything fits where it is. Some songs that were big numbers of hers, there weren’t places to fit. Outside of the mega hits, there was no expectation that every song would be in it. They gave our creative team freedom to do what makes the show make sense.”

The Crossroads actress, who married Sam Asghari in June 2022, gave the present her stamp of approval over on her Instagram.

“Good luck to the hardworking cast and crew of Once Upon a One More Time on opening night tonight 🌹💃🏼✨ !!!” she captioned a tribute put up on Thursday. “I’ve seen the show and it is so funny, smart and brilliant 🤩 !!!”

Once Upon a One More Time marks Spears’ first profession undertaking for the reason that conservatorship — run by her father, Jamie Spears, and Jodi Montgomery — over her property and particular person was terminated in November 2021.