“This timidity is but one example of the ways in which the show comes up short, both as a feminist text and as a tribute to Spears’s songbook — and, yes, her life. The last thing her fans might have expected from a Britney Spears musical is dutiful conventionality.”
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“Simard is delicious; the rest of the show, if you turn off your brain, is merely yummy in a candy-coated way. That’s not nothing: ‘Once Upon a One More Time’ is a well-assembled and entertaining diversion...Musicals are capable of more ambitious roles than merely carrying Spears.”
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“The dance is truly what makes ‘Once Upon a One More Time’ worth the price of admission...also ultimately urges us not only to be willing to change the stories we tell and be open to new ideas, but also that sometimes, we must pass the pen to new writers to tell their stories themselves. That message has continued relevance — if anything, it's continually stronger than yesterday.”
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“It’s a fun enough concert, though not worth sitting through two hours and 30 minutes of a dull musical to get there.”
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“The musical’s primary assets are its splendid cast and the silly smartness of the integration of song and story. Which brings to mind the splendid, silly and smart performance of Jennifer Simard in the role of Cinderella’s stepmother...Ms. Simard, is one of Broadway’s unsung, or undersung, treasures, and her performance alone brings sufficient pleasure to make this trip to Britney-land worth a visit.”
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“The wish-come-true of ’Once Upon a One More Time’ is that it lifts without apology or even a slight blush...To spoil the plot beyond this would be unfair, even though you’ll likely see most of the twists and turns coming, or at least predict the overall story arc.”
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“The truly awful ‘Once Upon a One More Time,’...is not that musical. Instead, it tries to cash in on the repetitive fashion of the moralistic musical moment and uses Spears’ songs as a way to critique and deconstruct ‘problematic’ fairy tales.
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“To use the Britney Spears catalog as the material for a musical preaching feminist enlightenment is, to put it mildly, a stretch.”
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