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The hits of pop icon Britney Spears are heading to Broadway in a new jukebox musical with a feminist message.
Titled Once Upon A One More Time, the comedy will tell the story of a book club attended by fairytale princesses.
Their lives are changed when a “rogue fairy godmother” brings them a copy of The Feminine Mystique, the landmark feminist book by Betty Friedan.
It makes them question whether there’s more to life than marrying Prince Charming and singing with animals.
Scriptwriter Jon Hartmere told The New York Times: “Cinderella is having an existential crisis, and she has a posse of famous princesses, and her stepmother is the main antagonist.
“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.”
That story will be set to 23 songs from Spears’ catalogue. Her biggest hits include Baby One More Time, Oops! I Did It Again and Toxic.
“I’m so excited to have a musical with my songs – especially one that takes place in such a magical world filled with characters I grew up on,” she said. “This is a dream come true for me.”
The show, which Hartmere promises will be “super fun and funny”, will debut in Chicago later this year before moving to New York in 2020.
The news of the production comes two months after the pop star announced she was taking a break from her work and postponing her Las Vegas residency to focus on her father’s health as he recovers from surgery.
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