ELISSA NADWORNY, HOST:
Four times as many people see live theater in schools with student actors and performers than see shows on Broadway. So when a show flops or has a short run in New York, it's not over. But adapting a Broadway musical for teenagers is a special challenge, as I found out spending time backstage in Florida. Let's start on opening night.
UNIDENTIFIED ACTORS: (As characters, singing) Follow me now.
UNIDENTIFIED ACTOR #1: I'm changing, I'm changing, I'm changing.
NADWORNY: We're backstage at the Broward Center Performing Arts theater in Fort Lauderdale.
UNIDENTIFIED ACTOR #2: Does anybody have eyeshadow?
NADWORNY: Students from across south Florida are getting ready to perform.
(CROSSTALK)
UNIDENTIFIED ACTOR #3: I can't believe the show is tonight.
UNIDENTIFIED PERSON #1: Onstage, please.
NADWORNY: It's a musical that's new to student theater.
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "...BABY ONE MORE TIME")
NOA ANKER: (As Cinderella, singing) Oh, baby, baby, how was I supposed to know?
NADWORNY: Yep, you know that music. It's Britney Spears.
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "...BABY ONE MORE TIME")
UNIDENTIFIED ACTORS: (As characters, singing) Show me how you want it to be.
NADWORNY: These students are resuscitating the 2023 show that lasted just three months on Broadway. This version is "Once Upon A One More Time Jr.," meant mostly for tweens and young teenagers.
UNIDENTIFIED ACTOR #4: (As character) There's the charming girls, and Cinderella is nowhere to be found.
NADWORNY: It's a pilot production. The students here are among the first in the country to perform it, to test it out. After the original show closed on Broadway, Music Theatre International got the licensing rights for students and reworked the script. When it's available, schools will pay a flat fee and get the junior script and score and a guide to putting it on. To see if it actually works onstage...
TAMMY HOLDER: We're going to change to opening just a little bit, not a lot.
NADWORNY: ...The company turned to a handful of schools and regional theaters, including this one in Florida.
HOLDER: Quiet in the house, please. Quiet on the stage. This is sound check.
NADWORNY: Tammy Holder is the theater director here...
HOLDER: Sing nice and loud, (singing) oh, baby, baby.
NADWORNY: ...And let me and producer Lauren Migaki sit in on rehearsals leading up to opening night. Now, not all Broadway shows can work for students. But "Once Upon A One More Time" has a lot of things going for it, especially the makeup of the cast.
HOLDER: Because it's, like, 25 girls and two boys. It's every theater program in the country.
NADWORNY: The catchy music helps. Plus, the plot has themes about belonging and individuality that really resonate with student performers.
UNIDENTIFIED ACTOR #5: (As character) Once upon a time, there was a girl who wanted more.
(SOUNDBITE OF MUSIC)
NADWORNY: The story centers on Cinderella, who wants to break out of her fairy-tale story and build her own happily ever after.
NOA: She definitely sort of fits in that princess persona.
NADWORNY: Cinderella is played here by 15-year-old Noa Anker.
NOA: She's sort of a romantic. But she realizes that her prince is, like, a little bit unloyal.
JAY HENDRIX: They discover that I'm actually all of the different princesses' princes. So I'm Cinderella's prince, Little Mermaid's prince, etc.
NADWORNY: Jay Hendrix, 17, was cast as Prince Charming.
JAY: (As Prince Charming) Princes, we're just different.
NOA: (As Cinderella) That's all you have to say for yourself?
JAY: (As Prince Charming) Oops.
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "OOPS!…I DID IT AGAIN")
JAY: (As Prince Charming, singing) I think I did it again.
NADWORNY: Yep, that's the 2000 megahit "Oops!…I Did It Again." And how could you have a storyline with cheating and not use Britney's hit "Womanizer"?
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "WOMANIZER")
UNIDENTIFIED ACTORS: (As characters, singing) Womanizer, woman womanizer. You're a womanizer. Oh, womanizer, oh, you're a womanizer.
NADWORNY: We thought perhaps the Britney canon catered more to parents buying tickets, since most of the students in this performance weren't even born when these songs were on the radio. But we were wrong.
Had you guys heard about Britney Spears before this musical?
UNIDENTIFIED STUDENTS: Yes.
NADWORNY: (Laughter).
ALANA MAUER: I'm a huge Britney fan, for sure. Yeah.
CHLOE CATTY: I had, like, all the songs memorized on the first day of rehearsal.
DANIEL ZELFMAN: She's a pop idol.
NOA: Ever since I came out of the womb, I've been singing her songs.
CHLOE: (Laughter).
NADWORNY: Those were students Alana Mauer (ph), Chloe Catty (ph), Daniel Zelfman (ph) and Noa Anker. The junior version is way shorter, so songs and scenes and subplots are cut, including some that might be controversial or not age appropriate. But the story still has to make sense onstage.
HOLDER: Who missed the stairs for Prince Charming?
NADWORNY: Which is something they're figuring out when we arrive at rehearsals a few days before opening night.
HOLDER: All right.
Today, we have a big challenge. She's supposed to break the glass slipper.
NADWORNY: It's the pivotal scene where Cinderella decides to break out of her story and smashes the glass slipper, essentially a metaphor for this whole show.
HOLDER: Pick up the shoe, and then just - so just pick it up like you're going to smack him with it. Pick it up. And then you say...
JAY: (As Prince Charming) What do you think you're doing?
HOLDER: Shroom.
(SOUNDBITE OF GLASS SHATTERING)
NADWORNY: Obviously, broken glass on a stage is a no-go.
HOLDER: Hey, Dan (ph), can that crash be even louder?
DAN: Oh, yeah.
(SOUNDBITE OF GLASS SHATTERING)
HOLDER: Oh, I don't hate that.
NADWORNY: So Noa and Jay work to time their movements onstage with the lights and the sound...
HOLDER: Throw it down.
NADWORNY: ...To make it look like Cinderella is smashing the shoe.
NOA: (As Cinderella, singing) I am stronger.
HOLDER: Crash.
(SOUNDBITE OF GLASS SHATTERING)
HOLDER: Lights. Swing. Right here. Hold. Wow. OK.
NADWORNY: The timing has to be perfect.
HOLDER: Let's see what happens. I don't know what's going to happen.
NADWORNY: Part of piloting the show means sets and costumes, too. A theater tech class at nearby Nova Southeastern University designed and built the sets. And then local middle and high school students...
UNIDENTIFIED PERSON #2: Oh, that's cute.
NADWORNY: ...Helped dream up what the costumes looked like. Those sets and costumes and tweaks they've made will be photographed and duplicated and perhaps set the standard for other schools and regional theaters for decades to come.
EDEN GROSS: It's so glittery and sparkly.
NADWORNY: At dress rehearsal, the night before opening, the students get to finally perform in those outfits. Here are students Eden Gross (ph) and Sienna Antone Mate Jiggins (ph).
EDEN: I just love it.
SIENNA ANTONE MATE JIGGINS: So it's this huge, like, deep purple maxi dress with, like, a lot of tulle on the sleeves.
NADWORNY: It's down to the wire and nerves are high - one of the kids is throwing up in the bathroom - because the final rehearsal is the last chance to fix anything.
HOLDER: Can we see the Little Mermaid?
NADWORNY: Jenna Hubert (ph) twirls in her tight purple dress.
HOLDER: Oh, look at you. Can you move and like...
JENNA HUBERT: I can move.
HOLDER: ...Not fall on the floor and everything? And it's...
HUBERT: I can do that.
HOLDER: OK.
Y'all. We got a show.
(CHEERING)
NADWORNY: So by opening night, it's time to see if this thing is going to come together and work as a show that other schools across the country can perform.
JAY: Show day.
NADWORNY: The producers from the licensing company, MTI, will be in the audience taking notes.
UNIDENTIFIED ACTOR #6: (Harmonizing).
YETYER GIRGIS: Got to stay calm.
NADWORNY: Yetyer Girgis (ph) is gearing up to open the show as the narrator.
YETYER: You got to lock in. The main thing is lock in.
HOLDER: Stand up tall.
NADWORNY: Holder gathers the cast in a circle backstage.
HOLDER: Take a deep breath in.
NADWORNY: They hold hands and close their eyes. Tinker Bell's fairy wings are all smooshed up against Rapunzel's hair extensions.
HOLDER: Let it out in a big sigh.
UNIDENTIFIED ACTORS: Ah.
HOLDER: We have a story to tell.
NADWORNY: Ultimately, tonight, and student theater in general, is about believing in the power of imagination to build community and find a voice.
HOLDER: You know I'm a crier (laughter). There is such a light in each of you. And it puts beauty in the world, and it puts joy in the world. So when you get out there tonight, shine that light.
NADWORNY: And they do shine.
(SOUNDBITE OF PLAY, "ONCE UPON A ONE MORE TIME JR.")
UNIDENTIFIED ACTOR #7: (As character) Read me a story.
UNIDENTIFIED ACTOR #8: (As character) A fairy tale.
UNIDENTIFIED ACTORS: (As characters) Fairy tale.
UNIDENTIFIED ACTOR #9: A fairy tale.
NADWORNY: The costumes look incredible and sequin-y and bright. The cast hits all their marks. Cinderella delivers. When she shatters that glass shoe, the timing, the lights, it's pretty convincing.
(SOUNDBITE OF PLAY, "ONCE UPON A ONE MORE TIME JR.")
NOA: (As Cinderella, singing) I am stronger.
(SOUNDBITE OF GLASS SHATTERING LOUD)
NADWORNY: Now, this show might not have gotten a long run on Broadway two years ago. But with the changes and the heart from the teenage performers...
(SOUNDBITE OF PLAY, "ONCE UPON A ONE MORE TIME JR.")
UNIDENTIFIED ACTORS: (As characters, singing) Once upon a - give me a sign - once upon a...
NADWORNY: ...The audience in Fort Lauderdale give nearly every song a standing ovation.
(SOUNDBITE OF PLAY, "ONCE UPON A ONE MORE TIME JR.")
UNIDENTIFIED ACTORS: (As characters, singing) Once upon a one more...
UNIDENTIFIED ACTOR #10: (As character) Once upon a time.
UNIDENTIFIED ACTORS: (As characters, singing) ...Time.
(CHEERING)
NADWORNY: After the show wrapped back in June, MTI has been incorporating what these students learned and changed into the final junior version. And that will be available for schools to perform starting next year.
(SOUNDBITE OF PLAY, "ONCE UPON A ONE MORE TIME JR.")
UNIDENTIFIED ACTORS: (As characters, singing) All eyes on me in the center of the ring just like a circus. When I crack that whip everybody going to trip just like a circus. Don't stand there watching me. Follow me, show me what you can do. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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