Britney Spears musical heading to Broadway

The music of Britney Spears is heading to Broadway in a new comedy called Once Upon A One More Time.

The show will use the singer’s back catalogue to populate a story based around a book club made up of fairytale princesses. It will originate in Chicago later this year before moving to New York in 2020.

“I’m so excited to have a musical with my songs – especially one that takes place in such a magical world filled with characters that I grew up on, who I love and adore,” said Spears. “This is a dream come true for me!”

The plot sees a “rogue fairy godmother” cause the women to question their notions of happily ever after. It’s being described as “uproarious” and “irreverent” and will feature a book from Jon Hartmere who wrote this year’s critically loathed Kevin Hart comedy The Upside.

“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, and where we get our norms from,” Hartmere said. “But it’s also superfun and funny.”

According to the New York Times, it will reportedly feature 23 songs, including some “deep album cuts”. Spears has reportedly been in attendance at one of the readings before developmental workshops begin next month.

In its limited end-of-year run, the show will fill the vacancy left by the recently cancelled Michael Jackson musical, which was expected to premiere in Chicago before it moved to Broadway. Don’t Stop ’Til You Get Enough was reportedly taken off the schedule because of the Actors’ Equity Association strike causing delays. Equity has denied that its “modest” demand was to blame for the cancellation.

“The developmental lab that was scheduled for this production was delayed by 12 working days during the strike,” a spokesman said. “It is difficult to understand how a modest delay in February would impact a run that was scheduled for late October.”

The cancellation coincided with the premiere of Leaving Neverland, HBO’s two-part documentary alleging that Jackson sexually abused two boys under the age of 10.