Northwest Arkansas Democrat-Gazette
Names and faces
■ The way Briga Heelan fell into the role of a Cinderella singing Britney Spear s’ s music has all the earmarks of a fairy tale with a 21st century twist. “It felt like it came from the sky and just smacked me across the face,” Heelan said. “I just opened an email one day and it was like, ‘Is this a real project? WHAT?’” “Once Upon a One More Time” seems a most unlikely cultural mash-up, reframing Cinderella, Snow White and Sleeping Beauty and a bevy of other storybook characters in an enlightened, modern context. Filling out their story is a narrative inspired by Betty Friedan’s groundbreaking “The Feminine Mystique,” Spears’s songbook, the choreography of a pair of hip-hop-savvy directors — and “American Idol” runner-up Justin Guarini as Prince Charming. After an extended preview period, the musical’s official opening night is Friday in Washington, D.C., at the Shakespeare Theatre Company, where artistic director Simon Godwin says it’s on track to become the top-selling show in the company’s 35-year history. The spirit of Spears will be apparent nightly, in the new renditions of such hits as “Toxic,” “Lucky” and “Oops I Did It Again.” Jon Hartmere, a veteran screenwriter, has woven those songs into a story about how the lives of Cinderella and the other famous figures, who meet in a book club are changed after being exposed to Friedan’s classic of feminist literature. Spears has not been intimately involved in “Once Upon a One More Time” although she did attend a reading of the show in 2019. Guarini said attendees expecting a “jukebox musical light,” will be surprised. “It turns out that we are able to marry these songs that we cherish to a new set of ideas and concepts. And they take on a whole new life.”
■ Jill Biden says being first lady “is a little harder than I imagined.” She told “CBS Sunday Morning” in an interview set to air next week that her new role is a 24- hour undertaking and not the kind of job that ends at a certain hour. “I think it’s a little harder than I imagined,” the 70-year- old first lady said after being asked if she was prepared for what her new life would be like. “It’s not like a job that you do, it’s a lifestyle that you live, and it’s not something you leave at 5:00 or at 3:00. And it’s 24 hours a day.” Her observation about being first lady all the time comes from someone who has lived most of her adult life in the public eye and has watched — and worked with — some of her predecessors. Joe Biden was already a public figure as a U.S. senator when they married in 1977. Jill Biden campaigned during his Senate reelection bids and his three campaigns for president. When Joe Biden was vice president to President Barack Obama, Jill Biden and first lady Michelle Obama worked closely together on military family issues.