Updated November 3, 2025 at 2:04 AM PST
FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. — Just three days from opening night, the task at hand is to figure out how to break a glass slipper onstage, or at least make it look like it's broken, since having a bunch of shards on the floor for a student theater production is probably a little too dangerous.
So they add sound effects. And bright flashing lights. And then a blackout. It's honestly pretty convincing.
"The magic of the theater," says Tammy Holder, an artist in residence at the Broward Center for the Performing Arts, a theater in Fort Lauderdale. Holder is directing more than three dozen students from middle and high schools across South Florida in an adapted version of a musical that's new for student theater: the 2023 show Once Upon a One More Time, a jukebox musical featuring the music of Britney Spears.
Because this version of the show hasn't been released yet, there's no road map, no other school to copy or learn from, which means the glass slipper scene has to be created from scratch.
The original Broadway version of Once Upon a One More Time only lasted about three months. But when a show flops — or has a short run in New York — it's not over.
Many shows actually get a second, much larger, life when they get licensed for middle and high schools. In fact, four times as many people see live theater in schools, with student actors and performers, than see shows on Broadway.
"The secondary licensing world is so much bigger than Broadway," explains John Prignano, the director of education and development for Music Theatre International. The company holds licensing rights for Broadway shows and revamps them into junior versions to sell to schools. "A show can then live on for years and years."
On Broadway, The Addams Family had mixed reviews and closed in 2011 after a year and a half. But schools loved it. By 2019, it was the most popular high school musical in the country.
Holder actually saw the original Once Upon a One More Time on Broadway and knew instantly it would make a great junior show for students. It had dancing, catchy pop music and themes about belonging and individuality that she knew would resonate with teenage performers.
The story centers on Cinderella (Cindy), who wants to break out of her fairytale story and build her own happily ever after. She's deterred by her evil stepmom and stepsisters but has help from her feminist Fairy Godmother, who encourages her to break her glass slipper (hence that tricky, pivotal scene).
There are some discoveries along the way, notably the fact that Prince Charming is the same prince in everyone's fairytale. In other words, he's essentially been cheating on Cindy with all of her friends (Snow White, Sleeping Beauty, etc.).
Cue the hit songs Oops! ... I Did It Again and Womanizer.
The size and makeup of the cast helped, too, Holder says: "The show is like 25 girls and two boys. That's every theater program in the country."
How to adapt a Broadway play for students
Here's how it works: A junior version of a show typically costs a school a flat rate of about $700. In addition to getting the script and the score, schools receive a detailed guide to putting on the show, with directors notes and ideas for costumes, set design and lighting.
Turning a Broadway show into a student production means you have to shrink it down a lot, from more than two hours to about 60 minutes. Songs, scenes and subplots are cut, including those that might be controversial or not age appropriate.
Songs with swear words have to go, or get a makeover: Spears' 2013 single Work Bitch, for example, gets changed to Work It, a song the stepsisters sing to Cinderella.
But in making all those cuts, the story still has to make sense. That's where the students in Fort Lauderdale come in. They are among a handful of schools and regional theaters that get to work out the bugs and make sure it can be performed successfully on a school stage.
"Talk about a theater kid's dream, getting ahold of something before anyone else can and putting it onstage," says Holder, who has worked with Music Theatre International to pilot several student productions.
Holder and her students' job is essentially a logistical evaluation of the piece to figure out what stays, what goes and what just doesn't work.
Is the length OK? Do the cuts make sense? Can they go from Cinderella's castle to the woods with no scene in between? They're about to find out. What Holder and these students learn and change will influence the final version of the show that will be available to schools across the country next year.
Developing a cast of characters
Because this version of the show has never been performed before, there is a lot of trial and error and problem-solving in the weeks leading up to opening night. And Holder ends up making a few big changes. The first is that nearly everyone in the cast gets a name.
"Rather than just say the students were 'in the ensemble,' we gave them all characters. So now you have a Tinkerbell, a pirate," Holder explains. "Not just 'happy villagers' or 'fourth one from the right.' They're actually integral to telling the story. I'm always thinking, 'How can we include as many students in as many ways possible?'"
For Holder, another thing that didn't work was the role of the Fairy Godmother. In the shortened script, her character had been cut substantially.
"My first thought," she says, "was 'What's up with the Fairy Godmother?' Her part is so small and she's literally the catalyst for all the change in the story."
Holder decided to shine a little more light on that character by giving her a solo.
Crafting the look and feel
When a show has been in circulation awhile — performed by many schools — there's lots of inspiration for sets and costumes. Take The Addams Family, for example. The show has been performed thousands of times now. Theater directors and cast members can surf YouTube and get tons of ideas.
But Holder and her team must start from scratch. For help designing the costumes, they turned to local middle and high school students for ideas and used a local costume shop to make them.
The sets were also made locally, designed and built by a theater tech class at Nova Southeastern University.
In late May, at the final dress rehearsal, the students get to see what it's like to move and perform in their costumes — and to see how they look next to the colorful sets and props.
"My costume is shiny and blue and awesome," explains Prince Charming, otherwise known as Jay Hendrix, 17. He's wearing a blue sequined blazer with a bright yellow sash and a white ruffled collar.
"So it's this huge, deep purple maxi dress with, like, a lot — a lot! — of tulle on the sleeves," says Eden Gross, 14, who plays the Fairy Godmother.
Those costumes and the sets will be photographed and included in the resource guide provided to schools when they buy this junior version next year. That means what they do in Fort Lauderdale will be duplicated — and perhaps set the standard — for schools and regional theaters for years to come.
I can't get these songs out of my head
Backstage at the final run-through, it's hard to escape the constant humming and singing of all the Britney Spears songs in the show — a constant, overlapping montage of Circus, ... Baby One More Time, Toxic and, a personal favorite, the ballad Everytime.
Before spending time with these students, we thought the Spears canon might appeal more to parents buying tickets than to students who hadn't even been born yet when these songs were on the radio. Wrong!
"We're such big fans," says Alanna Maurer, 18, who plays Esmerelda.
"Ever since I came out of the womb, I've been singing her songs," says Noa Anker, 15, who plays Cinderella.
"I had all the songs memorized on the first day of rehearsal," explains Chloe Catty, 14, who plays Rapunzel.
"She's a pop idol. She's an icon. She's a queen!" says Daniel Zelfman, 13, who plays a prince.
The energy backstage is exciting, but everyone also knows it's down to the wire. Tomorrow is opening night.
That means this is the final opportunity to fix or change anything. Nerves are high. One of the performers is throwing up in the bathroom.
But they work out the snags. They figure out the perfect combination of sound effects and lighting design for the scene where Cinderella decides to break out of her story and smashes her glass slipper.
And when the curtain falls on the finale — a huge dance number with the entire cast that includes a medley of all the upbeat songs from the show — the students erupt in cheers from the stage. Things are really coming together.
"Y'all ... we've got a show!" Holder yells from the audience.
Beyond the show, student theater is a place of joy and belonging
On opening night, Holder gathers the cast in a circle backstage. The theater is packed, and parents, family and friends are buzzing with anticipation. The student performers hold hands and close their eyes. Tinkerbell's fairy wings are all smushed up against Fairy Godmother's humongous tulle sleeves.
"You are incredible," Holder tells them. "You are the joy we need in this world."
Student theater, for Holder and so many others, is ultimately about believing in the power of imagination to build community and find your voice.
"It's not just about putting on costumes and doing a show; it's everything else around it," says Prignano from Music Theatre International, who will see this show in Florida a day after opening.
"Theater gives you confidence in who you are and what you can do in a way that other things don't," he says. "The tools that you learn expands to everything in life."
Holder agrees.
"Students are drawn to theater because it is a place of belonging and a place to be heard," she says. "If the world could just put on a show!"
A hush falls over the theater as the spotlights illuminate the thick red curtain, and the narrator, played by Yair Gerges, takes his spot in the center. "Places, everyone!"
As the story unfolds, the cast all hit their marks. The costumes look incredible, the lights catching all those sequins and the glitter.
Cinderella delivers when she shatters that glass shoe. The timing, the lights — it all works perfectly.
There are a few hiccups: One cast member is out sick. An important prop is forgotten backstage. And there are a few microphone glitches. But all that is part of the charm of student theater.
This show may not have worked on Broadway two years ago, but this shorter, revamped version, filled with emotion and energy from the teenage performers, gets a standing ovation for almost every song here in Fort Lauderdale.
Weeks later, when the show finally wraps, the work shifts back to Music Theatre International, the company that owns the junior version. It will incorporate what these students learned and changed into the final junior version, set to be released to schools next year.
If the crowd's response in Florida was any indication, Once Upon a One More Time Jr. will have audiences across the country on their feet and dancing.
This story was edited by Steve Drummond.
Copyright 2025 NPR
