Shakespeare Theatre Company has announced its 2021-2022 season, welcoming audiences back to its live performances for the first time in more than a year. The theater is kicking off the season in late November with Once Upon A One More Time, its first Broadway-bound musical, a production featuring the discography of pop icon Britney Spears.

While this may sound like an improbably pairing, Shakespeare Theatre’s artistic director Simon Godwin says it’s exactly the inspiring production audiences need to reconnect with live theater.

“In my first season at STC, I made a promise to offer shows for all-ages for the holidays, and Once Upon a One More Time is a jubilant, funny, and rousing update on classic fairy tales that will delight all audiences,” Godwin said in a statement. “Britney Spears is an American pop icon, and the team of this musical has worked with her to craft a story that captures her joie de vivre and her [indomitable] spirit.”

Since early May, the Tony-winning company has been putting on an audio production about a pandemic called Blindness; but with its 36th season, STC will focus on bringing people back with welcome visuals at its main space, Sidney Harman Hall.

Once Upon A One More Time is a new-age fairytale, fueled by Spears’ pop anthems like “Oops! … I Did It Again,” “Lucky,” and “Toxic.” The Madrids, a married choreography duo, perhaps best known for their work with megastars like Justin Bieber (the “Love Yourself” video) and BTS, will direct and choreograph the musical. It will run from November 30, 2021 to January 2, 2022.

In the story, written by Jon Hartmere, a book club filled with well-known corseted princesses is upended when a rogue fairy godmother introduces them to The Feminine Mystique. The princesses realize, a press release states, that “there is more to life than bird-made dresses and true love’s kiss.”

The show was planned for a Chicago debut, but that was canceled this spring due to COVID-19 concerns. It’s expected to land on Broadway after January, according to The Washington Post.

In a statement shared by the theater company, Spears herself says the production is a dream come true: “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.”

Shakespeare Theatre Company’s five-show season is entitled “Play On!” in reference to the opening lines of Shakespeare’s Twelfth Night. A production of the Pulitzer-Prize winning Our Town will run from February 17 to March 20, 2022, directed by Alan Paul. Paying homage to its namesake, the theater will also showcase The Merchant of Venice (March 22- April 17, 2022) and Much Ado About Nothing (April 21 – May 22, 2022).

“After such a long pause, we are ecstatic to safely welcome audiences back into our theatres for live performances,” Godwin says. “‘Play On!’ captures this playfulness and this urgency for theatre, for community, for being together again.”

The season will conclude with Red Velvet (June 16 – July 27, 2022) a drama set in 19th-Century London, focused on Ira Aldridge, the first Black actor to take the stage as Shakespeare’s Othello. Jade King Carroll will direct this production, her first with STC.

Shakespeare will also show two pre-season “limited engagements,” each for just two weeks. This September, Amen Corner, the spiritually gripping James Baldwin musical, will complete its original run — the pandemic shut it down in March 2020. Then, in October, Academy Award-nominee David Strathairn will star as a Holocaust witness and Georgetown professor in Remember This: The Lesson of Jan Karski.

“There has been so much encouraging news and we have been planning for so long to safely and effectively reopen to full capacity this autumn,” Chris Jennings, STC’s executive director, said in a statement. “We are so grateful for the generous donors, supporters, and patrons, as well as our incredible staff, who kept the theatre going during this difficult year.”

Season subscriptions are available at ShakespeareTheatre.org; Tickets for the pre-season shows go on sale July 19. Single tickets for all shows will be available for purchase later this year. Advance access to single tickets will be made available to STC Subscribers and Members.