Buffy the Vampire Slayer fans around the world are marking 25 years since one of the show’s most beloved episodes, the musical hour “Once More, With Feeling.”
The sixth season episode, in which a demon called Sweet forces the residents of Sunnydale to confess their deepest secrets in song, first aired on US network UPN on November 6, 2001.
Australian viewers had a longer wait. Buffy’s sixth season did not premiere locally until April 15, 2002, almost five months after the US broadcast, when the Seven Network finally put it to air.
Despite that delay, Sydney is home to one of the biggest anniversary celebrations anywhere in the world.
Live at the Bronze: Once More With Feeling, a live, all-singing, all-dancing fan production backed by a full band, runs from Friday, November 6, to Sunday, November 8, at the Inner West Pride Centre.
The show supports LGBTQ+ youth charity Twenty10, and tickets sold out so fast through Humanitix that organisers have opened a waitlist.
The Sydney cast is led by Linda Chong as Buffy, with Mendy Atencio as Sweet, Ben Pobjie as Giles, Miles Grant Thomson as Spike, Imogen Abba as Anya, Charlie Hollands as Xander, Laryssa Sutherton as Tara, Jordana Wegman as Willow and Lizzy Chan as Dawn.
Lucy Taylor, Kate Phillips, Kyle Savage, Juliet Timmerman make up the chorus.
The production is directed by Veronica Clavijo, produced by Zelda Winestock. Isobel Solomon is the Assistant director with Irene Nicola and Peter Novakovich as Musical directors. The show is choreographed by Lilly Aggio, Bridget Neave-Cowley and Mendy Atencio.
Melbourne already had its own tribute. Performers of Pride staged a Once More, With Feeling drag tribute show at Pride of our Footscray Community Bar on Sunday, September 27, a drag and shadow-cast celebration that doubled as the group’s fifth anniversary.
Overseas, fans can catch a live performance in Hollywood, California, on Tuesday, November 10, while New York’s Once More, With Feeling: Live! 25th Anniversary Show lands at Littlefield in Brooklyn on Tuesday, December 15.
Behind the scenes of the original episode, star Sarah Michelle Gellar nearly handed her songs to a voice double.
She reportedly wanted someone else to sing for Buffy because she was nervous, but changed her mind once she heard the demo, unwilling to let another performer carry her character’s biggest emotional moment.
James Marsters, who played Spike, sang his own parts and drew on prior rock and musical experience. He has been credited as a driving inspiration behind the episode getting made at all.
Anthony Stewart Head, who played Giles, also sang live, bringing an extensive musical theatre background that included Rocky Horror and Chess. He had reportedly pushed for a musical episode for years.
Amber Benson, who played Tara, sang her own vocals too, backed by singer Angie Hart.
Emma Caulfield Ford, Nicholas Brendon and Michelle Trachtenberg all performed their own numbers, including “I’ve Got a Theory” and Brendon and Caulfield Ford’s “I’ll Never Tell.”
Alyson Hannigan, who played Willow, sang very little, at her own request, after saying she felt uncomfortable singing on camera.
Broadway veteran Hinton Battle took on demon Sweet’s big vocal and dance numbers as a guest star, while writers David Fury and Marti Noxon made brief singing cameos.
Nearly 25 years on, “Once More, With Feeling” is still regularly ranked among the best episodes of television ever made, and its songs remain a staple of Buffy conventions and karaoke nights.
For Sydney fans who missed out on tickets, the Humanitix waitlist is the best shot at a seat before the weekend’s run wraps on Sunday, November 8.
International fans have two more chances to sing along: Hollywood on November 10, and Brooklyn on December 15.
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