Once More, with Feeling (Buffy the Vampire Slayer)

Did You Know?

• Alyson Hannigan requested minimal singing as she was not comfortable with her singing voice.
• Michelle Trachtenberg asked for a dance number as she felt more comfortable utilizing her ballet background.
• Prior to a financial dispute in 2007, the episode was shown in theaters with the audience invited to sing along.

Production and writing

Joss Whedon had wanted to create a musical episode since the series began, an idea reinforced during the fifth season when cast members sang at a Shakespeare reading at his home. He spent six months writing the music for the episode, returning after the fifth season with a script and a CD of fully notated and orchestrated songs. The actors were initially bewildered; James Marsters later recalled that the songs, as performed by Whedon and his wife, sounded cheesy and led the cast to worry about their careers. Whedon learned to play guitar to write several songs, and Christophe Beck composed the overture, coda, and "Dawn's Ballet."

Themes

The episode advances the sixth season's story arc by forcing characters to confess previously taboo issues. Whedon was intent on progressing the plot through song, comparing the musical format to the fourth-season episode "Hush," where characters communicate once they stop talking. Essayist Zoe-Jane Playdon suggests that earlier episodes' false saccharine behavior impedes the characters so much that it summons a demon to compel honesty. The consequence of concealing truth—spontaneous combustion—alludes to Charles Dickens's Bleak House, where characters also face immolation for deceit.

Buffy continues to lie to the Scoobies, claiming to forget what she sang in the graveyard during "Going Through the Motions." She begins the chorus number "If We're Together" by persuading others to join one by one, as if each is convinced she remains invested and in charge, and their group strength is infallible. Giles joins despite his suspicions that Buffy is no longer interested in her life.

Music and style

The episode's musical style varies significantly. Buffy's opening number "Going Through the Motions" was heavily influenced by the Disney song "Part of Your World" from The Little Mermaid, with Whedon aiming for a similar opening where the heroine explains her yearning. The song ends with chord influences from Stephen Schwartz's Pippin and a visual tribute to Disney as Buffy stakes a vampire that turns to dust swirling around her face. Whedon placed the most complicated scene—with the most dancers and choreography in classic musical theater style—to accompany an 18-second song called "The Mustard," to get it out of the way for more personal numbers.

The musical styles span from a jaunty 1950s sitcom arrangement of the Buffy theme in the opening credits to Anya's hard-rock version of "Bunnies." Spike's "Rest in Peace" is a rock song, while Tara's "Under Your Spell" is a contemporary pop song. Xander and Anya's duet is inspired by Fred Astaire–Ginger Rogers comedies, using influences from Ira Gershwin, a Charleston rhythm, and jazz-like chord slides.

Reception

Upon its original broadcast on UPN on November 6, 2001, the episode received a Nielsen rating of 3.4 and a share of 5, placing it sixth in its timeslot and 88th among broadcast television for the week of November 5–11, 2001. It was the most watched program on UPN that night and the third most watched that week, though this was a decrease from the 3.7 rating of the previous episode. The episode received widespread critical acclaim. Stephanie Zacharek of Salon.com wrote that the songs were only half-memorable and the cast's singing ranged from fairly good to not so great, but she found the episode worked beautifully and was clever and affecting.

Debi Enker in The Age noted that Giles and Tara were terrific, while Xander and Dawn struggled valiantly and Willow barely sang a note. Tony Johnston in The Sunday Herald Sun wrote that Gellar struggled on higher notes but her dance routines were superb, and called "I'll Never Tell" a standout moment. Connie Ogle in the Miami Herald described the songs as better and more clever than most on Broadway.