Off Broadway

I feel pretty dumb; took a few tries before the answer clicked... :-) Nice meta!!

39D was a perfect hint.

Thanks, including for including characters and a song in the grid! And to Crosshare for allowing multiple submissions, I tried a few wrong guesses before bearing down and seeing what was really going on.

Ohhhhhhhh.

I always did think that "EAST" was weird as it was the west that contained the story.

There were a lot of fish and disney references. Couldn't figure it but decided an 15-letter down about singing had to be relevant (don't know why it took me so time to think that) so I googled "Musical sing america" and as I type I think "Time? America? 1776!" but google to rescue and the common hits "Ohhhh! Right....!"

Amazing construction!

Was gonna try Once Upon a Mattress, but then saw Tony and Maria, and remembered the song title, and it all clicked. Thanks for the puzzle, Ducks!

Very nice.

My first thought was Into the Woods, but that didn't really go with the central entry, and if that were it I'd expect something more.

Then a bit of googling told me that "Once Upon a Time" is a song from the musical All American. That works better... kind of, almost, not really.

Then I remembered that east side clue, and it all came together with a nice solid click. Well done!

I also had to set it down then the answer came to me in the shower, as the best ideas do.

Blind stabs after uncovering "Once Upon a Time" included: Into the Woods, Once Upon a Mattress, Shrek, and Once Upon a Time in the West (who's to say there wasn't a musical). Then finally Anita and East caught my eye

Nice construction! 39D was a great help to solve the meta. :D

Another near-guess: Once Upon a One More Time

Really well-done! Loved the long down spanner too. As often as I update my list of top five musicals, this will always be in that list (okay, with about 17 others).

I too was led astray by not noticing enough at first. Delightful when I did and it all came together. Thanks, Ducks!

Fun puzzle...thanks for the hint at 39D.

I needed help. I tried every combination of Once Upon a Time. Then noticed that every original entry on the left side was legititmate with a proper clue (though HANA was a bit of a stretch). I could not shake myself away from the left side, looking for alternates for the new or original entries. I played with the middle section for some time and eventually had to ask for assistance. And there it was, laid out on the right hand side. And it turns out that "Once Upon a Time" was simply a West Side Story! Great construction.

Duh! Took me several wrong answers for the light to go on. Nice puzzle!

I tried SO hard to overcomplicate this:

Once upon a time - there is a broadway musical "Once Upon a One More Time" but I doubted you were enough of a Britney fan to do a whole meta about her musical

Once Upon a TIme - hit song from the musical "All American" (Hmmm - I TOO SING AMERICA?) Alternate answers to the "parts" of answers on the left side; so looking for a tennis player, a college town, a pawn shop and a flower...nope

Why the mention of the EAST side when that is not where the "trick" was???????

I never saw TONY and MARIA, or at least not how I was supposed to.

Then this morning, sitting and staring at the little watercolor of the various buildings with half-moons in their doors it hit me, WEST SIDE and the beginning of many stories....DUH!!! Very nice implied answer.

OK, now my 18A answers:

Two because they like to do it secretly so one changes the bulb and if someone is coming the other yells DUCK!

Three because you need to have one to change the bulb, one to hold the ladder and one to yell "GET DOWN FROM THAT LADDER" while the other two yell "YOU CAN'T GET DOWN FROM A LADDER YOU GET DOWN FROM A DUCK!"

Three - One wants to use a blue light bulb, the other wants to use a green light bulb and the third one says TEAL!

Two - one old coot who can't decide whether to use a daylight white or a soft white and another who doesn't care eider way.

Two - an American one who is changing the light bulb, and a French one who thinks the old "how many..lightbulb" is just a canard.

Three - an American duck and a British duck who keeps asking, "why did you invite that ruddy duck?"

Ha. My total lack of broadway musical knowledge led me to try "Once Upon a Time in the West" first (patent pending on future meta ). So then I asked chatGPT what musical that suggested and poof, it suggested one that even I have heard of . Fun one, thanks.

Thank you! Good thing you had some character names in the grid. I found a musical called Brooklyn which has a song "Once Upon A Time" and Brooklyn is east of (ie "off") Broadway - but it was just too obscure.

Dumb error in the grid, but another nice meta; thankfully didn't cause me too much trouble when I saw the EAST clue and considered the ONCE UPON A TIME location.