Broadway Reviews Theatre Review by Howard Miller - August 12, 2024 Once Upon a Mattress. Book by Jay Thompson, Marshall Barer, and Dean Fuller. Music by Mary Rodgers. Lyrics by Marshall Barer. Adapted by Amy Sherman-Palladino. Directed by Lear deBessonet. Choreographed by Lorin Latarro. Music supervisor Mary-Mitchell Campbell. Set design by David Zinn. Costume design by Andrea Hood. Lighting design by Justin Townsend. Sound design by Kai Harada. Hair, wig, and makeup design by J. Jared Janas. Physical comedy and effects by Skylar Fox. Orchestrations by Bruce Coughlin. Music director Annbritt duChateau. Music coordinator Kimberlee Wertz.
This production of Once Upon a Mattress, with music by Mary Rodgers, lyrics by Marshall Barer, book by Barer, Jay Thompson, and Dean Fuller, and adaptation by Amy Sherman-Palladino, is a more-or-less straight transfer from its Encores! presentation at City Center earlier this year, still directed by Lear deBessonet but with some cast changes. Anyone familiar with the "Encores! look" will recognize its salient features: the on-stage orchestra, the minimalist set design (by David Zinn), and a particular attention to the songs. Both the big numbers like "Shy" and "Song of Love" and the smaller ones like "Very Soft Shoes" are treated as if equally necessary to the plot; nothing is tossed off as a throwaway time filler (even if one or two may seem to fulfill that purpose). Everything fits together so well that you may not even notice the dozens of little touches that make it all work. The musical itself first showed up in what is now known as the East Village in 1959 before quickly making the move uptown. Coincidentally, that was the same year that TV's memorable "The Adventures of Rocky and Bullwinkle and Friends" began regaling audiences with, among other things, its offbeat takes on fairy tales, narrated by Edward Everett Horton and presented under the title of "Fractured Fairy Tales." That's exactly what Once Upon a Mattress is, a delightfully fractured fairy tale, based on Hans Christian Andersen's "The Princess and the Pea." It may never be ranked with the top-drawer musicals of its time, considering that Gypsy and even Mary Rodgers' dad's show, The Sound of Music, opened that same year. But there is something about Once Upon a Mattress that has kept it alive and on stages ranging from high schools to community theaters to multiple televised versions, and now back to Broadway. (This is, in fact, the second Broadway revival; the first was launched as a star vehicle for Sarah Jessica Parker in 1996. More recently, 1n 2015, there was a wild and woolly off Broadway production starring Jackie Hoffman as Fred and John "Lypsinka" Epperson as Queen Aggravain). Like the Energizer Bunny, Once Upon a Mattress keeps going and going. One of its strengths lies in its joyful commitment to its style of offbeat humor, coupled with hummable tunes that know how not to outstay their welcome, and a straight-through journey to a happy ending. But that's not the key to its success. What is really necessary is identifying the right person for the central role of Fred, aka Winnifred the Woebegone, the unexpected princess who is destined to face down the notorious pea buried beneath twenty mattresses. When the Jester (Daniel Breaker) sings in the show's prologue that "a princess is a delicate thing, delicate and dainty as a dragonfly's wing," we are being set up for the initial way-over-the-top entrance of our heroine, whose worthy attributes are manifestly abundant, but about whom "delicate" is not an adjective that will come readily to mind.
Foster has, over the years, shown herself to be a truly versatile actress, but her great strength here emerges from her undeniable skill as a dancer. This is what allows her at the age of 49 to fill the role that Burnett brought to the stage at 26. Foster's willingness to throw herself completely into the wackadoodle role coupled with the ability to throw her dancer's body into its physical demands make her an ideal successor. From the time Foster makes her first appearance as Winnifred, looking as if she had indeed swum the moat and climbed the walls of the castle, the show's central premise has been fulfilled, and we know we are in for a marvelous time. Of course, Once Upon a Mattress is not a solo show. Along with Foster, also repeating their Encores! performances, are Michael Urie, fittingly and delightfully dorky as Prince Dauntless; David Patrick Kelly, utterly charming as the kindly King Sextimus the Silent; and Nikki Renée Daniels as the eager-to-marry pregnant Lady Larken, one half of the couple who carry the show's secondary storyline. Lady Larken's not-yet-husband Sir Harry is played by Will Chase, a newcomer to the cast who brings a comically stouthearted and dimwitted Spamalot-like characterization to his portrayal. Two other significant newcomers to this Broadway production are the always-reliably comic Brooks Ashmanskas as the Wizard and, taking on the villain's role of Queen Aggravain, is Ana Gasteyer, who captures her character's loud and incessantly talkative side but who could bring some more over-the-top diverting nastiness to the role (we should want to applaud her comeuppance when it comes up). Still, long-time fans of the show and newcomers alike will find this production of Once Upon a Mattress a perfect summertime treat.
|
