Theater Review by Ron Fassler. . .
City Centers Encores! scored a winner with its 2022 staging of the distorted fairy tales created by Stephen Sondheim and James Lapine for Into the Woods. Earlier this year they revived an authentic fairy tale, the musical Once Upon a Mattress, based on Hans Christian Anderson’s nearly two-hundred-year old The Princess and the Pea. First produced sixty-five years ago, it broadly tells of a princess put through a grueling test in order that she may prove worthy of a young Prince (a mama’s boy here). Written by the triumvirate of Marshall Barer, Dean Fuller, and Jay Thompson, with music by Mary Rodgers, it was an unexpected and immediate audience pleaser in its original incarnation. In fact, Rodgers was put in direct competition at that season’s Tonys with her father, the masterful Richard Rodgers, and his partner Oscar Hammerstein, who won for their Sound of Music. Both shows have enjoyed continued success across seven decades, performed everywhere from community to world class theaters.
Sutton Foster sings “Shy” in Once Upon a Mattress.
Moving Mattress from Encores! to the Hudson Theatre for a sixteen-week limited engagement seems as sure a thing as one can produce nowadays. It’s got built-in name value and even personal recogniiton for those who’ve been in productions while at summer camp or middle school (my memories are of seeing my son and daughter perform it in elementary school). Also, there have been three different television versions (1964, 1972 and 2005). In each of those, Carol Burnett was its draw. Having created the leading role onstage, she repeated as Princess Winifred in the first two on TV (one in black and white and one in color), later ceding Winifred to Tracy Ullman, in which she took on the part of wicked Queen Aggravain herself.
Now it’s Sutton Foster’s turn as the Princess. The two-time Tony Award winner certainly has the bona fides for being funny, though here it comes at a price. She charges through the show with boundless energy and vocal strength and works very, very hard. The problem though is how transparent it is to see the gears churning. Her co-star Michael Urie gets twice as many laughs as Prince Dauntless with half the effort. Bluntly put, Foster simply doesn’t possess the same sort of ease. It’s a hyperactive performance, sadly lacking in vulnerability. That said, she certainly is game for anything and the audience with whom I was in attendance clearly adores her. But I found myself left a bit cold at a number of her antics. Your mileage may vary.
Sutton Foster as Princess Winifred in Once Upon a Mattress.
This Mattress adaptation comes from Amy Sherman-Palladino, the co-creator of such creatively written shows as Gilmore Girls and The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel. Recruited by Foster before rehearsals began at Encores! Sherman-Palladino punches up the script in the way television writers are bred to do. Apparently, even more work has been done for Broadway, though not being familiar with the original text, I can’t delineate all the differences. In a recent interview, one of the changes Sherman-Palladino has taken credit for is the manner in which Princess Winifred arrives at the castle after swimming the moat. Here she is portrayed as a swamp creature with matted hair and covered in leeches. Again, whether this is hilarious or not is a matter of taste. Fair warning: gross humor rules throughout the evening. And for my own funny bone, I’d rather watch Michael Urie perform his unique brand of physical comedy navigating some stairs than Sutton Foster eating soap (yes, it comes down to that).
Director Lear deBessonet did an excellent job drawing performances from those who came and went during the six-month run of Into the Woods. I saw it both at Encores! and in its transfer to the St. James with a number of different actors and everyone was on the same page. But the simpler fare of Mattress seems harder for deBessonet to maintain a firm and disciplined hand. This could be due to the comedy-drama of Lapine’s intricate book for Woods, along with Sondheim’s deliciously clever wordplay, being all curves—a director’s dream. Mattress is a straight line of farcical comedy that seems to have given deBessonet some trouble.
As mentioned, Michael Urie shines due to his innate understanding of balancing the humor at hand. There’s not a single line reading that escapes this actor’s mastery. I also am an admirer of the bright light that is Nikki Renee Daniels. As Lady Larkin—an underwritten role at best— her glorious singing voice and unadorned acting left me yearning to see her in a starring role sooner than later. Daniel Breaker is suave and smooth in a new take on the Jester, but didn’t seem as one with the rest of the cast. Perhaps it’s due to the nature of his being on the outside of things for much of the play, but it felt like a tonal thing. In actuality, the company might have done better coming up to his level than he performing down to theirs. Ana Gasteyer is always a pleasure, though she doesn’t entirely escape the trap of falling into playing the nasty Queen as, well… just plain nasty. David Patrick Kelly as her husband the King, who is silent and performs the role in mime, does fine but makes one yearn for what beloved old-timers could contribute like Jack Gilford (who created the part) and Buster Keaton (who did it in stock); comedians who instinctively understood how to express so much with so little movement. Will Chase is ably funny as Sir Harry but Brooks Ashmanskas barely has the chance to use his natural comedic skills in the underwritten role of the Wizard.
David Patrick Kelly as the King, Michael Urie as Prince Dauntless & Ana Gasteyer as Queen Aggravain
Because of this being an Encores! transfer there’s not a whole hell of a lot to David Zinn’s scenery, which is odd since he’s one of the most clever designers around. The orchestra onstage takes up a lot of the real estate, leaving less room for his usual outsized ideas. The costumes by Andrea Hood are playful and colorful and I liked Justin Townsend’s lighting a great deal. It added mood whenever possible and kept things cheery, perfect for a fairy tale.
I can’t help thinking upon the lyric that ends the show’s opening song, “Many Moons Ago,” which claims that “a genuine princess is exceedingly rare.” Carol Burnett was just twenty-six-years-old when she made her Broadway debut in Once Upon a Mattress. And a special talent like hers comes along, oh, once in a blue moon.
Photos by Joan Marcus.
Once Upon a Mattress is at the Hudson Theatre, 144 W 44th Street, NYC 10036 in a limited engagement now through November 30th. For further infortmation, please visit https://onceuponamattressnyc.com.