Video: Sutton Foster Says ONCE UPON A MATTRESS is 'Part Muppet Show, Part Carol Burnett'

Tony Award winner Sutton Foster stopped by The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon to discuss some of her recent projects, including playing the role of Princess Winnifred in the new Broadway production of Once Upon a Mattress.

Earlier this year, she attended the tale of Sweeney Todd as Mrs. Lovett, playing opposite Aaron Tveit's Sweeney. "It's my favorite show of all time so it was sort of like an out-of-body crazy experience."

"I'd never done a Cockney accent before," she told Fallon. "So I was intimidated by it. But I worked with an amazing dialect coach who gave me lots of great tips."

Now, she is appearing in Once Upon a Mattress at The Hudson Theatre, which is a transfer of the New York City Center's Encores! run from earlier this year.

She says the role requires "a lot of physical comedy."

"I grew up watching Carol Burnett and The Muppet Show so it's part Muppet Show, part Carol Burnett. I get to be sort of an unleashed, unhinged version of myself and be as silly as possible," she said.

Also in in the interview, she recalled appearing in her first theater production at age 10 as Annie- though she really wanted the part of Pepper.

Watch it now!

Once Upon a Mattress returns to Broadway in a new adaptation by Emmy Award winner Amy Sherman-Palladino (“The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel”, “Gilmore Girls”), directed by Tony Award nominee and Drama League Award winner Lear deBessonet (Into The Woods). An uproarious update of Hans Christian Andersen’s “The Princess and the Pea,” Once Upon A Mattress sets an unapologetic free spirit loose in a repressed kingdom, where Winnifred the Woebegone charms, delights, and dances her way to the top… of a stack of mattresses.   Full of gloriously catchy melodies like “Shy” and “In a Little While,” the musical first premiered in 1959, with music by Mary Rodgers, lyrics by Marshall Barer, and book by Jay Thompson, Dean Fuller, and Marshall Barer.

The new production of Once Upon a Mattress is a transfer of the record-breaking, sold-out run at New York City Center’s Encores! earlier this year. Foster will reprise her performance as Winnifred alongside Michael Urie as Prince Dauntless.

Once Upon A Mattress will begin previews on Broadway on Wednesday, July 31, 2024 and celebrate opening night on Monday, August 12, 2024, for the limited engagement through November 30, 2024, at The Hudson Theatre.

Photo Credit: Todd Owyoung/NBC