Review: ONCE UPON A MATTRESS at Ahmanson Theatre

It's evident how Carol Burnett got the bug to put on her hit variety show in 1967. She had essentially already been in a variety show when she starred in the 1960 Broadway musical Once Upon A Mattress. The show is a trifle, light and airy, where only special ingredients can make it take flight. Luckily, at the Ahmanson, this stellar cast has created a tasty morsel, led by the deliriously funny Sutton Foster.

A Court Jester (Daniel Breaker) reveals the ancient fairy tale The Princess And The Pea had slight exaggerations and he will tell the true story. A tyrannical queen (Ana Gasteyer) babies her son (Michael Urie) to the point of arrested development. No one in the land may marry until Prince Dauntless does, and yet, Queen Aggravain rejects every princess who applies for the job. Sir Harry (Ben Davis), desperate to marry his now pregnant love, Lady Larkin (Oyoyo Joi), searches far and wide to find a princess sly enough to outwit the queen’s unwinnable tasks. In comes Winnifred the Woebegone (Foster) from the royal swampland. Crass and simple, Winnifred horrifies the haughty queen, but the prince is immediately smitten. Can Winnifred win over the royal court to become betrothed? Only a tiny pea stands between her and the throne.

Once Upon a Mattress is not a stand-alone first-tier musical, more remembered for discovering the genius of Burnett than the show itself. Mary Rodgers’ melodies and Marshall Barer’s lyrics are fun but unmemorable. The book (by Jay Thompson, Marshall Barer, Dean Fuller) is chaos, which works in the variety-show milieu where the plot is not meant to be taken seriously. The adaptation by Gilmore Girls creator Amy Sherman-Palladino has been tailored towards Foster’s talents (Foster led Sherman-Palladino’s underrated tv show Bunheads), giving her routines of pure hilarity.

Though the score does not show off the many gifts of Foster’s voice, she’s allowed to be a riot throughout, blowing the kingdom’s conformity to smithereens. She seems to have arrived from Dogpatch (Lil Abner’s kingdom) with a country bumpkin voice and a heck-ya approach. An agile dancer, Foster stuns by throwing her leg in the air and landing her feet on people’s confounded shoulders. Her eating of grapes, shoving more and more into her mouth, only to explode over the audience, is worthy of the best visual comics - such as Sid Caesar, Ernie Kovacs, or Burnett herself. 

Urie is endearing as the infantilized middle-aged prince who can’t even climb stairs with confidence. With an atonal sing-song approach, his dialog is hilarious, regardless of what he says. Saturday Night Live alum Gasteyer never fears looking ugly or ridiculous to her character’s advantage, yet her dowager affectation can be hard to understand sometimes. Breaker, as narrator, and interpreter for the silent king, has the best number, a soft-shoe song honoring the character’s vaudevillian father. He sings it with pathos and flair. 

David Zinn’s sets, featuring highly stylized monochromatic banners, beautifully mixes with Andrea Hood’s vibrantly colored costumes. Lorin Latarro’s choreography makes great use of the talented, dancing ensemble in the big numbers like “The Spanish Panic” and the aforementioned “Very Soft Shoes.”

Lear deBessonet’s rollicking production of Once Upon A Mattress brings festive glee to the Southland. The city rarely sees Broadway superstars in its tours. To have the mostly intact cast of the Broadway revival, with the virtuoso Sutton Foster, is a holiday treat.

Once Upon A Mattress will be playing at the Ahmanson till Jan 5.  Tickets may be purchased at https://www.centertheatregroup.org/booking/syos?perf_no=22750&facility_no=10&return_to=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.centertheatregroup.org%2Ftickets%2Fahmanson-theatre%2F2024%2Fonce-upon-a-mattress%2F

Photo credit: Joan Marcus

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